Sid Morgan

Sid Morgan

1900-1968

Article by Alan Trout

After riding two winners as an apprentice on the Flat, Sidney Oliver Morgan, known as Sid, made a promising start to a career over jumps with ten wins in 1922 but had only one more three years later.

Born in 1900, he was apprenticed to Sir Robert Wilmot and had his first, unplaced, ride at Newmarket on April 19, 1917 on an unnamed juvenile filly in the Thursday Two-Year-Old Selling Plate. Newmarket was also the course where, more than two years later, he rode his first winner when Sonning won the Apprentices’ Handicap on July 16, 1919, scoring by three lengths. 

There was only one more victory on the Flat, again on Sonning, who proved too good for his 19 rivals in the Visitors’ Plate, an apprentice handicap, at Newmarket on September 28, 1920, beating Frank Black on Tension by two lengths. 

Although Sid continued to ride on the Flat until 1927, he took his first steps towards a career over jumps on December 28, 1921 at Folkestone, when Turmeric finished fifth of 11 runners in the Seabrook Selling Hurdle. 

It was on April  21 of the following year that he opened his account under National Hunt rules when Castle In Spain was a comfortable winner of the Pontypool Novices’ Hurdle at Newport, beating Danebury, the mount of Tom Chipperfield, by 12 lengths. Before the mid-season break he rode seven more winners, including four more on Castle In Spain, and there were doubles at Pershore and at Buckfastleigh, all on horses trained by former jockey Arthur Saxby. Two more victories were recorded in August, including another on Castle In Spain, but then there was nothing for three years. 

However, it was not until Easter Monday, April 13, 1925 that Sid managed another victory – his last – when Onega won the Herefordshire Hurdle at Hereford (known as Herefordshire Hunt in those days). It was his first ride on the four-year-old who had won two races earlier in the season when ridden by the ill-fated Roy Philip (who was to die following a fall at Shirley Park in 1926), and had even contested the Gloucestershire Hurdle at Cheltenham’s National Hunt meeting. 

Onega was also Sid’s final ride when unplaced in the Leicestershire Hurdle at Leicester on February 28, 1927.

Sidney Morgan died in 1968. His winners were, in chronological order:

1. Sonning, Newmarket, July 16, 1919

2. Sonning, Newmarket, September 29, 1920

3. Castle In Spain, Newport, April 21, 1922

4. Castle In Spain, Worcester, April 26, 1922

5. Death Grange, Pershore, May 1, 1922

6. Castle In Spain, Pershore, Pershore, May 1, 1922

7. Castle In Spain, Glamorgan Hunt (Cowbridge), May 4, 1922

8. Lady Flare, Buckfastleigh, June 5, 1922

9. Castle In Spain, Buckfastleigh, June 5, 1922

10. Lady Flare, Buckfastleigh, June 6, 1922

11. Castle In Spain, Newton Abbot, August 8, 1922

12. Hay Vee, Devon & Exeter, August 30, 1922

13. Onega, Hereford, April 13, 1925