Fred Scourse

Fred Scourse

1882-1953

Article by Alan Trout

Fred Scourse was a useful, if not greatly successful, jockey during the first two decades of the 20th century. Only once did he ride more than four winners in a season, his best score being six in 1907. He never won any big races, mainly because he rarely rode in them, but he often had between 40 and 50 mounts a season. Between 1900 and 1914 there was only one year, 1902, when he did not ride a winner, and that was because he had no mounts. 

Frederick William Scourse was born on December 13, 1882. He was apprenticed to Hugh Powney at Netherton, in Wiltshire. It was on one of Powney’s horses that he made his racecourse debut aboard the aptly-named Run, finishing unplaced in the Longford Maiden Plate at Salisbury on May 28, 1897. 

Although he had plenty of chances over the next three years, it was not until April 17, 1900 at Birmingham that he achieved his first success, when Kleon won the Cheveley Park Plate by a length and a half from Funny Boat, the mount of rising American star Ben Rigby.

It was to be more than a year before Fred rode his second winner, Wishbone, who won the Selling High-weight Handicap at Sandown Park on June 15, 1901. This time the winning margin was a short-head, and again the runner-up was ridden by a talented American jockey, Clem Jenkins.

Fred did not ride in England in 1902, but thereafter he had plenty of rides and a few winners. The nearest he came to winning a big race was when finishing second on 20-1 shot Hong Kong in the 1907 Northumberland Plate, albeit a well-beaten beaten four lengths behind Killigrew, the mount of Charlie Ringstead. That was also his most successful season numerically with six winners. He even had a ride in that year’s 1,000 Guineas on 10-1 chance Maya, finishing eighth of the 17 runners. 

Fred rode the last of his 33 winners on an unnamed colt by Dumbarton Castle out of Florimel in the Two-Year-Old Selling Plate at Hurst Park on November 21, 1914.  

Although he had a few mounts in 1915, he did not ride in 1916, and did not resume until September 1917. Thereafter, he took a few rides each season, including his second ride in a Classic when he partnered 25-1 outsider Tullamore in the 1920 Oaks. Unplaced in her previous six outings, she finished well down the field.  

He had his last mount on Fernley, who finished unplaced in the Feltham Selling Plate at Kempton Park on August 12, 1925. 

Fred Scourse died on May 29, 1953, aged 70.