Harry Smallpiece

Harry Smallpiece

1893-1982

Article by Alan Trout

Harry Smallpiece rode six winners on the Flat in 1914, then had a couple of victories over jumps during the First World War and returned a few years later to add a dozen more. 

Born in 1893, he was apprenticed briefly to Joseph Kelly and then to Herbert Lines. His first ride in public was an unplaced effort on Red Storke in the Apprentices’ Plate at Epsom on April 20, 1910. 

Nearly four years passed before he had his first win, which came at Leicester on April 9, 1914, when partnering Wisemac to victory in the Apprentices’ Plate, beating the favourite Canzone by four lengths. It had not been the easiest of rides, for Wisemac refused to go near the other horses at the start approached and lost several lengths as the tapes went up. The Sportsman newspaper noted that Harry “deserves praise for the patient race he rode”. 

He had three more wins in the next seven weeks, two of them at Epsom, including Menlo in the Riddlesdown Selling Plate on Coronation Cup day. He won races on successive days at Folkestone, with The Butler providing him with his last victory on the Flat when narrowly taking the Juvenile Plate on September 5 by a neck. 

He had ridden over jumps even before his first Flat success, finishing unplaced on his first attempt on Bachlik at Portsmouth Park on March 31, 1914. His first win under National Hunt rules came at Gatwick on March 4, 1915, when the six-year-old Mutton Cutlets beat four rivals to land the Gorse Handicap Hurdle by five lengths.  

After one more win in 1916 Harry did not ride in Britain again until October 1923, but then came his most successful year with a total of six victories. They included Army Order in the Bredon Selling Hurdle at Cheltenham’s National Hunt meeting on March 13, the day after the inaugural running of the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Army Orders, with Harry in the saddle for the first time, beat Appellant, the mount of James Hogan Jnr, by four lengths. 

There were six more wins over the next two years, the last at Sandown Park on October 23, 1926, when his mount Zeno dead-heated with Tim O’Sullivan on Glanessa at the end of the Three Years Old Hurdle. 

He had his final ride when unplaced on Rebecca in the Three Years Old Selling Hurdle at Gatwick on December 15, 1926. 

Harry Smallpiece died in 1982.