Alan Thomas

Alan Thomas

Alan Norman Thomas made a brief appearance on the National Hunt scene, holding a jockey’s licence for two seasons in the early 1960s and registering two wins in the 1962/63 campaign.

Based with Newmarket trainer Basil Foster, he had his first ride at Worcester on November 4, 1961, when June Clare was unplaced in the Sabrina Four-Year-Old Hurdle. He had a few more mounts that 1961/62 season, two of them on the mare Miel De Lune. The first resulted in a fall in a 35-runner Newbury maiden hurdle on January 20, 1962. He rode her again at Nottingham the following month in a 21-runner race, this time completing the course safely, albeit finishing out of the first ten.

Alan rode his first winner on Deetease, trained by Basil Foster, when beating 25 rivals in division two of the Thorparch Novices’ Hurdle at Wetherby on November 10, 1962. They followed up a fortnight later, November 24, by winning division two of the Try Again Hurdle at Doncaster, despite a last flight blunder.

And that was pretty much it. He had just three more rides all that season, the first of which was Methane, finishing unplaced in the 27-runner Markham Main (4yo) Maiden Hurdle (Division 2) on March 18, 1963. The last two were at Huntingdon on Easter Monday, April 15, 1963, finishing seventh on Jenny Wren II in the first race, the Huntingdon Handicap Hurdle, then unplaced on Bobsair in the last race, the Brampton Hurdle. 

He did not renew his licence the following season.