Northern-based Alfred Taylor rode 16 winners under National Hunt rules between 1903 and 1910. He had his first ride when Lauriston finished unplaced in the Wednesday Selling Handicap Hurdle at Manchester on January 16, 1901.
Unusually, he had a ride in one of the year’s biggest races before he had ridden a winner. On April 10, 1902, he partnered Peccadillo in the Scottish Grand National at Bogside, although the six-year-old was unplaced.
Alfred’s first winner came at Shincliffe on October 14, 1903, when Domineer won the Moderate Handicap Chase, beating Ballyrag II, the mount of Sid Menzies, by three-quarters of a length.
He went on to have 13 more winners, achieving a best score of six in 1906. He rode doubles at Hexham and Picton and even won two races in one afternoon on the five-year-old Example at Cartmel’s annual Whit Monday fixture on June 4, 1906. However, he then went three years without a win before ending the drought back at Cartmel on Whit Monday 1909.
His last win was on Flower Of The Veldt in the Croxdale Hurdle at Shincliffe on March 2, 1910, scoring by six lengths. The five-year-old was also Alfred’s final ride when finishing third in the Kelso Handicap Hurdle at that venue on April 18, 1910.
Alfred Taylor’s winners were, in chronological order:
1. Domineer, Shincliffe, October 14, 1903
2. Apelles, Hexham, October 5, 1904
3. Troy, Sedgefield, April 4, 1905
4. Folkestone, Hamilton Park, April 24, 1905
5. La Naissance, Hexham, October 18, 1905
6. Mintstalk, Hexham, October 18, 1905
7. La Naissance, Nottingham, January 30, 1906
8. Aldbro, Doncaster, February 5, 1906
9. Aldbro, Wetherby, April 16, 1906
10. Yankee Dope, Shincliffe, May 10, 1906
11. Example, Cartmel, June 4, 1906
12. Example, Cartmel, June 4, 1906
13. The Czar, Cartmel, May 31, 1909
14. The Czar, Picton, March 1, 1910
15. Flower Of The Veldt, Picton, March 1, 1910
16. Flower Of The Veldt, Shincliffe, March 2, 1910