David Taylor

Article by Alan Trout

Like many other jockeys who rode soon after World War One, David Taylor had one good season and then struggled for success. He rode 32 winners altogether, with a best score of 18 in 1920.

He was apprenticed to Bob Armstrong, who was still training at Penrith when David had his first ride in public, finishing third of six on Marl in the Packington Handicap at Birmingham on April 22, 1919. His first success came at Carlisle on July 1 when Hectoring Lass won the three-runner Lowther Apprentice Plate by a length. Three more victories followed before the season ended.

But it was in 1920 that David appeared to be making real progress, registering three doubles at Scottish courses, two at Lanark and one at Bogside. Lanark only staged two two-day meetings each year, one in July, one in September. On the first day of its July meeting David won the Lowther Handicap on Dinah Dear and the Bonnington Selling Handicap on Nightmare, both trained by Bob Armstrong.

On the second day of Lanark’s September meeting he landed the first two races on the card, beginning with the Lee Nursery Selling Handicap on Cosmopolitan, and then winning a match for the Jerviswood Maiden Handicap. In both cases the rider of the runner-up was an up-and-coming apprentice named Harry Wragg, who lost an iron in the match race and was beaten a length and a half.

Thereafter David found winners hard to come by. Despite three wins in March 1921, including a double at Newcastle, he only managed eight that year, and the next two seasons brought a solitary success in each one. Doubtless losing his apprentice allowance after 1921 did not help.

David Taylor’s final win was on Brazel Bull in the Cuninghame Selling Handicap at Bogside on July 21, 1923. His last ride was also at Bogside, when Master Eric was slowly away and finished unplaced in the Gailes Maiden Plate on August 28, 1926,