Les Tidey

Les Tidey

1911-1991

Article by Alan Trout

Les Tidey’s Flat career was relatively brief. It lasted less than five years but he nonetheless managed to ride 42 winners during that time, before rising weight forced him to continue his career over jumps. He later became travelling head lad to Willie Stephenson and was associated with Derby, Champion Hurdle and Grand National winners.

Born on January 24, 1911, Leslie Frank Tidey was apprenticed to Leonard Cundell, who trained at Chilton, Berkshire. Les’s first ride did not go that well. His mount, Betty’s Pride, was one of two that whipped round at the start of the Syston Plate at Leicester on April 5, 1928 and finished unplaced.

However, at Chepstow on June 16 of that year, Les rode Cornish Friar to a two-length success in the Dymock Selling Plate to record his first win. Lionel Cundell was the trainer and the owner was Frank Cundell, a leading National Hunt trainer for many years.

Les managed three more winners in 1928 and then came his two most successful seasons, with scores of 17 in both 1929 and 1930. He recorded the only double of his career at Chepstow on July 11, 1930, winning the Ross Selling Handicap on 11-8 favourite Blue Hare and the Usk Two-Year-Old Plate on 4-1 chance Princelet.

Two months later, Les rode Noble Star to dead-heat with Gordon Richards on Sans Espoir in the Alexandra Handicap at Doncaster’s St Leger meeting. After the race, Les objected to Sans Espoir on grounds of “rough riding and hitting my horse across the head with the whip”, while Gordon simultaneously objected to Les for ‘boring’. The stewards heard evidence from both jockeys and also from the judge, then awarded the race to Noble Star.

Les had only three wins in 1931. The following year, his first with a full licence (that is, as a non-apprentice), he recorded just one, the last of his 42 wins on the Flat, aboard Philip Sidney, who won the Bristol Selling Handicap at Bath on July 13, 1932. His final ride on the Flat was on Fearman, owned and trained by Lionel Cundell, finishing fourth of nine in the Golden Hill Selling Plate at Chepstow on October 6. For that ride, he had to put up 1lb overweight on a horse set to carry 9 stone, a clear indication of the problem that Les, like many jockeys before and since, faced in their battle with the scales. He did not renew his licence in 1933.

Instead, Les switched to National Hunt racing. Sadly, he was unable to achieve the same level of success over jumps. He had more than his fair share of falls over the next three years, his career as a jockey being brought to a painful end by a broken thigh when his mount, Revision, fell in the Buckden Selling Handicap Hurdle at Huntingdon on Easter Monday, April 13, 1936.

In 1947, Les joined Royston trainer Willie Stephenson, an old rival when they both rode as apprentices, as travelling head lad. Their association continued for 33 years, only ending with Stephenson’s death in 1980. It reached its pinnacle with Arctic Prince’s Derby victory in 1951, while Sir Ken won three successive Champion Hurdles (1952-54) and Oxo won the 1959 Grand National.

Les Tidey died in October 1991, aged 80.

Additional information supplied by Chris Pitt