Herbert Worsley

1933 - 2007

Born in 1933, one of a family of eight brothers from Bradford, Herbert Worsley, always known as ‘Dicky’, spent ten years with Royston-based trainer Willie Stephenson.

He began his apprenticeship in 1947, having never before sat on a horse. He obtained an apprentice jockey’s licence in 1948. His very first ride in a race was, remarkably, in the 1948 Lincolnshire Handicap, which that year had a massive field of 58, setting a record (that can never be beaten) for the most runners in a race on the Flat. Dicky was one of no less than two dozen 7lb claimers taking part in it. Alas, there was no story-book start to his career, his mount, 100-1 shot Phrozenzone, drawn 56, finished among the phalanx of also-rans.

That year’s Lincolnshire Handicap was held on a Saturday, March 13, with the second day of the Lincoln meeting taking place two days later, rather than what had been the traditional Monday start. Monday’s programme opened with the Apprentices’ Handicap, in which young Dicky finished third on 33-1 outsider Frozen Limit. That would be as near as he came to riding a winner from 20 mounts in his first season as a jockey.

Twelve months later, he was leading jockey for half an hour when riding his first winner in the traditional opening race of the 1949 Flat season at Lincoln, the one-mile Apprentices’ Handicap, on Willie Stephenson’s four-year-old colt Moxy, who carried just 6st 13lb. Among the ‘also rans’ that day were horses ridden by fellow apprentices Lester Piggott, Johnny Seagrave, Derek Morris and Eddie Larkin.

Dicky rode three more winners that year, the first of which was on China Sun in the Ripon City Handicap in April for local trainer Bertie Bullock. The others were gained in apprentice races, on Rear Admiral at Pontefract for Willie Stephenson and Lord Nelson at Beverley for Market Deeping trainer George Vergette.

He won on Rear Admiral again in the Apprentice Handicap over Newmarket’s nine-furlong Cambridgeshire Course in May 1950. That would turn out to be his final winner on the Flat.

He remained with Willie Stephenson until 1957, taking out a National Hunt jockey’s licence in the mid-1950s. He then joined Newmarket trainer Basil Foster and rode three winners over jumps, the first of them on a novice hurdler named Conrad at Plumpton on November 18, 1957. His next came on Fair Son in a selling hurdle at Market Rasen’s Christmas meeting. His final win was for another Newmarket trainer, Percy Allden, on Sun Monarch in the Litcham Handicap Hurdle at Fakenham (known then as West Norfolk Hunt) on Easter Monday 1958.

Dicky’s final ride in Britain was on Basil Foster’s chaser Joe Holland in the second running of Sandown’s Whitbread Gold Cup, on April 26, 1958. After being prominent to halfway, they gradually faded on the second circuit, coming home sixteenth of the nineteen finishers in the 31-runner field.

Soon after that Whitbread Gold Cup ride, Dicky emigrated to America to continue his riding career. However, his time in the saddle was cut short when he suffered head injuries in a fall in his first season. He then embarked on a long career as a trainer, saddling numerous winners up and down the east coast of America until his retirement in 2004.

Having been diagnosed with stomach cancer, his health deteriorated and he died at his home in Delaware on January 10, 2007, aged 73. He left a wife, Sally, five children and five grandchildren.

His British winners were, in chronological order.

1. Moxy, Lincoln, March 17, 1949

2. China Sun, Ripon, April 30, 1949

3. Rear Admiral, Pontefract, May 11, 1949

4. Lord Nelson, Beverley, August 31, 1949

5. Rear Admiral, Newmarket, May 9, 1950

6. Conrad, Plumpton, November 18, 1957

7. Fair Son, Market Rasen, December 27, 1957

8. Sun Monarch, West Norfolk Hunt (Fakenham), April 7, 1958.