Alan Young

Alan Young

1927 - 1998

Article by Alan Trout

Alan Denighy Young rode eight winners under National Hunt rules in the early 1950s. The first of those was at Bogside on April 13, 1951, when the five-year-old Orinoco won the Eglinton Chase. Their task was made easier when the favourite Galloway Braes, later to win the 1953 King George VI Chase and other good races, fell at the eighth fence. Orinoco beat Tower Knowe, the mount of George Slack, by three quarters of a length. 

Six days later the pair scored again, this time at Perth, landing the Crieff Novices’ Chase by six lengths. 

It appeared at first as though the 1951/52 season would go well for Alan when landing a double at Carlisle in October, including a third win on Orinoco, but that was all he managed and there was a gap over a year before he next visited the winner’s enclosure. 

His final success was gained at Hereford on Easter Monday, April 6, 1953, when the eight-year-old Paul’s Hill had a length and a half to spare over Rum Chicken at the end of the Ashperton Handicap Chase. His last ride was on his first winner, Orinoco, when fifth of 13 runners in the Gadgirth Selling Handicap Hurdle at Ayr on January 2, 1954. 

Alan Young’s winners were, in chronological order:

1. Orinoco, Bogside, April 13, 1951                                        

2. Orinoco, Perth, April 19, 1951

3. Merry Miller, Carlisle, October 15, 1951

4. Orinoco, Carlisle, October 15, 1951

5. Pintail, Haydock Park, February 5, 1953

6. Fresh Paint, Wolverhampton, March 10, 1953

7. Luesweed, Southwell, April 2, 1953

8. Paul’s Hill, Hereford, April 6, 1953