'He was one of the great characters' - former Newmarket trainer Dave Morris dies aged 74

Northumberland Plate-winning trainer and former jockey Dave Morris has died at his home near Newmarket aged 74 after a long illness.

Morris was one of the town’s best-known characters for nearly 50 years and was nicknamed ‘swivel’ during his days as a work-rider at Sir Henry Cecil’s such was his interest in the other horses around him on the gallops.

Born in North Yorkshire, Morris was first apprenticed to Pat Rohan in 1966 and went on to win 11 races as a 7lb claimer for the Malton trainer before moving south.

He spent most of the 1970s and 1980s at Warren Place where he was one of the top work riders at the time when Steve Cauthen, Paul Eddery and Willie Ryan were the retained jockeys.

Then, in 1989, Morris started training at Stockbridge House stables off Newmarket High Street and held a licence for almost all of the next 17 years.

He later moved to Hackness Villa Stables on the Exeter Road during which time he hit the big time when preparing Bay Of Islands to win the Northumberland Plate under Kevin Darley in 2000.

Morris trained 168 winners before his retirement in 2015, before which he helped owner Phil Cunningham set up his now successful Rebel Racing operation at Albert House Stables. He bowed out with a winner in their colours when Rebel Lightning won at Wolverhampton that year.

Morris’s son Ben, who works for Roger Varian, said: “Dad had not been very well for a number of weeks and he’d had multiple cancers in recent years, including bladder and lung cancer, which eventually spread to his liver. They don’t make them like him anymore, as he nearly died from leukemia earlier in his life.”  

He added: “I’ve recently done the training modules to start training myself and I’d wanted to get going whilst he was still with us, as I know it would have made him very proud.”

Willie Ryan, who was second jockey to Sir Henry Cecil when Morris was at Warren Place, recalled: “Dave was a great character. He was well regarded and a very hard worker. They called him swivel as he used to look round a lot when he was riding work as he liked to know how everyone else was going."

He added of Morris’s other favourite pastime: “Dave liked to talk. I remember he led me up on my first Derby mount, which was Faraway Dancer, and I had more instructions from him than I did from Henry and the owners put together!”

During those times and until the end, Morris’s big pal was current Newmarket trainer Charlie McBride.

He said: “Dave and I formed a betting partnership when I was at Bruce Hobbs’s and he was at Henry’s. We were unbeatable at one time. I remember one day we won a few quid at Newmarket and then Dave had us going flat out to get to a later meeting at Doncaster. He was such a good judge that the filly we went to bet on, Her Grace, had the race won at halfway and we were in front of the bookmakers collecting before the finish!”

Dave Goodwin was another of Morris’s colleagues at Warren Place. He said: “Dave was one of the great characters when Warren Place was full of them. He was a good lad, a good rider and a good judge and he liked to talk the hind legs off a donkey.“

Rebel Racing supremo Phil Cunningham said: "Dave was a fantastic help to me in setting up what we have today. I managed to persuade him to come out of retirement and train for Rebel Racing when I first took over Albert House Stables, and after training Rebel Racing’s first winner, assisted in the recruitment of current trainer Richard Spencer. Always a great one for a laugh and a story, many of his one-liners we still use today." 

Morris leaves a widow Linda, a son Ben and a daughter Nicola. He also leaves two sons, Paul and Andrew, from a previous marriage.​​​​​​​​