In his early career, he was apprentice to a trainer called Mr Brown and had his first race in 1860.

Between 1860 and 1865 he won 114 of 351 races, including the 1862 Cesarewitch Handicap on Hartington, the 1864 Cesarewitch on Thalestris, the Northumberland Plate on Queen of Trumps, the Portland Handicap on Persuasion, the Liverpool Autumn Cup on Tartar and the Ascot Stakes on Hippolyta.

In 1870, he won two Classics – the 1000 Guineas on Hester and the St Leger Stakes on Hawthornden.

He then moved abroad and for a while he was a successful jockey and trainer in Austria and Germany, but he died penniless of cancer in Pardubice on 12 December 1889, leaving a widow and six children.

A lightweight jockey, he was called "one of the most brilliant riders of his day", whose achievements in the 1860s were referred to as "a striking chapter in the Turf history of that time".