For the most successful period of his career, he was stable jockey to Sam Darling at Beckhampton, Wiltshire.

With Darling, he won the 1906 and 1907 flat jockeys' championship, and picked up his only British Classic: the 1907 2,000 Guineas on Slieve Gallion.

He was a short-priced favourite to follow up in the Derby, but the colt did not stay the distance and eventually finished third.

Higgs later became a trainer and developed Blacklands Stud near Calne in Wiltshire, on a farm which he had bought in 1909; in 1928 he sold the business to Fred Darling, Sam's son.

[4] In 1999, he was ranked the 28th greatest flat jockey of the 20th century by the Racing Post.