The Battle of Newmarket and the lads fighting to the finish 50 years ago for better pay and working conditions

"The strike cost me not only the chance of leading up a Classic winner but my home, and my marriage, but it had to be done and it should have been done years before.”

The words of former Newmarket stable lad Tommy Dickey who, 50 years ago took part in what was dubbed the battle of Newmarket when stable staff involved in a dispute with trainers over a £4.70p a week pay rise, which had been simmering for months, took to the Rowley Mile.

Hundreds of years of unchallenged feudalism was consigned to history as, guided by the enigmatic figure of Transport and General Workers' Union shop steward Sam Horncastle, the lads took their grievance on to the course in a bid to bring their plight to the attention of the race-going public.

On the very turf where the sport was born the lads who had been drilled in loyalty, worked hard but had never adequately been rewarded, confronted racing's establishment at one of the sport's most prestigious meetings. They marched up the course before staging a sit-down protest across it.

Speaking publicly for the first time about that Guineas meeting half a century ago Tommy, now 78, remembered how for him it held bitter sweet memories.

He had been working for Henry Cecil and before voting to go on strike and had charge of Bolkonski one of the runners in the colts’ classic.

"On Guineas Day we were all down at the start so I didn't actually see the race which went off late and was flag started," said Tommy. "The police had told us if we agreed to disperse they would allow us to march up the course once the race had started.

"As it came back to us that Bolkonski had won the lads put me up on their shoulders and carried me up the course. It was a bitter sweet moment," said Tommy. “I wanted racing to change but I, and many of the other lads involved really suffered as a result of what we did. It left a very bitter taste as when it came to it many of the lads who had voted to strike didn't and went back to work while those who did got the sack and were blacklisted. "

Tommy lived in a bungalow which at the time was owned by his employer. “Things were really difficult, my wife was very upset and so worried about what would happen she left to go to relatives,” he said. He ended up in court battling Cecil over unpaid rent. “The union paid my costs and in the end he (Cecil) made me an offer and I was advised to take it.

“I couldn’t get another job in racing so I ended up working at the base at Lakenheath putting up concrete sheds. Eventually two friends got me a job at Michael Stoute’s and I also worked for Robert Armstrong and Luca Cumani and spent 20 years at Dalham Hall stud before I retired.”

One-time stable girl and former town councillor Joy Uney was a union shop steward at the time of the strike when she was working for trainer Ryan Jarvis.

“It wasn’t just about money it was about pride and I feel just as passionately about it today as I did 50 years ago,” she said. “The trainers would not budge on the money because they said the extra costs would drive the owners away but I still believe to this day they wanted a strike because they wanted to break the union.

“The worst moment by far was when the jockeys rode at the lads and I will always remember Willie Carson being pulled from his horse because he was shouting at the crowd encouraging them to see us off. There were things we should have done differently. If we had picketed at more of the yards it might have been over more quickly. We had the passion but not the knowledge.”

The dispute rumbled on for a further 13 weeks until the trainers agreed to a 19 per cent increase on the lads' basic weekly wage, 30p less than their original claim, meaning they would receive £37 for a 40-hour week plus three and a half hours compulsory overtime.

But the legacy was a bitter one. Seventy-five per cent of the striking lads lost their jobs with just 50 of the 200 left on strike re-instated. Many of those who had battled for a living wage were blacklisted and forced out of racing for years to come.

Talking about the dispute some years ago one of the strikers the late Paddy Simpson, said: "I think we did the right thing.

"The lads I marched with up the Rowley Mile that day were proud of what they did and because of what they did lads are much better paid today and they are treated with more respect and all that started with the strike."