For the most part, life for the average person in greater Europe between WW1 and WW2, was hardly a walk in the park. With the crippling debts of the Great War all but suffocating the member states, poverty swept across the continent like a raging, black plague, and things were about to get a whole lot worse. Across the wide Atlantic, a bloody big financial spanner was to be heaved into the running gear of the world’s economies; on October 29, 1929, the Dow Jones Industrial average on the New York Stock Exchange took a massive hammering, dropping 23 percent. The backwash was cataclysmic. As a direct result of “Black Tuesday,” credit became hard to get, unemployment skyrocketed and wages fell for those still lucky enough to have a job. As cash dried up, production fell, factories closed, more jobs were lost and inflation went through the roof. Nations were in for decades of of poverty. But as we all know, nations are more than just economic edifices. They are, among other things, about people and life in general, about families and individuals. And as important as financial security is, it’s not the be all and end all. People need to get on with life. To do this, minds were turned to anything and everything that cost bugger all. It was now all about music, movies, parlour games, family gatherings, radio etc. Then there is sport. In times such as these, sporting activity has the ability to make souls soar, and what better arena than horse racing to prove the point. And this seems as good a place as any to introduce our hero, Brown Jack, a strapping built, but plain looking gelding who would go on to defy his rather nondescript name. As a youngster, this son of Jackdaw was hardly anything to write home about. So unremarkable was the yearling, that when shipped to the Goff’s Ireland Sales in 1925, he failed to raise a single bid. His owner, breeder George Webb though, did end up off loading the colt to a Tipperary gent by the name of Marcus Thompson for the princely sum of 110 pounds. But life is never straight forward, a twist of fate saw proceedings head off in an all together different direction. A man named Charlie Rodgers was cruising the area looking for prospective jumpers. He must have had his mind on other things because he ran out of fuel. And who stopped to pick him up? Marcus Thompson. One thing led to another and Brown Jack changed hands for 275 pounds. After a couple of average runs, Mr. Rodgers contacted champion trainer Aubrey Hastings with the intention of on-selling the horse. Having ridden and trained Grand National winners, Hastings knew a prospect when he saw one. He managed to have one of his clients, Sir Harold Wernher, buy the horse, the going price, 750 pounds. Sir Harold had set his sights on a Champion Hurdle win, Hastings thought Brown Jack might just fit the bill. Now a much sturdier animal at four, he began his assault on the hunt scene. In his initial season over the sticks, he won seven of his ten races. After a solid third at Bournmouth in mid September, Brown Jack lined up ten days later at Wolverhampton, and bolted in. Before the year was over, he’d added another four wins to his record. With his target, from the outset, being the Champion Hurdle, he arrived at Lingfield for the Hurdle Cup, the Friday before the Cheltenham festival. This was to be his final hit out before the big one. Among his opposition this day was the wonderful hurdler Zeno, who was considered a past the post proposition for the race, as he’d done a sterling job taking out the Imperial Cup. Brown Jack, in receipt of some seventeen pounds from Zeno who’d tried to make all, caught the leader, but had to settle for second place behind the warrior Peace River, who came late, to beat him a length on the line. Then came the day of the Champion Hurdle. Conditions were abysmal. On a bitter, snowy day, Zeno, due to a seven pound pull in the weights, was expected to turn the tables on both Brown Jack and Peace River, but all were thought to be lesser lights to the marvellous mare Blaris, who had won the inaugural Champion Hurdle, the year before. Zeno as usual went straight to the front, with Blaris and Brown Jack following, but yet again, victory was not to be his. Brown Jack joined him a couple out and quickly put him away. It was left to Peace River to try and make a race of it. Together they cleared the last obstacle, but Jack had found his forte: staying on the flat. In the run to the line, he proved much too strong for the gallant winner of the Lingfield Hurdle Cup. It had been just seven months since he’d first set foot on a hunt course. It was here that one of the finest jockeys ever to have graced the UK turf, entered the picture. Steve Donoghue, a man who, on his way to winning ten rider’s titles, would nail six Epsom Derby winners, was asked of his opinion of Brown Jack as a prospective flat horse. He not only liked what he saw, but managed to elicit a promise of all future mounts on the horse. This was every owner’s dream, to have the best jockey in the land wanting to take the sit. In 1928, the same year that Brown Jack won the Champion Hurdle, he kicked off his winning flat career with a victory in the Ascot Stakes. He was back again a year later for the same race, but this time he went down a short head to Old Orkney. This led Brown Jack to the race that would cement his name in the annuls of racing lore, the Queen Alexandria Stakes, the longest race on the English calender. Three days after his narrow defeat at the hands of Old Orkney, Jack made short work of Queen Alexandria Stakes, strolling away to an easy four length win. After the death of Aubrey Hastings in May of 1929, Brown Jack found himself in the capable hands of former rider, turned trainer, Ivor Anthony. Intent on following the previous season’s format, Brown Jack was again entered for the Ascot Stakes, but on this occasion he was unplaced, but for the second year running, he won the Queen Alexandria Stakes, this time beating his nemesis Old Orkney. With back to back wins in the biggest test of stamina in the country, and wins in the Goodwood and Doncaster Cups of 1930, Jack quickly entrenched his place in the hearts of racing fans right across the Empire. By the end of 1931, with his third straight win the the Queen Alex, as well as wins in the Chester Cup and the Ebor, Brown Jack had become a household name. He was a sporting icon of the highest order. 1932-3 saw the great horse stretch his Queen Alexandria Stakes wins to five on the trot, which set the scene for his final tilt at the race he’d well and truly made his own. Now ten years of age, and known simply as the Old Man, Brown Jack faced the starter as an odds on chance, something that hadn’t happened since 1930. Expectation was huge, so much so, that a leading news paper of the day, fronted with the bald statement, " BROWN JACK TODAY." Ivor Anthony was sick with nerves. It’s said the he couldn’t muster the fortitude to even watch the race. He sat under a tree and waited until the race had finished. He missed an epic battle. On straightening, the race had become a two horse battle between Brown Jack and Solarium. There was only one horse that the crowd wanted that day, and it wasn’t the latter. With a masterful display of horsemanship, Steve Donoghue slowly drew the great horse away from the determined Solarium. The on course patrons erupted as Brown Jack worked his way to the line. The atmosphere was euphoric. Hardened racing men were seen shedding tears as the two champions returned to the enclosure. A feat such as six Straight Queen Alexandria Stakes victories, tends to do that to people. Long live the memory of Brown Jack!
What a lovley read Cyclonic. Ive missed your scribes from the old 606 site, but im posting on here a lot more now. Brown Jack sounds just the type of horse i love to see. Big hearted and wont give in easily... And your right in the world of constant let downs and continuing belt tightening, sport really dos give you the relief and escapism that you just dont get anywhere else...
Like my good self Brown Jack is one of Wiltshire’s great heroes with his fame lauded throughout the county and tales of his achievements passed down from generation to generation. A real star. He was trained at Wroughton and there is, incidentally, at said place a pub named in his honour. I’ve even crossed the threshold of said establishment myself once or twice in the past.
Thanks Oddy, ever the gent. Red, it's nice to have a lot of the old brigade here again. For a while it looked pretty desperate, but thanks to Ron, it all come together nicely. Barney, it would be great to hear some of those tales about the great horse. Ta lads.
Superb Article, Cyclonic! Dare I say it, I think it's your best ever- certainly the one I've enjoyed the most. From what I remember - reading it of course, even I'm not that old- he didn't have as high a winning percentage as many other great stayers. Yet what he did have was great durability and longevity- something usually lacking in modern-day horses. The fact he won the Champion Hurdle at four years of age was testament also to his great versatility, and he makes me recall another old favourite of mine, Scottish Memories, who was high class over both fences and hurdles but who also won many flat races. For me , horses like that are priceless and offer an enduring quality to the sport we love. Fantastic read!
Yeah Tam, he wasn't the most consistent of horses. But when a flat horse needs 22f to be competitive, it must be hard to string wins together. 18 wins from 55 starts.
Great article. The daddy of them all. I think it was an insult when they shortened the Brown Jack Stakes.
really, im pretty sure i remember it happening. maybe its the mind control drugs the government puts in white bread ****ing with my brain again.
Ah but who can say what is reality and what is not? Everything could be a dream when we are awake and reality is sleep dreamtime.
Ever stood in the toilet in the wee hours of the morning, having a piss, and wondered if you were really there, or dreaming you were in the toilet? The great fear then is, am I'm dreaming I'm in the toilet? Am I dreaming that I'm pissing in the toilet? Because if I'm pissing and dreaming, I'm wetting the bed. And it doesn't matter if you pinch yourself or not, because you might be dreaming that your are doing that too. P.S. Summary: Brown Jack liked to run a long way.
I'd like to sell you a half-share in a colt by Schwarzenegger out of Total Recall. Cyclonic, that's a great piece about a wonderful horse. I'm pretty sure Steve Donoghue went on record as saying Brown Jack's 6th win in the QA was a race he savoured above any of his Derby victories. I think that if I'd been there I'd have shed a tear along with everybody else.
