On 24th June 1970 a cheaply bred 2yo bay colt made his debut in the 5f Berkshire Stakes at Newbury. There were only 5 runners, with 3 of them having won already, while the other runner was also unraced. The bay colt was Brigadier Gerard and his owner was Mrs Jean Hislop, wife of prominent journalist and former amateur jockey John Hislop: they had also bred the colt. Today this race would either be a Novice event or a Listed event, but it disappeared from the Racing Calendar with the demise of Newbury’s 2 day Summer meeting.
Brigadier Gerard was trained by Dick Hern at West Ilsley (now owned by the Channons). The stable had not had a 2yo runner yet were fairly certain this was their most forward and probably their best 2yo. Hern’s stable had suffered two dreadful years due to an equine virus and was getting used to disappointment. Earlier in 1970 Hern was showing his predecessor at West Ilsley, Jack Colling, round the stables. By chance the first stable they entered was Brigadier Gerard’s. When Hern walked on to the second horse Colling remained behind, looking carefully at the colt. Just before Hern returned to pick up Colling, Colling turned to the stable lad and said ‘this is the best 2yo I have ever seen’. The lad, who was just allotted to show this horse knew of Colling’s reputation and so raced to the Head Lad and said as he only had one to ‘do’ at that time he’d like to put his name down for the Brigadier. Stable staff didn’t usually volunteer for Hislop’s horses: he got him.
Once the 2yos started to be galloped word came back that this one was quick. At the end of March he had a stalls trial with a few other 2yos. Bobby Elliott rode him and his mount came out of the stalls satisfactorily. After a about a furlong Elliott looked round and wondered if the other stalls hadn’t opened. They had, they were just way behind, he’d left them for dead. Later in April Hern arranged a serious gallop in which he put his most forward colts. Stable jockey Joe Mercer was detained in India and Hern asked Jimmy Lindley to ride the Brigadier. He warned him that this colt had a habit of unloading his pilot and sure enough he unshipped Lindley soon after he mounted him. (Strangely he did this to Mercer the first time he rode him and he always did this only once to every new pilot). After the gallop the message that came back was either they had a very good colt or the whole lot of the 2yos were rubbish. The Brigadier won the gallop easily and won eased down. That evening Lindley wrote a letter to Mercer saying ‘come back soon we’ve got a nice present for you’.
So Brigadier Gerard made his debut and Mercer was talking to the owner (John Hislop wasn’t there) in the paddock and she said, ‘John gave me some riding orders, but I’ve forgotten them’ to which Mercer replied ‘Don’t worry I’ve talked to Duncan Keith, whom I’m drawn next to, and he’s riding another unraced horse, so if the other experienced horses run away from us we’ll run alongside each other to give our horses a good introduction to racing’.
Mercer carried his plan to the T but only for about half a furlong. It was soon obvious that his colt was cantering over the rest of the field. He soon let out a bit of rein and his mount bounded into an 8 length lead. Just after the furlong pole, he eased his colt down and Brigadier Gerard came home 5 lengths clear. He’d been the outsider and had totally trounced the odds-on favourite Young and Foolish. The media praised the effort but spent as much text on the fact that Hern had told his wife not to put his horse in her jackpot bet as to his startling performance.
That season most of the talk was about two other colts, My Swallow and Mill Reef, and Brigadier Gerard was never mentioned in the same breath as them. Brigadier Gerard went on to win his next two races unchallenged, a 6f Novice event at Salisbury and the Washington Singer Stakes (then 6f) at Newbury.
On October 1st Brigadier Gerard ran his final race of the season, the Middle Park Stakes. He was 3rd favourite as he was up against 2 very fast colts. Favourite was Mummy’s Pet who’d won all his races and was as effective over 5f as 6. Second favourite was Swing Easy, a fast colt trained by Jeremy Tree who had won 3 races over 6f before finishing 3rd beaten 3 lengths by My Swallow in France over 7f. The feeling after that defeat was that 7f was beyond him and he never raced again over further than 6f.
With a field of just 5, Fireside Chat set off in front at a modest pace. After 3f Mercer, sensing the pace was possibly playing to the strengths of the market leaders, pushed Brigadier Gerard to take the lead and increase the pace. At the distance Mummy’s Pet and Swing Easy mounted a challenge but instead of closing on Brigadier Gerard they ended up further behind as Hern’s colt stormed up the hill to the finish. The judge gave the official distance as 3 lengths and that was back to Mummy’s Pet, Swing Easy was a further half-length back, but photographs taken at the time seem to point to the distance being nearer 4 lengths to Mummy’s Pet. The general view after the race was that this was a surprise winner, but good performance by Brigadier Gerard and that it might have been a weak race.
When Timeform put its figures out for the 2yo colts they gave the top spot to My Swallow, with Mill Reef one pound behind and Brigadier Gerard another pound behind. The Free Handicap replicated that with My Swallow given 9st 7lbs, Mill Reef 9st 6lbs and Brigadier Gerard 9st 5lbs. On a literal reading of the form this did not make sense as at the very least Brigadier Gerard should have been given a higher rating than My Swallow. If the distance the Brigadier beat Swing Easy really was 4&1/2 lengths then he Brigadier Gerard should have been given 3lbs more than My Swallow. And if Swing Easy was really better at 6f than he was at 7f then that gap should be even greater.
So started the continual underestimation of Brigadier Gerard.
Brigadier Gerard was trained by Dick Hern at West Ilsley (now owned by the Channons). The stable had not had a 2yo runner yet were fairly certain this was their most forward and probably their best 2yo. Hern’s stable had suffered two dreadful years due to an equine virus and was getting used to disappointment. Earlier in 1970 Hern was showing his predecessor at West Ilsley, Jack Colling, round the stables. By chance the first stable they entered was Brigadier Gerard’s. When Hern walked on to the second horse Colling remained behind, looking carefully at the colt. Just before Hern returned to pick up Colling, Colling turned to the stable lad and said ‘this is the best 2yo I have ever seen’. The lad, who was just allotted to show this horse knew of Colling’s reputation and so raced to the Head Lad and said as he only had one to ‘do’ at that time he’d like to put his name down for the Brigadier. Stable staff didn’t usually volunteer for Hislop’s horses: he got him.
Once the 2yos started to be galloped word came back that this one was quick. At the end of March he had a stalls trial with a few other 2yos. Bobby Elliott rode him and his mount came out of the stalls satisfactorily. After a about a furlong Elliott looked round and wondered if the other stalls hadn’t opened. They had, they were just way behind, he’d left them for dead. Later in April Hern arranged a serious gallop in which he put his most forward colts. Stable jockey Joe Mercer was detained in India and Hern asked Jimmy Lindley to ride the Brigadier. He warned him that this colt had a habit of unloading his pilot and sure enough he unshipped Lindley soon after he mounted him. (Strangely he did this to Mercer the first time he rode him and he always did this only once to every new pilot). After the gallop the message that came back was either they had a very good colt or the whole lot of the 2yos were rubbish. The Brigadier won the gallop easily and won eased down. That evening Lindley wrote a letter to Mercer saying ‘come back soon we’ve got a nice present for you’.
So Brigadier Gerard made his debut and Mercer was talking to the owner (John Hislop wasn’t there) in the paddock and she said, ‘John gave me some riding orders, but I’ve forgotten them’ to which Mercer replied ‘Don’t worry I’ve talked to Duncan Keith, whom I’m drawn next to, and he’s riding another unraced horse, so if the other experienced horses run away from us we’ll run alongside each other to give our horses a good introduction to racing’.
Mercer carried his plan to the T but only for about half a furlong. It was soon obvious that his colt was cantering over the rest of the field. He soon let out a bit of rein and his mount bounded into an 8 length lead. Just after the furlong pole, he eased his colt down and Brigadier Gerard came home 5 lengths clear. He’d been the outsider and had totally trounced the odds-on favourite Young and Foolish. The media praised the effort but spent as much text on the fact that Hern had told his wife not to put his horse in her jackpot bet as to his startling performance.
That season most of the talk was about two other colts, My Swallow and Mill Reef, and Brigadier Gerard was never mentioned in the same breath as them. Brigadier Gerard went on to win his next two races unchallenged, a 6f Novice event at Salisbury and the Washington Singer Stakes (then 6f) at Newbury.
On October 1st Brigadier Gerard ran his final race of the season, the Middle Park Stakes. He was 3rd favourite as he was up against 2 very fast colts. Favourite was Mummy’s Pet who’d won all his races and was as effective over 5f as 6. Second favourite was Swing Easy, a fast colt trained by Jeremy Tree who had won 3 races over 6f before finishing 3rd beaten 3 lengths by My Swallow in France over 7f. The feeling after that defeat was that 7f was beyond him and he never raced again over further than 6f.
With a field of just 5, Fireside Chat set off in front at a modest pace. After 3f Mercer, sensing the pace was possibly playing to the strengths of the market leaders, pushed Brigadier Gerard to take the lead and increase the pace. At the distance Mummy’s Pet and Swing Easy mounted a challenge but instead of closing on Brigadier Gerard they ended up further behind as Hern’s colt stormed up the hill to the finish. The judge gave the official distance as 3 lengths and that was back to Mummy’s Pet, Swing Easy was a further half-length back, but photographs taken at the time seem to point to the distance being nearer 4 lengths to Mummy’s Pet. The general view after the race was that this was a surprise winner, but good performance by Brigadier Gerard and that it might have been a weak race.
When Timeform put its figures out for the 2yo colts they gave the top spot to My Swallow, with Mill Reef one pound behind and Brigadier Gerard another pound behind. The Free Handicap replicated that with My Swallow given 9st 7lbs, Mill Reef 9st 6lbs and Brigadier Gerard 9st 5lbs. On a literal reading of the form this did not make sense as at the very least Brigadier Gerard should have been given a higher rating than My Swallow. If the distance the Brigadier beat Swing Easy really was 4&1/2 lengths then he Brigadier Gerard should have been given 3lbs more than My Swallow. And if Swing Easy was really better at 6f than he was at 7f then that gap should be even greater.
So started the continual underestimation of Brigadier Gerard.
