BROWN JACK DEAD

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25608, 24 September 1948, Page 4

BROWN JACK DEAD

FAMOUS ENGLISH STAYER (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 23. Britain’s most famous racehorse, Brown Jack, died to-day. Brown Jack won more than £24,000 in prize money, including the Queen Alexandra Stakes at Ascot, for six successive- years. He had lived in retirement for 14 years.

Brown, Jack was one of the greatest favourites with the public ever to race in England. When won the Queen Alexandra Stakes, which incidentally is the longest flat race in Britain (two miles and three-quarters), for the last time, ne caused ope of the most remarkable demonstrations of enthusiasm ever seen at Ascot. His trainer, Ivor Anthony, did not watch the race. He firmly believed that the gallant old gelding, then 10 years old, would win, but dreaded seeing him beaten, and he only moved when the cheering assured him that Brown Jack had won. Brown Jack was bred in Ireland and was by Jackdaw from Querquidella, by Kroonstad, from Garganey, by Wildfowler from Sapphire, by Buckingham. He came from the same family as the Ascot Gold Cup winner, William the Third, and Tressady, a successful sire in Australia many years ago. As a yearling, Brown Jack was offered for sale at Dublin but was passed in. He was sold for £llO, and later for £275 to Mr C. A. Rogers. He spent his two-year-old days in a paddock, and as a three-year-old ran in two races in Ireland, over six and five furlongs, carrying Mr Rogers’s colours. He was then bought by the trainer, Aubrey Hastings, acting for Colonel Sir Harold Wernher, the price being £750, with a contingency of £5O if the horse won a race. Hastings specialised as -a trainer of jumpers, and quickly taught Brown Jack to race over hurdles with* conspicuous success. -As a three-year-old he gained five firsts and a third and as a four-year-old two wins and a second in four starts. His most important success was the Champion Hurdle Cup at Cheltenham. It was the immortal Steve Donoghue who suggested that. Brown Jack should be concentrated op flat racing, and whenever he was free to do so,. Donoghue rode Brown Jack in many of his triumphs. There was a strong bopd of sympathy between horse and jockey, and later, when Donogh'ue set up as a trainer, he used Brown Jack as his hack.