Champion Jockeys—No. 2 C. Elliott—Brilliant Rider, Shrewd Judge

Press, Volume C, Issue 29421, 25 January 1961, Page 5

Champion Jockeys—No. 2 C. Elliott—Brilliant Rider, Shrewd Judge

[By

PERCY RUDD]

Edward Charles Elliott’s promise was written as plain as the results card when, at Nottingham in 1921, he rode his first winner, a horse named Rakings, and later in the afternoon had a second success on Golden Myth. “First two winners in the same day wasn’t so bad for an apprentice, was it?” says Charlie, recalling the achievement. ■

It happened early in the season, when he was not yet 17, and coincidentally the second of his two winners— Golden Myth—was destined to play a big part in establishing the boy’s reputation. Golden Myth was owned by Sir George Bullough and within a few months Elliott had ridden him to further and much greater victories in the Gold Vase and Gold Cup at Ascot and the Eclipse Stakes. Two years later, while still

an apprentice, Charlie rode 89 winners and tied with Steve Donoghue for the jockey’s championship. In 1924 he was at the head of the list, unchallenged with 106 successes. He tied with another famous jockey, Gordon Richards, in a more personal respect, for both were born the same year—--1904, though Gordon is a few months the senior. Charlie was first apprenticed with Jack Day and then with Jack Jarvis. In 1923, aged 19, he was riding as first jockey for Lord Roseberry and steered Ellangowan safely home in the Two Thousand Guineas—the first of five victories in that race. St. Leger Jinx He rode four winners of the One Thousand Guineas, three of the Derby and two of the Oaks—a total of 14 English classics. In addition he was on seven classic winners in France. Yet he could never win that other great English classic—the St. Leger. His first Derby success came in 1927 on Call Boy, owned by the theatrical magnate Frank Curzon. The following year he and Flamengo, on whom he had won the Two Thousand Guineas, filled second place. But 1931 was his most dazzling year of classic achievement. He began by winning the One Thousand Guineas on Four Course for Lord Ellesmere—after, at the owner’s suggestion, tossing with Freddie Fox to see which of the two should ride the mount. This was followed by victories in the Oaks on Brulette, which was trained in France, and on her stable companion, Pearl Cap. in the French Oaks. Elliott began riding in France in 1928, mainly for Marcel Boussac. Within a few weeks Charlie had won for his master the French Derby on Tourbillon, destined to become one of Mr Boussac’s great staying sires. True, in 1931 Elliott not only completed the remarkable double of winning both the English and French Oaks, but won other classics in each country as well. Rare Double Four other English jockeys rode in the French Derby that year—Donoghue, Harry Wragg, Joe Childs and Dick Perryman—but none of them could stay with Charlie and get into the first three. In 1938 Charlie brought off the rare double of the English and French Derbys on Bois Roussel and Cillas (owned by Mr Boussac). Bois Roussel was a French horse, bought for Peter Beatty at a cost of £BOOO only two months before the race. He went into Fred Darlings’s stable, which also sheltered the Derby favourite, Pasch. Pasch, winner of the Two Thousand, was ridden by Gordon Richards and started at 9-4, one of several favourites ridden by Gordon that “blew up’’ before the champion of champions at last rode his only Derby winner on Pinza. Elliott rode the most remarkable race in racing history on Bois Roussel—not by design, as he himself admitted, but because of the inability of his mount to go the pace of the others for the greater part of the journey. Bois Roussel was so far behind at Tattenham Corner that Charlie thought he had no chance at aIL But “in the straight I gave him one," he said, “and he fairly bounded forward. Smashed Rivals

"In the last furlong he accelerated so fast that we sailed past one horse after another and fairly smothered the struggling leaders for stamina.” Brownie Carslake, who was second past the post on Scottish Union, said: “I thought I had the race won, when something went by like a rocket and smash went a lifetime’s ambition.” After that Brownie never did ride a Derby winner.

It seems incredible that Bois Roussel came from nowhere in 220 yards and finished four lengths in front, but that is exactly what happened. The only possible conclusion seems to be that the leading horses ran themselves into the ground. Bois Roussel’s price was 201. "I knew he would stay,” said Fred Darling. Owner Beatty was more fortunate

than. Charlie’s mentor, Boussac. The only English classic that Elliott ever won for him was the 1940 Two Thousand Guineas on Djebel. He missed riding the 1950 Derby and Oaks winners and was replaced by Ray Johnstone—“because Boussac wanted me to live in France and I preferred England.” But in 1954 Charlie relented and went to France as Boussac's trainer, finally ending a 29-year association with his old patron in 1958, and returning to England to start training at Newmarket, None Shrewder During that long partnership Boussac relied as much on Charlie’s appraisement of horses’ capabilities as on his skill in riding them. A sensible decision, for no jockey had a shrewder knowledge of what horses could and could not do than Charlie Elliott. I remember him telling me before the 1952 Derby, when the racing press was full of what the French were going to do in Britain’s classics, that if either horse turned out to be good he would probably sweep the board—and that horse could come from either side. And sweep the board was precisely what Tulyar did. As a jockey, Elliott has had few superiors. He could play the waiting game with the best, and revelled in a tight finish. Witness his two classic vic-

tories on Nimbus—by a short head and a head—and his remarkable feat in 1953 when he drove Soupei to short-head wins in both the Ascot Gold Cup and Goodwood Cup; and then dead-heated on him with Nick la Rocca in the Doncaster Cup. There was the hand of the master in all those successes. (Central Press Features— Copyright).