Breasley Joins The “Two Thousand Club”

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31143, 20 August 1966, Page 7

Breasley Joins The “Two Thousand Club”

Of all the landmarks in England’s racing this month none quite matched the memorable and happy moment when, on August 6, a smiling grandfather stood in front of the Windsor weighing-room cradling in his arms an enormous bottle of wine, writes “Audax” in “Horse and Hound.”

The grandfather was Arthur (“Scobie”) Breasley, the wine—a rheoboam of champagne —was a gift from the Windsor executive, and the applause, “Audax” records, “was from us all.”

“Breasley had just become the first Australian to ride 2000 winners in England, and if the shades of Fred Archer and George Fordham were looking down at Windsor they must. I’m sure, have been proud to welcome him to their select and honourable company,” "Audax” wrote.

“So no doubt are its surviving members, Willie Nevett, the brothers Eph and Douglas Smith and, perhaps most of all. Sir Gordon Richards. For when Sir Gordon Richards hung up his boots it did not take him long to decide that Breasley was the man for him.

“It was, in a way, a strange decision, for no two great jockeys ever had more totally different styles and just oc-

casionally down the years Sir Gordon Richards, though I’ve never heard him say so, may well have longed, in a desperate finish, for his own dynamic strength in place of the Australian’s gentle, sympathetic touch. “But far more often than not—as he would be the first * to say—it would have made ; no difference, and for every I such moment there have been I hundreds more when Sir Gor- I don Richards and many other I trainers have thanked their j stars for the fate which j brought Scobie Breasley from | Wagga Wagga to the English | racecourse. “I wonder what Archer would have made of the extraordinary, ageless man who t is the latest member of ‘the v Two Thousand Club.’ f

“His style, of course, would have astounded him—for when in despair he fired that fatal pistol-shot, Tod Sloan

Nearly Beaten.—Britain narrdwly averted defeat in its hockey match against Tasmania yesterday when C. Whalwej’ scored the equalising goal 45 seconds before the end. The game was drawn, 1-1.

had still not brought the short-legged ‘American’ crouch to England. “At first sight Archer—like so many English observers since—would probably . have considered Breasley weak, but, like Sir Gordon Richards, he would very soon have realised the truth. For The Tinman was a horseman, too. and could not long have failed to notice the superlative horsemanship which is the solid foundation of Scobie Breasley’s art. “He would have seen how. 99 times in 100. the horses the great Australian rides are enjoying themselves throughout a race. He would have appreciated the silken hands which calm the hardest puller, the almost flawless judgment of pace and, above all, the uncanny skill with which an ounce or two is saved for the only place that counts. “He, whose whip one suspects was sometimes used without much regard for the horse’s feelings, might not at first have understood this facet of the Breasley method. “But here, too. he would soon have seen the light—seen how, waved rhythmically beside a horse’s eye, the whip becomes not a hated weapon but a magic wand to supplement the urge of arms and legs. “He would have admired the lightning speed with which it is switched from hand to hand and he would, if he talked to many trainers, have realised how seldom a horse ridden by Breasley comes back with a mark on either his skin or his enthusiasm. “He, who wasted himself into the grave, would doubtless have envied the Australian’s build—his Ideal weight, his ability to eat more or less what he wants. Determination “But he would also have admired the tireless energy of a man nearly twice his age and the nerveless determination with which, at 52, after dozens of crashing falls, Breasley still goes for a gap on the rails as if the ground was a feather mattress and a horse’s hoof a powder puff. “Fred Archer would, in short, have acknowledged an equal. He would, as we all do, have raised his glass to toast a master of the art, a genius who, like all true geniuses, is in his way unique. “And I, who have criticised Scobie Breasley as often as anyone, am proud to acknowledge that far more often than not those criticisms were undeserved.

“The great Australian is, in fact, his own severest critic and, when he makes a mistake, acknowledges it with a smile that disarms the angriest trainer. Next day or the day after that he will

make up for it—and how many horses can you think of who, after being ridden by Breasley win or lose, do any better for another jockey? “The forerunner and pathfinder for the great post-war Australian invasion of Europe, Breasley is still, in the evening of a long career, head and shoulders above his many skilful compatriots. “We may sometimes wish they were not needed—that we could grow our own—and that day, I believe, may not be too far distant. “But to any such patriotic hope Breasley is the exception. He long ago became an essential part of the British racing scene and long may he continue tp adorn it.”