LAUDED TO SKIES

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXI, Issue 8832, 12 October 1942, Page 3

LAUDED TO SKIES

GREAT ENGLISH JOCKEY FAMOUS FRED ARCHER DOMINATED TURF IN ENGLAND No figure in the history of racing since its inauguration in the reign of Richard I. down through the ages to the present century has. captured the imagination of present-day followers of the sport to the extent of Fred Archer, who virtually dominated the turf in England from 1870 until he found a suicide’s grave in 1886.

The “Tinman,” as he was called, has always been lauded to the skies for his magnificent horsemanship, but recent publications, “Racing England” and “Romance of the Derby Stakes,” both compiled: from authenticated records and biographies, indicate that a proportion of his success was duo to a complete disregard of the Rules of Racing. Fred Archer was born to the saddle, as it were. Son of a .steeplechase jockey who won the Grand National in 1858 on Little Charlie, he was born at Cheltenham a year earlier. At the age of 11 he won a pony race at Bangor before becoming apprenticed to Matthew Dawson.

The most important step in his career was his engagement witli Lord Falmouth, for whom he won the Derby on Silvio in 1877. Altogether, from 1870, when lie started riding as a professional jockey, until 1886, the year of his tragic death, he had mounts in 8084-races and won no fewer than 2746 of them. Ilis successes included the Derby on five occasions, the Oaks four times, the St. Legcr six times, and the One Thousand Guineas twice.

His success was due to a fortunate combination of skill, judgment and daring. His courage was remarkable; he seems not to have known the meaning of fear. Added to extraordinarily keen powers of observation, Archer had an intelligent brain and an iron nerve which enabled him to hug the rails round such dangerous descents as Tattenhani Corner, or the hill at Brighton, thus winning many a race which a less intrepid rider would have failed to do.

For his profession, Archer was a tall man; sft lOin, long-legged (he used his legs as though they were a pair of tongs gripping a horse’s body), very graceful, and what the Scots call “kenspeclc” to see. lie weighed, out of season, 10.0, but when riding he could reduce himself to 8.7. In the last year of Archer’s life — 18,86 —lie won the Derby and the St. Legcr on the “mighty Ormond.” The late Nat Gould was a great admirer of Archer. Wrote he: “Archer had wonderful hands, wonderful judgment of pace, and knew exactly what his opponents were doing in a race.

. . . No man who ever threw a leg across a horse rode with a greater determination to win if possible.” He Failed To Win In October, 1886, came days of wasting to ride St. Mirim in the Cambridgeshire at B.6—days of physic in the evenings and mornings in the Turkish baths. lie had made up his mind never to ride less than about 8.10, but he was tempted because the Cambridgeshire was the only big ra.-e he had never won.

Try as lie would, however, Archer could not get down to 8.0, and, although he had the lightest of saddles and wore nothing except a silk shirt against the skin, he was a pound overweight. Archer was just beaten a head in what was a great race by Mr W. Gilbert’s Sailor Prince, a six-year-old carrying 7.7. Sir Mirim started at 100 to 9, while the winner was quoted at 22 to 1. On the Friday following,. Archer rode the last winner, Lord Falmouth’s Blanehland, and.it was also his last winning mount. Tragic End In a fit of depression, due to illness. Archer took his own life and left .€60,000, although at one period of his career he was worth €200,000, but he lost a great deal in Stock Excliango speculations as well as on the turf.