Brian Procter

1941 - 2017

Article by Chris Pitt

In 2011 Brian Procter finally hung up his riding boots and saddle, aged 70, bringing an end to a career in racing that had spanned 55 years.

Brian was born on December 2, 1941 and raised in Greatham, West Hartlepool. It was always on the cards that his future career would involve horses of some sort. He taught himself to ride on the local farmer’s carthorse. By the age of ten he was talented enough to handle a difficult pony belonging to a huntsman’s daughter who was unable to control it.

He left school at 15 to begin his apprenticeship at Sir Gordon Richards’ Ogbourne Maisey stables, near Marlborough. Competition for rides was fierce as there were 18 other tyro jockeys there all trying to break through. Brian remembers Sir Gordon as “a brilliant and fair man” who used to ride work alongside his apprentices.

Brian rode his first winner for Sir Gordon on a two-year-old colt named Olmedo,  owned by Michael Sobell, at Bath on July 13, 1960. It was his only winner that year and he only rode one the following year.

It was late August before he opened his account for 1962, on Sir Gordon’s three-year-old Saman at Worcester on August 20, but four more followed within the next two months: Flute at Chepstow on August 29, Strapin at Leicester on September 24 and again at Birmingham on October 1, all for Sir Gordon, and Towser Gosden’s Bob Barker at Ascot on October 13.

Another six winners followed in 1963, including a couple of outside mounts, one for neighbouring Marlborough trainer Bob Turnell on Kind Hearts at Worcester on May 4, and one for Cheltenham-based John Roberts on Belt

Up at Ascot on June 22. However, 1964 brought just a single success, Sir Gordon’s juvenile filly Zimarra at Worcester on August 22.

By the time he’d completed his apprenticeship in 1965, Brian had 14 winners to his name but he had also developed into a highly competent work rider who could provide useful information about the horse after its work. It would be in this capacity that his career would pan out, for while he rode many top-class horses at home on the gallops, his race riding was largely restricted to the second strings, pacemakers or those that required educating.

He did, though, get to ride the occasional top-notcher in races. Such a case was Dart Board, (left) whom Brian rode to win a Newbury maiden on September 10, 1966, one of just two winners that season. Dart Board went on to finish third in the following year’s Derby and Irish Derby, ridden by Scobie Breasley.

When Sir Gordon retired in 1970, most of his string went to Dick Hern and Brian thus followed suit. Among the first horses he rode work on there was the then two-year-old Brigadier Gerard. That was just one of many top-class horses with which he was associated over the years. He moulded Bustino into a leading Derby contender and also rode a raw recruit named Nashwan in his two-year-old work. He was also instrumental in the education of dual classic winning fillies Dunfermline and Sun Princess and rode the top-class sprinter Dayjur in most of his work.

On the track he rode Lady Beaverbrook’s Boldboy to finish fourth in the 1972 Middle Park Stakes; in 1979 he partnered Troy’s pacemakers Rivadon in the Irish Derby and Road To Glory in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, plus two other ‘King George’ pacemakers in His Honour (184) and Vouchsafe (1986); and he rode future St Leger winner Minster Sun to a 20/1 shock victory, beating his stable companion, the Willie Carson-ridden favourite Unfuwain, on his racecourse debut in the Yattendon Stakes at Newbury on August 15, 1987.

But his most treasured winner was the one he rode for the Queen, Light O’Battle in Newbury’s Radley Stakes on October 27, 1978. This was another upset victory in which he again beat a Carson-ridden stablemate, Bluebell, who’d been sent off the 7/4 favourite, whereas Light O’Battle was a 33/1 outsider. Trainer Dick Hern’s instructions to Brian were to do his best but not to be hard on her, never dreaming that she would be good enough to trouble Bluebell, so he was astonished to see her pass the favourite in the closing strides and win by a short-head without being fully extended.Brian’s career as a jockey came to a painful end with a bad accident at Bath on April 26, 1994 when his mount Dancing Mad was hampered and fell three furlongs out. He suffered a severe neck injury, necessitating a lengthy stay in hospital.

Dick Hern retired in 1997. With his neck continuing to cause problems during the cold weather, it was an easy decision forBrian to spend the winters in Dubai when offered a job work riding with the Godolphin operation.

Among the many champions he rode for Godolphin were One Thousand Guineas heroine Cape Verdi, Lockinge Stakes victor Aljabr, and multiple Group 1 winner Daylami. He became a vital cog in the Godolphin wheel, not just as a work rider but also when their horses competed overseas. He travelled the world with Godolphin runners, to major international racing venues such as Melbourne, Kentucky, Canada and Hong Kong.

Asked to nominate his favourite Godolphin performer, he plumped for Firestreak, who gained back-to-back victories in the 2003/04 Godolphin Mile at Nad Al Sheba, plus the 2004 Hong Kong Mile at Sha Tin. Godolphin later presented Brian with a portrait of Firestreak, which now adorns his living room wall.

Brian spent 14 years with Godolphin and was recognised in 2008 by becoming a Godolphin Stud and Stable Staff Award finalist in the groom/rider category.

His son Anthony (Tony) Procter rode both on the Flat and over jumps, amassing 69 winners in a 10-year career. He was apprenticed to David Elsworth and rode his first winner for him on veteran sprinter Ferryman when aged 18. Father and son both rode in the same race on at least one occasion.

Like Brian, Tony rode work in Dubai and was lucky enough to partner Dubai Millennium among others. For a time he rode as stable jockey to David Elsworth. He was also champion jockey in the Channel Islands where his winners included Jersey’s Champion Hurdle at Les Landes. Tony is now travelling head lad for John Gosden.

Brian continued as a work rider, finally retiring just short of his 70th birthday. He died in February 2017, aged 75.