Louis Furman

Article by Chris Pitt

Lincolnshire businessman Louis Furman had a great affinity with the Grand National as an owner, trainer and rider. He owned Jack Finlay, the 100/1 outsider who finished second to Lovely Cottage in 1946, and twice rode in the great race.

He bought Jack Finlay in Ireland and rode him to win on his first start in Britain, at Wetherby on November 3, 1945, albeit fortuitously as the first horse past the post, Lavenham, was subsequently disqualified for carrying the incorrect weight. Professional jockey Bill Kidney then took over the reins and was in the plate when finishing runner-up in the Grand National.

Louis, meanwhile, had won a couple of two-mile handicap chases on a horse named Clonbur, at Catterick and Southwell  in December 1945. He owned, trained and rode one named Rosbercon to land a Market Rasen novices’ chase in October 1947 but all the while he was looking out for a potential Grand National partner.

He finally found one at the start of 1950, a horse called Binghamstown, who had been trained by Vincent O’Brien for owner Frank Vickerman and had won several races when ridden by Aubrey Brabazon. Louis bought Binghamstown and rode him for the first time at Southwell on March 6, finishing a distant seventh of eight finishers. Their next start together was in the 1950 Grand National, in which they pulled up when in arrears.

Binghamstown performed poorly for Louis during the 1950/51 campaign – he was disqualified on the only occasion he was placed – but they nonetheless took their place in the 1951 Grand National. The managed to avoid the carnage that saw a dozen horses crash out at the first fence and were up with the leaders when falling at the seventh.

Binghamstown was a genuine 100/1 no-hoper as far as the Grand National was concerned and he never did manage to win a race for Louis – he never looked like doing so, in fact – but he was a great favourite among the inhabitants of Laceby Road in Grimsby, where Louis kept his string of four horses in stables at the back of his garden. To them he was just ‘Bing’ and Louis would often give the local children a ride on the way back from exercise.

Fast forward some 25 years and Louis still had a couple in training, notably Turk, who won several races around Southwell in the late 1970s and early eighties. Although by now in his 70s, Louis rode the horse in all his work at home and took him swimming in the River Humber. He’d bought Turk at Doncaster sales out of Rex Carter’s stable and only narrowly missed qualifying him for the 1980 Grand National when beaten by Artistic Prince in a valuable chase at Market Rasen.

Louis planned to qualify Turk for Aintree the following year. Sadly, that ambition never materialised and Louis Furman’s hopes of having another Grand National runner were dashed. He died on April 11, 1983, aged 75, after a short illness.