Article by Chris Pitt
Australian jockey Jack Brace had no firm plans about riding or seeking work when he came to England in 1945. However, a chance meeting with National Hunt jockey Pat Taylor in Hull brought him into contact with Colonel Wilfrid Lyde and led to him becoming the retained jockey for the Spigot Lodge, Middleham trainer.
Born in 1905, Jack had ridden his first winner in Australia in 1921 on a horse named Teggerty and before that season ended had amassed the remarkable score of 62 winners. He was still only sixteen but was elevated almost overnight from an unknown apprentice to one of Australia’s leading jockeys.
Success followed success and five years later came the offer to ride as first jockey for Sir Victor Sassoon’s powerful stable in India. Jack accepted that offer and rode in India for the next fourteen years, winning every Classic race on the Indian turf and heading the jockeys’ list four times. On one occasion he scrambled home by just one point from his friend and fellow Australian Billy ‘Last Race’ Cook, who also found India a happy hunting ground during the 1930s. Among the many good horses Jack rode in India, he reckoned Sir Victor Sassoon’s Stonebridge, on whom he won the Eclipse Stakes, was the best.
Towards the end of his long and highly successful association with Sir Victor, Jack met a Yorkshire girl named Muriel Bateman, who was appearing in a touring theatrical company. He married her, rode for a few more seasons for the Maharajah of Idar and then decided to come to England to settle down and perhaps to retire from being a jockey.
His boots and saddle were close to being hung up before the chance meeting that led to him being introduced to Colonel Lyde.
Among the horses Jack rode for him in the first couple of seasons was Dancing Flame, on whom he won three times in 1948.
The association with Colonel Lyde came temporarily to an end in 1951 and Jack joined forces with Malton trainer Bill Dutton. He achieved a personal best score of 23 winners in 1952, including five successive victories on Dutton’s smart three-year-old colt Childe Harold, culminating in York’s Great Voltigeur Stakes. Jack rode Childe Harold in the St Leger next time out, finishing eighth behind Tulyar.
His score dropped to 13 in 1953 – seven of them for his old friend Pat Taylor, who was by now training at Beverley – but they included a big race victory on Childe Harold in the Yorkshire Cup on May 20. They subsequently finished fourth behind Souepi in that year’s Gold Cup at Royal Ascot.
While continuing to take mounts for Bill Dutton, Pat Taylor and Colonel Lyde, Jack turned freelance in 1954 and rode 13 more winners. The best horse he rode during that year was Colonel Lyde’s juvenile filly Besides, on whom he won at Hamilton and Manchester and finished fifth in York’s Lowther Stakes. Reunited with Childe Harold, he was unable to repeat their previous year’s Yorkshire Cup triumph, finishing third to Harry Carr on the hot favourite Premonition.
He rode another 13 winners in 1955, beginning with Besides in a seven-furlong handicap at Newcastle in April., but by far the best
horse he rode that year was Bill Dutton’s grey two-year-old colt Vigo. Jack won on him at Doncaster in May, followed up at Beverley in June, and then won the Seaton Delaval Stakes at Newcastle (left) on June 25 by three lengths. They then finished third behind the useful Rustam in Sandown’s National Breeders’ Produce Stakes before landing facile victories in a pair of two-runner races at Doncaster and Redcar, starting at prohibitive odds of 25/1 on and 20/1 on.
On their final start of the season, the Rous Stakes at Doncaster St Leger Meeting, Jack and Vigo found one too good in Paddy Prendergast’s unbeaten filly Sarissa, winner of the Phoenix Stakes on her previous start, who swooped past the pacemaking Vigo with a furlong to run and won easily by three lengths.
Jack rode Vigo in his first race as a three-year-old, finishing third at Newmarket’s Craven Meeting on April 19, 1956. But that would be not just the last time he rode Vigo but also his final ride in public, for he relinquished his licence later that month. Lester Piggott took over on Vigo, winning the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Kempton in May, going on to finish second in Royal Ascot’s King’s Stand Stakes and winning Newcastle’s Gosforth Park Cup.
Jack Brace, meanwhile, having finally hung up his boots and saddle, settled down to spend his retirement quietly in England, where he passed away in 1981.
Biggest wins
1952: Great Voltigeur Stakes – Childe Harold
1953: Yorkshire Cup – Childe Harold
1955: Seaton Delaval Stakes – Vigo
