Bobby Brewis

Article by Chris Pitt

Bobby Brewis was a leading northern amateur rider throughout the 1950s and early 60s, winning 84 races in a 20-year career under National Hunt rules, plus a handful in point-to-points.

Born on 26 October, 1925, he lived at Chester Brae, Belford, in Northumberland, and, along with his brother Michael, hunted with the Milvain and the Percy hunts. They both began riding under rules in the late 1940s.

Bobby rode his first winner on Candy II in the John McKie Challenge Cup Hunters’ Chase – a race he was to win again on subsequent occasions – on the Saturday of Carlisle’s Easter meeting, April 16, 1949. His brother finished unplaced in the race on Pinxy. Other riders competing against him that day included Ken Oliver and Arthur Stephenson, both of whom would go on to reach the top of their profession as trainers.

Michael Brewis rode his first winner on Co-Pilot  in the South Durham Open Hunt Challenge Cup Chase at Sedgefield on February 11, 1950.

On April 4, 1951, the opening day of the Grand National meeting, Bobby won the Liverpool Foxhunters’ Chase on Candy II, beating the 7/2 favourite Lucky Purchase, who had won the race in 1947, by six lengths. Candy II was an exceptionally heavy horse and did well to win such a race.

Bobby rode three winners in the spring of 1952, comprising the John McKie Hunters’ Chase at Carlie on Alarming Wave and a pair of hunter chases on his brother’s horse Solo Call, whom Michael also rode to victory in that year’s Rothbury Cup Hunters’ Chase.

In 1953, Michael emulated his brother’s Aintree achievement by winning the Liverpool Foxhunters’ Chase on Solo Call. He then won a second Rothbury Cup on him. He also landed the Border Counties Hunts Challenge Cup Hurdle, a race with a long tradition, run on Carlisle’s Easter Monday card, on Corby Lynn. In so doing, Michael outscored his brother by three wins to two, as Bobby’s haul that season was restricted to a Kelso hunter chase on Solo Call and a Carlisle novices’ hurdle on his own horse Carpril.

Michael Brewis was an enthusiastic amateur rider and may well have gone on to be as his successful as his brother but for being killed in a tractor accident.

Bobby won three more hunter chases in 1954 on Solo Call but the horse fell at the fence before Becher’s when looking to repeat his previous year’s success in the Liverpool Foxhunters.

Bobby also won that season’s Jed Forest Handicap Chase at Kelso on Ontray, owned and trained by Captain L. Scott Briggs at Cornhill-on-Tweed. Bobby then rode Ontray in the 1954 Grand National, completing the course last of the nine finishers. He also rode Ontray in the following year’s Grand National, finishing a highly creditable fifth behind Quare Times.

In the autumn of 1954, Bobby won a pair of novice chases on Carpril and followed those by taking the Gosforth Park Amateur Cup Handicap Chase at Newcastle on November 1. He won a Doncaster hunters’ chase on Solo Call in March 1955, and then won a third John McKie Hunters’ Chase, this time on what would be the best horse he would ever ride, a six-year-old named Whinstone Hill, who was making his debut under rules.

Bobby finished second in the 1956 Kim Muir Memorial Challenge Cup Chase at Cheltenham’s National Hunt meeting on the dun-coloured gelding Dunboy II. He then rode him in the 1956 Grand National, only to fall at the nineteenth fence.

Carpril was Bobby’s flagship conveyance for that 1955/56 campaign, winning five handicap chases. The following season he beat Wyndburgh by five lengths at Wetherby in October. Reunited with Whinstone Hill in the spring of 1957, Bobby won three more hunter chases including the Foxhill Cup at Newbury and the John Peel Cup at Manchester. However, his biggest success that season came at Cheltenham when winning the 1957 Kim Muir on David Machin’s 25/1 outsider Mighty Apollo.

The Cheltenham National Hunt meeting was to become a regular venue for Whinstone Hill over the next three years. After opening their account at Catterick Bridge on February 21, Bobby rode him to win the 1958 Foxhunters’ Challenge Cup.

They then won Manchester’s John Peel Cup for a second time.

Whinstone Hill was unlucky not to win the Cheltenham Foxhunters’ again the following year, falling at the last fence when disputing the lead with the eventual winner Some Baby. Danny Moralee rode Whinstone Hill that day, for Bobby had broken an arm in a first fence fall from Canny’s Bell at Doncaster on November 22, 1958. However, he was back in time to ride him to victory in the Perth Hunt Balnakeilly Challenge Cup Hunters’ Chase at the end of April.

Whinstone Hill reappeared at Hurst Park on February 5, 1960, with Bobby once again in the saddle, and won the R.E. Sassoon Memorial Hunters’ Chase. They followed that with victory at Manchester and then won a second Cheltenham Foxhunters’ Challenge Cup, taking the lead three fences from home and drawing imperiously clear to win by a massive 30 lengths. They then won Manchester’s John Peel Cup for a third time, but had their limitations exposed when taking on top handicap company in the 1960 Whitbread Gold Cup, finishing a distant 14th behind Plummers Plain, Pas Seul and company.

That 1959/60 campaign was numerically Bobby’s best with a total of 11 winners, because Whinstone Hill was not the only good horse in the Brewis’ Belford stable. Another was Carmen IV, an unfashionably bred chestnut mare who was registered in Miss Prior’s half-bred studbook, her dam being the otherwise unknown Caramel II.

Bobby had won two novice hurdles on her in the autumn of 1957, at Kelso and Newcastle. She won two long-distance handicap hurdles in the 1958/59 season, ridden on both occasions by Tim Brookshaw, as Bobby was out of action with the aforementioned broken arm. But he was reunited with her to win two more races the following season, including the Alnwick Castle Handicap Hurdle at Newcastle on November 14, 1959.

Put over fences the next season, Carmen IV won two Newcastle novice chases in November and December 1960, and then returned to Newcastle on February 11, 1961, to win the Eider Chase (left) beating Master Perie by a comfortable five lengths. Whinstone Hill, meanwhile, made a successful seasonal debut when winning the R.E. Sassoon Memorial Hunters’ Chase for the second year running, followed up at Catterick a fortnight later, and ran a brave race to finish second to the top-class Colledge Master in the 1961 Cheltenham Foxhunters’ Challenge Cup.

Carmen IV gave Bobby another big day in the saddle when winning the Emblem Chase at Manchester on November 11, 1961, beating Dandy Tim by 12 lengths. She was unable to repeat her Eider Chase triumph, finishing sixth in the 1962 renewal, after which she was retired to stud.

Whinstone Hill had also been retired by then, but Bobby had a pretty good replacement named Royal Reynard, on whom he won hunter chases at Perth in April and Kelso in May 1962. He won three more hunter chases on Royal Reynard in 1963 and also won the Heart of All England Hunt Cup Hunters’ Chase on another of his horses, Bruce.

Royal Reynard blotted his copybook when falling in the valuable Vaux National Hunters’ Chase at Catterick on February 15, 1964, giving his owner-rider a heavy fall which ruled him out for the remainder of the season. Royal Reynard went on to win six hunter chases that season, ridden each time by Ernie Fenwick, substituting for the injured owner-rider.

Bobby was back on board for the 1964/65 season, in which he rode Royal Reynard to five consecutive victories including the two-runner Vaux National Hunters’ Chase run that year at Newcastle on Easter Monday. He also won three handicap chases on Bruce including Hexham’s Haddington Jubilee Cup.

He won two more races on Bruce the following season, notably the Sanderson Keyser Amateur

Riders’ Handicap Chase at Doncaster’s valuable sponsored meeting on November 20, 1965, plus three more hunter chases on Royal Reynard, culminating in the Adam Scott Memorial Cup at Hexham’s 1966 Whitsun meeting.

By now, Bobby was in the autumn of his riding career.

He rode just one winner the next season, on Royal Reynard in the Auckland Hill Hunters’ Chase at Doncaster on March 7, 1967. He had his final ride the following season, again on Royal Reynard, finishing fourth in the Cessford Hunters’ Chase at Kelso on March 2, 1968.

With his riding days behind him, Bobby focused on training. Among the best he trained was the mare Scarlet Letch, a home-bred daughter of his 1961 Eider Chase winner Carmen IV. Scarlet Letch, by Northumberland Plate winner New Brig, won nine times over fences and emulated her dam by winning the Eider Chase in 1974. In turn, her daughter Scarlet Terror won one hurdle race and three chases but was unable to make it a unique Eider Chase three-timer for Bobby, finishing sixth in 1987.

He gained another big race success when sending out Bluff Knoll to win the 1990 Rowland Meyrick Handicap Chase at Wetherby.

Although Bobby rode a few winners in point-to-points, his attitude was invariably to aim for something more worthwhile if a horse showed sufficient signs of ability. He loved all aspects of farming and the countryside and was the epitome of a true Northumbrian sportsman. He died in November 2008, aged 83, leaving a wife, Gillian, and a daughter, Rhona.

Rhona took over the licence on her father’s death and continues to train one or two horses under permit. Among the best was the home-bred Crackadee, winner of three chases and two point-to-points. With Rhona’s continued involvement, the Brewis colours of yellow, black hoop, checked cap are still seen on the racecourse today.

Big winners:

1951: Liverpool Fox Hunters’ Chase – Candy II 

1957: Kim Muir Memorial Chase – Mighty Apollo 

1958: Cheltenham Foxhunters’ Chase – Whinstone Hill 

1960: Cheltenham Foxhunters’ Chase – Whinstone Hill 

1961: Eider Handicap Chase – Carmen IV

1961: Emblem Chase – Carmen IV