Brian Armstrong

Brian Armstrong

Article by Alan Trout

Brian Rigby Armstrong won the Shire Selling Handicap Hurdle on the seven-year-old Why Tell, trained by Richard Robson, at Hexham on May 19, 1956, his sole success under National Hunt rules from just six rides that season.  

The race was for novice riders, and among Brian’s beaten rivals that day were future top jockey and trainer Jimmy FitzGerald and the legendary Jack Berry, who has done so much to promote the cause of the Injured Jockeys Fund, besides having been a highly successful trainer in his own right. 

Richard Robson had three wins that season, all of them courtesy of Why Tell. Brian rode the gelding to finish second in the Caverton Handicap Hurdle at Kelso on October 19, 1956, but usually Jack Boddy was in the saddle from then on, and Brian did not renew his licence for the 1957/58 season.