National Hunt jockey William Mark Brisbourne – he rode under his second Christian name – rode for 16 years between 1975 and 1991 and partnered 58 winners.
Mark was born on June 22, 1957, one of four brothers plus a sister, Tina. Their father, Tony Brisbourne, farmed land at Nesscliffe, near Shrewsbury. He had taken out a permit in the 1950s, during which time he bought the mare Royal Ensign for a mere £150, an astute purchase as it turned out, for she was to found the female line which went on to produce more than 20 home-bred winners for the Brisbournes over the years.
Mark was in the saddle from an early age and a regular on the pony club and show jumping circuit. Leaving school three weeks before his sixteenth birthday, his first job was a six-month stint with Captain Charles Radclyffe at Witney, in Oxfordshire. From there he joined the former top-flight jockey Roy Edwards, who was by then training locally at Blakeley Stud, Stanton. Mark stayed for three and a half years and while there made his initial ventures into race riding.
His first mount in public was on Just-A-Honey at Ludlow on the last day of February 1975. The filly was also making her racecourse debut, but despite their lack of experience, the combination negotiated all the hurdles to finish twelfth of eighteen.
Mark’s brief flirtation with point-to-points was not something to enthuse about. His first ten rides all ended up on the floor, although he did at least manage one winner.
Under National Hunt rules his first six winning rides came courtesy of the mare Delbounty. The first of those was in an amateur riders’ selling hurdle at Market Rasen on October 17, 1975. Win number two came at Uttoxeter three weeks later. On both occasions the mare was trained by Roy Edwards, but it was during that season that Tony Brisbourne decided to once again take out a permit and Delbounty joined the string.
The Brisbourne team made a fine start to the following (1976/77) season with Delbounty rattling off a quick hat-trick of wins between October 15 and November 4, and coming within half a length of making it a four-timer at Worcester next time out. Mark was again in the saddle when she won on the last day of the season to complete a 16-race campaign in which she had scored four victories, finished second four times and yet refused to start on four occasions.
Much to Mark’s chagrin, she always chose to be at her most obstinate when the race was televised, most notably in the 1977 Imperial Cup when she dug her toes in and virtually refused to race. Then, as if to rub it in, when Mark had finally cajoled her to jump off, the reluctant heroine registered her indignity at the fifth flight by running out through the wing.
By the time Mark won on her at Uttoxeter in April 1979, he had joined the paid ranks. The decision to turn professional was not a hard one to make, for he was given little alternative. Having left Roy Edwards to become a freelance amateur, he was soon riding for many of the local trainers, such as the Salopian trio of Rodney Bower, Tony Andrews and Roy Whiston, along with Lancastrian Eric Cousins and Cheshire-based permit holder Rex Sutton. Small wonder that with so much backing he found himself in the running for the 1977/78 amateur riders’ championship, eventually finishing fifth behind George Sloan, Geordie Dun, Jim Wilson and Nicky Henderson. It wasn’t so much the eleven winners, it was the matter of the 115 rides which prompted the Jockey Club to regard him as not being an amateur in the truest sense of the word. The choice for the 1978/79 season was thus either to continue as an amateur with a restricted number of rides or to turn professional. Mark took the latter option.
He became stable jockey to Ray Peacock’s Tarporley stable, a position he was to hold for four seasons until deciding to go freelance in 1982. His first winner as a professional came on John Yardley’s Candlewick Green at Devon & Exeter on September 27, 1978, but the highlight of his season came six months later at Ludlow when he rode a 188/1 double, Space Song for Roy Whiston and Ray Peacock’s High Prospect, who was awarded the Forbra Gold Cup in the stewards’ room on the disqualification of the ironically-named Lucky Victory.
Mark lost his 4lb claim when winning on 12/1 shot Normandy Sign at Ludlow on February 28, 1980. Normandy Sign was one of several winners produced by the Brisbournes’ mare Ensign’s Last. Others included Ensign’s Kit, Royal Tycoon and Royal Norman.
Mark rated the Eric Alston-trained Orp Baltic as the best he rode. Mark partnered him on his first start over fences when he defied his outsider’s odds of 50/1 by finishing runner-up to the useful Gambir at Haydock. Mark then won on him at Stratford and was twice second at Catterick before taking on the big guns in the 1984 Arkle Chase, where, after leading to the fifth fence, Orp Baltic made a complete mess of the final ditch and gave Mark no chance of recovering. Orp Baltic subsequently joined Tony Brisbourne’s yard but met with an injury and did not race again.
Mark was fairly lucky with injuries throughout his career, the worst being a broken arm in August 1988 when his mount dumped him
on the gallops and kicked him about for good measure. But his worst moment in racing was the day at Cartmel on May 27, 1978. He was riding General Mite for Ray Peacock when a horse slipped up on the flat right in front of him. He couldn’t avoid the fallen jockey and Mark’s mount trampled all over him. The unlucky jockey was Michael Dickinson, who suffered a ruptured spleen and that ended his riding career.
On June 23, 1984, Mark married Pam, who held a conditional jockey’s licence and rode in NH Flat races. They had five children, three sons and two daughters. Their second son, Ben, rode as an amateur on the Flat and over jumps.
Mark kept painstakingly comprehensive records of his riding career: five rides on the Flat; 15 rides in point-to-points; 1,020 rides under NH rules; 58 winners and 268 places.
A big supporter of Shrewsbury Town Football Club, Mark inherited the trainer’s licence at Ness Strange Stables, Great Ness, following the death of his father. He sent out his first runner in August, 1991, at Thirsk. A year later, again at Thirsk, he made his first appearance in the winner's enclosure with Green Cassatt.
His best horses have included Adobe, winner of 17 races; Hannibal Lad, whose 13 victories included the Old Newton Cup and Ascot’s Bonusprint Handicap; and Octane, who won the Queen’s Prize at Kempton.
