Amateur rider Anthony John (Tony) Brookshaw was born on February 24, 1934, the youngest of four children of Stanley and Mabel Brookshaw. His elder brothers Thomas Peter (known as Peter) and Stanley James (Tim) Brookshaw were both top-class riders, Peter as an amateur, Tim as a professional champion jockey with more than 550 winners to his name.
As a child, Tony was the most academic of the three brothers and attended Newport Grammar School. While Peter and Tim focused on gymkhanas, Tony preferred show ponies and enjoyed conspicuous success on a horse named Friar’s Balsam, which his father had bought for £1 as a foal.
Tony rode successfully in point-to-points from an early age. One of his earliest rides under National Hunt rules was when completing the course in the 1958 Liverpool Foxhunters’ Chase on Blue Heather.
The best horse he rode was Holly Bank, owned by his father, who had paid £400 for him and hunted him for a season with Sir Watkin Williams Wynn’s hounds. Holly Bank then won five prizes in the show ring before being put into training with Fred Rimell.
Tony’s two brothers won four races apiece on him. He’d provided both of them with big race victories at Cheltenham, winning the National Hunt Handicap Chase with Peter on board and the Golden Miller Chase when partnered by Tim. He’d also carried Peter safely round in the 1958 Grand National. Tony became Holly Bank’s regular partner in the latter part of the horse’s career and went on to win six races on him.
Holly Bank gave Tony his first winner under National Hunt rules when landing the Foregate Chase at Worcester on October 18, 1958. He won on him again at the same venue six weeks later. Later that season he won a pair of hunter chases on Brockton, owned and trained by his father.
Tony and Holly Bank won three of their first four races during the first half of the 1959/60 campaign. Tony would have ridden him in the 1960 Grand National but suffered a broken leg when kicked by a horse at the start at Warwick two months earlier.
They recorded their last victory together in the Sedgley Handicap Chase at Wolverhampton on December 27, 1960, just four days before Holly Bank turned fourteen. Their final appearance was when finishing unplaced at Bangor on April 29, 1961.
Tony pretty much restricted himself to riding in point-to-points from thereon, focussing his attentions on the farm he and his wife Della ran near Bangor-on-Dee. One of his last winners was Cotton On in the High Peak Men’s Open in 1968.
What had started out as a sheep and dairy farm has developed over time to become one of the country’s largest caravan parks – and much more besides. The Plassey, as it known, is now a luxury holiday park and independent retail village comprising a craft and retail centre with more than 20 shops and a pub-restaurant. In addition, there’s a children’s playground, an indoor heated pool, three fishing ponds, a games room for table tennis and badminton, plus a nine-hole golf course.
In 2004 The Plassey was voted Overall Best Campsite of the Year, beating more than 1,000 parks across Britain. Tony and Della’s son John now runs the business.
Tony Brookshaw died on Friday 7 January 2022, aged 87.
Tony Brookshaw’s winners under National Hunt rules were, in chronological order:
1. Holly Bank, Worcester, October 18, 1958
2. Holly Bank, Worcester, December 6, 1958
3. Brockton, Warwick, February 14, 1959
4. Brocton, Bangor-on-Dee, April 4, 1959
5. Holly Bank, Uttoxeter, November 19, 1959
6. Holly Bank, Worcester, December 5, 1959
7. Holly Bank, Uttoxeter, December 19, 1959
8. Holly Bank, Wolverhampton, December 27, 1960
