Born in 1950, northern National Hunt jockey David Derek Brown enjoyed one highly successful season as an amateur rider before embarking on a brief professional career.
He rode his first winner on the Peter Chesmore-trained novice chaser Winterguide at Sedgefield on June 3, 1969.
His early progress was slow. Having ridden one winner in each of his first three seasons and five the next, David went into the 1972/73 campaign with a 7lb claim and just eight wins under his belt. However, riding as stable amateur for the mighty Bishop Auckland stable of Arthur Stephenson, he easily eclipsed his previous scores by registering a total of 30 wins from 131 mounts. Stephenson was responsible for almost all of them.
One of the first was Master Hero in the William Hill Handicap Hurdle at Teesside Park on October 28. They followed up in an amateur riders’ handicap hurdle at Doncaster on November 4. David then won the Boston Spa Handicap Chase at Wetherby on November 17 aboard Industrious Jack. Eight days later he was reunited with Master Hero to land the Ladbrokes-sponsored Billy Bow Handicap Hurdle at Newcastle. He recorded a Boxing Day double at Sedgefield, initiated by Gorawood in the two-mile Rent Roll Cup Handicap Chase.
In January he won on Master Hero again, this time over fences in a Catterick novice chase, then followed up on Gorawood over course and distance at Sedgefield. He won novice hurdles on Sunshine Sam at Sedgefield and Carlisle that month. He also won three handicap chases on Scout, losing his 3lb allowance in the process in the last of them at Doncaster on January 27.
The lack of a claim did not hinder David’s progress. On the second day of February he rode Master Hero to a second novice chase victory, this time at Ayr. The following day he won the William Hill Handicap Chase at Wetherby on Arthur Stephenson’s popular stalwart Supermaster, then an hour later made it a double by winning the hunter chase on Rainborough. He rode a winner on both days of Teesside Park’s February fixture, landing a novice hurdle on The Gent on the first day and a selling hurdle on Hassendean Burn on day two.
The second day of March bought further success on top hunter chaser Credit Call, standing in for the horse’s injured owner-rider Chris Collins. He won a pair of amateur riders’ novice hurdles that month, on Marshal Dandy at Ayr and on Raise You Again at Hexham. Back at Teesside Park on March 30, he won both divisions of the amateur riders’ maiden hurdle on Woodside and Soutra, the latter a rare ‘outside’ winner trained by Jumbo Wilkinson.
The flow of winners began to dry up from thereon and it was the last day of April before he gained his sole success of that month on Fighting Chance in the Colonel John McKie Memorial Challenge Cup Amateur Riders’ Handicap Hurdle. Coxswain gave David his 30th and last winner of the season when landing a Newcastle handicap chase in early May.
Had it not been for the prolific Richard Smith, who rode 56 winners that season, David would have been the leading amateur rider for the 1972/73 campaign.
He turned professional the following season but it was always going to be tough competing for rides with Tommy Stack ensconced as Stephenson’s first jockey and Robert Thompson as second choice,plus a couple of promising conditionals and the stable’s useful amateur rider David Greaves.
And so it proved, with David’s winning tally dropping to just eight wins from 56 mounts for that 1973/74 campaign. He rode Gorawood to a repeat win in the Rent Roll Cup at Sedgefield on Boxing Day, the pair then followed up with victory in the William Hill Handicap Chase at Catterick in January.
Later in the season, David won a pair of hurdle races on Fare Up, at Carlisle in April and Newcastle in May. His eighth and final winner of the campaign came on Arthur Stephenson’s handicap chaser Kirtlehead at Hexham on Whit Monday, May 27, 1974.
David subsequently went freelance and continued for a couple of seasons but without ever recapturing the halcyon days of his amateur rider seasons with Arthur Stephenson.
