National Hunt jockey Donald Bryan held a licence sporadically during the 1950s and also had one ride on the Flat in 1950. He rode a total of four winners, all in 1956 and all of them on a hurdler named Flaming East, trained by ‘Ricky’ Vallance at Malmesbury, in Wiltshire.
The first of those wins came in a Chepstow novices’ hurdle on March 10, 1956. Flaming East won easily, beating 20 rivals. They followed up in the Moderate Hurdle at Worcester nine days later, then won for a third time at Stratford on May 5. Those three wins came from a total of just nine mounts all season.
The combination won first time out the following season, scraping home by a short head in the Holly Handicap Hurdle on a foggy December afternoon at Birmingham. Donald rode him next time out when finishing fifth in January 1957 in the Low Level Handicap Hurdle (‘Low Level’ referring to the name of Wolverhampton’s railway line, not the class of horse), but he was then jocked off in favour of senior rider Peter Pickford for Flaming East’s next start, which saw him win the County Hurdle at Cheltenham’s National Hunt meeting.
Flaming East went on to even greater success by winning the 1958 Imperial Cup at Sandown Park, ridden by leading amateur John Lawrence (later Lord Oaksey), but there was no such future glory for Donald Bryan. He held a licence for one more season, 1959/60, but failed to ride another winner.
Donald Bryan’s winners were, in chronological order:
1. Flaming East, Chepstow, March 10, 1956
2. Flaming East, Worcester, March 19, 1956
3. Flaming East, Stratford-on-Avon, May 5, 1956
4. Flaming East, Birmingham, December 16, 1956
