Tommy Burn

Article by Chris Pitt

Many Australian jockeys forsook their native land between the 1930s and 1960s to ply their trade in England. One of the most popular was Tommy Burn, albeit during a comparatively brief five-year stay.

Thomas Frederick Anthony Burn was born in Melbourne on January 26, 1905, and in due course became apprenticed to his father. When only twelve years old he was given his first ride in public on a horse called Ipoh at Flemington, and Tommy entered the winner’s enclosure at his first attempt.

In 1923 he went to India where he rode with considerable success between the wars, winning every big race with the exception of the King’s Cup and Viceroy’s Cup. Tommy’s great friend in India was Edgar Britt and in 1946 he decided to have a holiday in England and visit his pal, who had already settled over here and was achieving a high level of success riding as first jockey to Sam Armstrong’s stable. Tommy mentioned that he would like to have a few rides during his visit, and it was Armstrong who gave him his introduction.

At Hamilton Park on July 12, 1946, he rode his first winners in Britain. He had a walkover on Sir Oliver Goonetilleke’s Bahadur Shah in the first race and later that afternoon won on the sprinter Valbridge. When, at the end of the year, he was invited to become first jockey to the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk he readily accepted the offer and he and his wife decided to settle in England.

In his first season with the Arundel stable of W. A. (Bill) Smyth he met with a serious accident at the Brighton August meeting. As he was cantering down to the start on Royal Ransom the horse collided with the rails and Tommy’s knee was badly smashed. He had to have a kneecap removed and for some time it looked as though he might never be able to ride again. Although he was out of action for several months, he made a full recovery and soon showed that his ability as a jockey had not been affected in any way.

He described Smyth’s filly Baccarat as “the best sprinter I have ever ridden.” Having won on her at Brighton as a two-year-old in August 1948, the following year she won the Queen Elizabeth Handicap at Kempton and the Empire Handicap at Newbury, both over five furlongs.

He also had great affection for Baturo, who had originally been trained in France. Although slow to come to hand, in Baturo’s first race of 1948 at Epsom he made up a tremendous amount of ground to finish fourth in a mile-and-a-half handicap. On his next outing, at Bath, he came flying on the wide outside won by a comfortable three lengths, having been last of the thirteen runners turning into the short straight. He then won by four lengths on his next outing, at Brighton. Over the course of three seasons, Tommy won eleven races on Baturo.

Tommy’s most successful season was in 1949 when he rode 49 winners. They included a Royal Ascot success on the Duke of Norfolk’s Burpham in the Britannia Stakes. Other major victories in the Duke’s colours were achieved in Ascot’s Princess Elizabeth Stakes on the juvenile filly Curia and the Brighton Autumn Cup on Dale’s Dawn, while the Duchess’s silks were carried to victory by a pair of useful two-year-olds in Garrick, who won Newbury’s Berkshire Stakes, and Suivi, whose four wins in a row included Epsom’s Lonsdale Produce Stakes on Derby day. Other important successes came in Doncaster’s Great Yorkshire Handicap on the Maharaja of Baroda’s Mighty Maharatta, Goodwood’s New Ham Stakes on Zodiac, Kempton’s Derby Memorial Stakes on Pretence, Newmarket’s Great Eastern Handicap on Combined Operations, and he rode his one hundredth winner in Britain when High Forest won the Autumn Breeders’ Stakes at Warwick in October 1949.

He rode two Royal Ascot winners in 1950, these being the Queen Anne Stakes on Garrick and the King Edward VII Stakes on the George Duller-trained Babu’s Pet, who he also rode in that year’s Derby. In addition, the diminutive Lynch Law proved himself a smart early-season two-year-old in 1950, registering wins at Newbury in March, Kempton in April and Lingfield in May.

In 1951 Tommy rode principally for the Maharaja of Baroda, whose horses were then being trained by Sam Armstrong at Newmarket, thus bringing the wheel full circle. Three of his four winners that year were in the Maharajah colours, including his final British victory on Meski in the Burgh Plate at Carlisle on July 6. He relinquished his licence in September of that year.

Tommy Burn died in Melbourne in 1968 aged 63.

Biggest wins

1947: Chester Cup – Asmodee II

1948: Diadem Stakes – Combined Operations 

1949: Queen Elizabeth Handicap – Baccarat 

1949: Britannia Stakes – Burpham 

1949: Princess Elizabeth Stakes – Curia

1949: New Ham Stakes – Zodiac 

1949: Great Yorkshire Handicap – Might Maharatta  

1949: Great Eastern Handicap – Combined Operations 

1949: Brighton Autumn Cup – Dale’s Dawn 

1950: Queen Anne Stakes – Garrick 

1950: King Edward VII Stakes – Babu’s Pet