Bruce Carr

Article by Chris Pitt

Seventeen-year-old Bruce Robert Carr was seriously injured in a Boxing Day fall at Market Rasen in 1960, yet he made a remarkable recovery and went on to ride successfully thereafter.

Bruce Robert Carr was born on February 12, 1943, the son of Hambleton trainer Joe Carr. Christened Ernest Joseph Carr but always known as Joe, Bruce’s father had been a successful National Hunt jockey in his day until losing a leg following a fall from a horse named Ballyfox at Ludlow on May 23, 1940.

Young Bruce was apprenticed to his father and rode his first winner when aged just 13 on The Mad Marquis in a one-mile race at Bogside on Saturday, April 21, 1956. That was his only winner on the Flat for he was always going to follow in Joe’s footsteps and ride over jumps.

He achieved his first success in that sphere on his father’s Thinice when landing the Spencer-Draper Challenge Cup Chase on Market Rasen’s 1958 Boxing Day card. Next time out they won another feature race, Catterick’s Grand National Trial Chase. Bruce rode two more winners that season, selling hurdlers Roselime at Wetherby on Easter Monday and Xantholin at Market Rasen in May.

He rode five winners during the 1959/60 season, including two for Arthur Stephenson, but the highlight was when riding Saucy Model to score for Northallerton permit holder Bobby Dick in Doncaster’s valuable Princess Royal Handicap Hurdle. He was still only 16 at the time and a successful future looked assured.

He’d got three winners under his belt for the next season by Boxing Day 1960 when journeying to Market Rasen, where he won the opening Much Obliged Selling Hurdle on Walter Wharton’s Billy Bunter. He then finished fifth on Thinice in the Spencer-Draper Challenge Cup. His third ride of the day was a horse named Who You in the Limber Hill Novices’ Chase. Who You fell and Bruce suffered internal injuries. He spent weeks in Lincoln Hospital undergoing a grim battle for life and for a time it seemed doubtful that he would recover. Yet incredibly he was back in the saddle by May, winning on Harry Blackshaw’s chaser Aleka at Sedgefield.

The year of 1962 started well with a brace of wins on Jack Calvert’s novice hurdler Vandoulay on consecutive Saturdays in January, but the following Saturday, February 4, he broke his pelvis when his mount, 5/2 favourite Golden Flush, slipped up at Sedgefield.

It was more than a year before Bruce was back in the winner’s enclosure, riding a winner on both days of Wetherby’s 1963 Easter fixture. The second of those, Joe Carr’s novice hurdler Salmon King, won again over course and distance in May. Juvenile hurdler Vintage provided two of Bruce’s three victories in 1963/64, the other being achieved on the Jack Fawcus-trained Royal Coin at Carlisle on Easter Monday.

On New Year’s Day 1965, 21-year-old Bruce lost his claim when riding his 25th winner on Jack Calvert’s Queen’s Tree in division one of the Mother Goose Novices’ Hurdle at Catterick. It was to be his last. His final ride in public was when being unseated from Sultans Turret at Ayr on March 15. Twelve days later he suffered serious injuries in a car accident when returning from the Grand National meeting. He was unconscious for three weeks and underwent an operation on his brain.

The severity of the injury necessitated his retirement from the saddle. Just how much long-term damage was done is impossible to say but it may have had some bearing on his decision to take his own life on March 24, 1969, at the tragically young age of 26.

Bruce Carr rode a total of 25 winners. These were, in chronological order:

1. The Mad Marquis Bogside, April 21, 1956

2. Thinice, Market Rasen, December 26, 1958

3. Thinice, Catterick Bridge, February 21, 1959

4. Roselime, Wetherby, March 30, 1959

5. Xantholin, Market Rasen, May 9, 1959

6. So Long Boy, Market Rasen, October 17, 1959

7. Saucy Model, Manchester, December 4, 1959

8. Wirswall Major, Newcastle, December 12, 1959

9. Saucy Model, Doncaster, February 5, 1960

10. Sandy Slipper, Doncaster, March 14, 1960

11. Black Flash, Sedgefield, November 26, 1960

12. Stormy City, Catterick Bridge, December 3, 1960

13. Black Flash, Newcastle, December 10, 1960

14. Billy Bunter, Market Rasen, December 26, 1960

15. Aleka, Sedgefield, May 6, 1961

16. Mountain King, Market Rasen, November 20, 1961

17. Vandoulay, Catterick Bridge, January 20, 1962

18. Vandoulay, Market Rasen, January 27, 1962

19. Last Waltz, Wetherby, April 15, 1963

20. Salmon King, Wetherby, April 16, 1963

21. Salmon King, Wetherby, May 8, 1963

22. Vintage, Liverpool, November 1, 1963

23. Vintage, Sedgefield, February 1, 1964

24. Royal Coin, Carlisle, March 30, 1964

25. Queen’s Tree, Catterick Bridge, January 1, 1965