Claude Berry

1938 - 2019

A farmer in the Scottish Borders, as well as a chartered surveyor and land agent, Claude Berry was also a successful amateur rider with nine wins to his name in the mid-1960s.

Claude de Pomeroy Berry was born on August 15, 1938. His father, Devonian Paul Berry, was a British army officer. His mother, Violet Lysaght, grew up Doneraile in County Cork on her family’s farm, Kilmacoom. She hunted with the Duhallow and by all accounts was an accomplished rider, competing in point-to-points at a time when few women did so.

When the Irish Free State was formed, there was an understanding that the British army would still have two bases in the country, one of which was on Spike Island, just off the coast of Cork. Paul Berry was stationed on Spike Island, and started hunting regularly with the Duhallow. That’s how and where he met Violet.

They duly married and moved to South Devon, Paul’s home county. Just over a year after Claude was born, German troops marched into Poland, and Paul Berry went off to war. Violet moved back to Kilmacoom with her son for the duration of hostilities. There Claude was given a pony called Paddy, who returned to Devon with them after the war when they were reunited with Paul. Soon after, however, the marriage broke down and Paul and Violet were divorced.

Violet and Claude moved to live at Thorn, a small hamlet on the outskirts of Chagford on the road out to Dartmoor. Seeking a field for Paddy to live in, Violet found a nearby farm at East Coombe, owned by a bachelor farmer named Maurice Hill. One thing led to another and, before long, Maurice and Violet were married.

As he grew, Claude was ready for a bigger horse, and he was developing a keen interest in racing. Luckily, just outside Chagford was the yard of Bert Piper who combined training while still holding a National Hunt jockey’s licence. Claude started riding out there during school holidays, which further fired his enthusiasm for the sport. He then had his own horse, Vain Wax, who got him started in point-to-points.

On leaving school, he followed in his father’s footsteps by joining the army. Having passed out top at Sandhurst, being awarded the Sword of Honour, he seemed set for a distinguished military career when he was commissioned into the 16th/5th Lancers. Claude was posted out to Germany, and there he met Caroline Robinson, who would become his wife. That would have been fine, except for the fact that she was married to one of his superior officers at the time.

To cut a long story short, Mrs Robinson left Captain Robinson, which meant that Second Lieutenant Berry’s chances of ever becoming General Berry were utterly destroyed. Claude and Caroline married as soon as they were able.

Seeing no future for himself in the army, Claude opted for farming. He had learned a lot from his stepfather, Maurice Hill, but went on a course at Cirencester to improve his knowledge. He and Caroline then moved up to Dumfriesshire (from where Caroline’s family hailed) and settled at a farm, Firth, near Hawick in the Scottish Borders. There they farmed, had horses and hunted.

Claude then took out an amateur rider’s licence and also took out a permit, training the horses at home. If Paddy and Vain Wax were the first two really influential horses in his life, Majestic Prince was the next. On October 6, 1962, Majestic Prince, owned by Mrs Caroline Berry, trained by Claude Berry, ridden by Mr Claude Berry, gave them their first taste of success under National Hunt rules when winning the Thirlmere Amateur Riders’ Handicap Chase at Carlisle.

Claude and Majestic Prince combined to win two more amateur riders’ chases the next season, firstly at Hexham in September, followed by a repeat victory in the Thirlmere Chase at Carlisle in October.

He rode in three races on the final day's racing at Rothbury on April 10, 1965, including the last, finishing second in all three. He rode four winners from 35 rides during that 1964/65 campaign, beginning with Shear Drop, owned and trained by local permit holder William Murray, in the Border Counties Hunts Challenge Cup Amateur Riders’ Hurdle at Carlisle on Easter Monday. He then rode his own horse Cingle to dead-heat with George Milburn’s mount Sultans Turret in a Perth novices’ hurdle; landed Kelso’s Buccleuch Cup Hunters' Chase on Persian Steel; and finished alone in a match for the three-mile Dotland Handicap Chase at Hexham on Saxine at Hexham on Whit Monday.

His sole success from 33 rides in 1965/66 was a repeat victory on Shear Drop in the Border Counties Hunts Challenge Cup. A postscript to those wins was that Shear Drop subsequently came into Claude’s ownership when she finished racing and he sent her to a stallion who stood in the Borders called New Brig, breeding a mare called Talahache Bridge who won four point-to-points and a Fontwell hunter chase.

Claude rode the last of his nine winners under NH rules on novice hurdler The Holt in division one of the Yarridge Novices' Hurdle at Hexham on August 15, 1967. A dislocated hip suffered in a fall at Sedgefield ended his riding career and was the source of hip problems which would plague him for the rest of his life. He had to stop riding – and that meant stopping training the horses at home too. It also curtailed the physical side of the farming.

Disappointed but undaunted, he and Caroline sent their horses to Gordon W. Richards. Claude qualified as a chartered surveyor, driving into Selkirk every day to work for John Sale & Partners.

He and Caroline then started breeding horses. He bought a mare at the December Sale in 1974 called Little Miss for 2,000 guineas. He sent her twice to be covered by Averof, and both the resultant foals won. Then she went to Quiet Fling and the foal was Old Country, who proved to be the best horse Claude ever bred. Old Country became a rare Scottish-bred Classic winner when taking the Italian Derby in 1982; and then won two more Group One races in subsequent years, the Prix Royal-Oak, always regarded as the French St Leger, and the Premio Roma.

Having officiated as a steward at Kelso and Carlisle (National Hunt only), Claude was invited to steward on the Flat at Hamilton. He owned a Flat horse in partnership with his friend Nigel Angus, a tough sprint handicapper called Messenger Boy who won several races for them in the mid-1970s.

Claude became the Scottish representative on the TBA Council and also wrote a weekly racing column in the Southern Reporter, under the nom de plume of Bunbury.

At home, however, Claude and Caroline’s marriage was breaking up. In 1978 he moved away and went to live in London, where he started work at the Tryon Gallery, of which he would later become a director. He wrote his first book, ‘The Racehorse in Twentieth Century Art’, long regarded as a standard work on the subject. He served on the committee of the British Sporting Art Trust, and his papers on Lionel Edwards and Peter Biegel are considered authoritative texts on the artists.

He also acted as land agent for trainer Peter Bailey, who had moved to the family estate at Wilsford-cum-Lake, near Amesbury, Wiltshire. The arrangement continued for many years, only ending when the regular drives to and from Lake in a day became too much for him.

While he enjoyed living in London, he was missing the country and was keen to get away at weekends. He found the ideal retreat in Mill Farm, between Crediton and Tiverton. Shortly afterwards, he married Meg, who he had first met in London. She grew to love Devon and spent most of the week working remotely there while Claude came down at weekends. Tragically, Meg was diagnosed with cancer from which she eventually died, aged only 43. Claude had retired early from the Tryon in order to be with her during her illness.

He owned and bred a horse named Play The Knave, who won ten times for him over hurdles and fences during the 1980s when trained by Peter Bailey. He was able to start riding again thanks to successful hip replacement operations and hunted the now-retired Play The Knave with the Exmoor Staghounds and the Tiverton Foxhounds, of which he eventually became Hunt Chairman. He also began stewarding again at Exeter and Taunton and occasionally at Newton Abbot.

Claude carried on stewarding until being forced to stand down, having reached the compulsorily retirement age of 70. He wrote a second book, ‘The History of Exeter Racecourse’, and continued to derive pleasure from point-to-pointing and owning horses under rules.

On the last Tuesday in February 2019, during an unseasonably warm spell of sunny weather, he met some friends for lunch, came home, went for a walk, sat in the warm sunshine in the conservatory of his beloved Mill Farm as the sun went down, lay down on his bed at the end of a perfect day – and never woke up.

Claude de Pomeroy Berry died on February 27, 2019, aged 80. His son, Newmarket trainer John Berry, delivered the eulogy at Silverton Church.

Claude Berry’s winners were, in chronological order:

1. Majestic Prince, Carlisle, 6 October 1962

2. Majestic Prince, Hexham, 30 September 1963

3. Majestic Prince, Carlisle, 5 October 1963

4. Shear Drop, Carlisle, 19 April 1965

5. Cingle, Perth, 29 April 1965 (dead-heat)

6. Persian Steel, Kelso, 5 May 1965

7. Saxine, Hexham, 7 June 1965

8. Shear Drop, Carlisle, 11 April 1966

9. The Holt, Hexham, 15 April 1967

Grateful thanks to John Berry for providing much of the information for this article.