Frank Barter had one major success when winning the 1905 Welsh Grand National on 6-4 favourite Glenrocky. His first victory had come at Kempton Park some five years earlier when Wolf’s Hope narrowly beat the strangely-named Jo So in the Maiden Hurdle. Although he then had three more victories in quick succession in September on handicap hurdler Meschina and one at Portsmouth Park in November, wins thereafter were not that frequent, and five in a year, achieved in 1900 and 1902 were career-bests. Indeed, prior to his Welsh Grand National successive had endured a two-year winnerless run.
The 1905 Welsh Grand National, held at Cardiff on April 25, was the first for four years. Cardiff’s racecourse secretary, Lewis Gottwaltz, frustrated by falling attendances, has resigned from his post in 1902, claiming that the people of South Wales did not have the love of horse racing that was found in other parts of Britain. That was probably the reason why there were no Welsh Grand Nationals between 1902 and 1904, but then Messrs Pratt & Co. took over the running of the course and quickly turned its fortunes around.
Hence, after an absence of three years Welsh Grand National was revived and took place on the Easter Tuesday instead of its former Easter Monday slot. It was reduced to an optional selling race in which each of the horses was open to be claimed or sold at auction for a minimum of £50.
Six runners started. Most Excellent made the early running from Glenrocky, Slipthrift, Crautacaun and Creolin, with Sanguinetti last. After two miles, Most Excellent dropped to the rear and was soon pulled up, then Crautacaun took a narrow lead from Glenrocky, only to fall soon after. Glenrocky, Slipthrift and Creolin now had the race between them, but Slipthrift fell in the closing stages when holding every chance, leaving Glenrock to win by two lengths from Creolin, ridden by top amateur rider Owen Anthony, with Sanguinetti a distant third. Crautacaun was remounted to finish last of the four to get round. The winner, trained by W. R. Baker, at Weyhill, was bought in for 220 guineas.
The Welsh Grand National was not the only big race in which Frank rode. On March 31, 1905 he partnered Miss Clifden II in the Grand National itself. Winner of the prestigious National Hunt Chase earlier that month when ridden by Mr Harry ‘Snip’ Ripley, this was Miss Clifden II’s second attempt at the Grand National, having finished tenth on 1903. This time, however, she fell.
Frank had just one more win that year, when Canonesse II beat three rivals to land the Borough Selling Chase by eight lengths at Cheltenham in October. He and Glenrocky returned to Cardiff on April 17, 1906 to bid for a repeat success in the Welsh Grand National but they failed to finish on that occasion, victory going to leading amateur Arthur Wood on Shoeblack.
Frank did not renew his licence in 1907, but his career was not over, for on November 12, 1920 he rode his first winner for 15 years when Jolly Roger won the Shottesbrook Novices’ Hurdle at Hawthorn Hill. There was to be just one more victory when D’Ye Ken beat two rivals in the Novices’ Hurdle at Wye on September 29, 1921.
Frank Barter’s winners were, in chronological order:
1. Wolf’s Hope, Kempton Park, March 9, 1900
2. Meschina, Plymouth, September 5, 1900
3. Meschina, Plymouth, September 6, 1900
4. Meschina, Totnes, September 13, 1900
5. Ten Belle, Portsmouth Park, November 14, 1900
6. Baldock, Cardiff, November 9, 1901
7. Sanctissima II, Hawthorn Hill, November 9, 1901
8. Baldock, Newport, November 15, 1901
10. St Clears, Carmarthen, January 20, 1902
11. Fossicker, Cardiff, April 1, 1902
12. St Clears, Cowbridge (Glamorgan Hunt), April 4, 1902
13. Caler, Cardiff, May 19, 1902
14. Felstead, Cardiff, November 5, 1902
15. Fossicker, Warwick, February 26, 1903
16. Felstead, Monmouth, March 18, 1903
17. Young Torpedo, Cardiff, April 13, 1903
18. Glenrocky, Cardiff, April 24, 1905
19. Canonesse II, Cheltenham, October 5, 1905
20. Jolly Roger, Hawthorn Hill, November 12, 1920
21. D’Ye Ken, Wye, September 29, 1921
