John Browne

John Browne

Article by Alan Trout

John Browne rode for four seasons in Britain, enjoying by far his most successful campaign in 1929/30 with 15 winners, including an Easter Monday double at Huntingdon. He twice completed the course on the grey Glangesia in the Grand National, leading for much of the way before finishing fourth in 1930.  

His sole success of the 1928/29 season was gained in its final week, when winning the Fontwell Cup Handicap Chase on Whit Monday, May 20, with only a short-head separating his mount, Non Plus, from Paris Flight, ridden by Tim Vinall. It was the seven-year-old’s fourth win of the season but the first time John had ridden him. Non Plus was trained by Alec Law at Michel Grove, in Sussex, who was to provide John with the majority of his winners.

His first win of the 1929/30 season came in the Seabrook Selling Hurdle at Folkestone on September 9, but it was gained in the stewards’ room after his mount, Pine Bluff, had dead-heated for second place with Lamintone. Fitaurari, ridden by David Dick, finished first past the post, by a head, but John objected to the winner on the grounds of ‘boring’. The objection was sustained and Pine Bluff and Lamintone were both promoted to joint-winners. Ironically, his next winner, Letcombe Lassie in Fontwell’s Storrington Selling Hurdle the following month, had to survive an objection from the runner-up for ‘’bumping and boring’.  

He made a perfect start to 1930 by winning the three-mile Plumpton Chase on Alec Law’s ten-year-old grey gelding Glangesia. They won again at Lingfield Park in March. Glangesia’s owner, Mr R. K. Mellon, had hunted him in Pennsylvania, where he was Master of the Rolling Rock Foxhounds, prior to sending him to race in England. 

John rode him in the 1930 Grand National and was always prominent, jumping Becher’s alongside fellow grey Gate Brook – the only time in Grand National history that two greys had led the field over Becher’s. Whereas Gate Brook fell at the fence after Valentine’s, Glangesia led the field back onto the racecourse, over the water jump and out into the country for the second time. Glangesia was still in front jumping Valentine’s but steadily faded from three out and eventually finished fourth behind Shaun Goilin, Melleray’s Belle and Sir Lindsay, who were separated by just a neck and a length and a half.

Although John did not ride any winners the following season, he and Glangesia did finish second at Plumpton’s 1931 New Year meeting and he was entrusted with the ride on the 11-year-old in that year’s Grand National. Though not as prominent as the year before, and lying midfield at halfway, Glangesia plugged on to finish seventh of the twelve finishers behind Grakle.  

John’s final winner was Morpheus, who won the Garrick Selling Handicap Chase at Hurst Park on March 5, 1932. Amateur rider Mr J. Ryan was given the ride on Glangesia in that year’s Grand National, but it was not a case of third time lucky, as they fell at the third fence. 

On Easter Monday, March 28, 1932, John rode a horse named Michaelmas Day in the two-mile Cambridgeshire Chase at Huntingdon. All seven runners fell and, remarkably, none was remounted, resulting in the race being declared void. 

The following month, Monday, May 9, John Browne journeyed to Wye for two rides. The first, Makbar, pulled up; the second, Lady Bickley, fell in the Ashford Selling Handicap Chase. He did not hold a licence for the 1932/33 season.  

John Browne’s winners were, in chronological order:

1. Non Plus, Fontwell Park, May 20, 1929 

2. Pine Bluff, Folkestone, September 9, 1929 (dead-heat) 

3. Letcombe Lassie, Fontwell Park, October 9, 1929 

4. Glangesia, Plumpton, January 1, 1930 

5. Redshank, Hurst Park, January 11, 1930

6. Brewster, Plumpton, February 1, 1930

7. Redshank, Gatwick, February 6, 1930

8. Glangesia, Lingfield Park, March 8, 1930

9. Pine Bluff, Fontwell Park, April 10, 1930

10. Dunshaughlin, Huntingdon, April 21, 1930 

11. Magic Bard, Huntingdon, April 21, 1930 

12. Black Sheep, Wye, May 8, 1930 

13. Magic Bard, Folkestone, May 15, 1930

14. Magic Bard, Uttoxeter, May 26, 1930

15. Black Sheep, Uttoxeter, May 27, 1930

16. Red Abbot, Cardiff, June 9, 1930

17. Morpheus, Hurst Park, March 5, 1932