1885-1915
Born in 1885, amateur rider Teddy Brooks rode a total of 46 winners under National Hunt rules before losing his life in World War One.
Thomas Edward Brooks, familiarly known as ‘Teddy’, was the youngest son of Thomas Brooks of Rothley Temple, Leicester. An old Cheltonian, he was a 2nd Lieutenant in the Leicester Yeomanry.
He lived at The Oaks, Queniborough Grange, Queniborough, Leicester, and was one of the best-known riders to hounds in the shires, in addition to being a successful performer under National Hunt Rules.
He may have made his debut when failing to finish on a six-year-old gelding of unknown parentage named Peacock II in the Hunters’ Open Chase at Maiden Erlegh on March 31, 1904. However, there is some uncertainty about this, as there was another ‘Mr Brooks’ riding at the same time. Given his location, his first ride is more likely to have been when finishing last of three runners on Tempest in the Farmers’ Chase at Melton Hunt on April 4, 1906.
There is no such doubt concerning his first winner. That was achieved with a three-quarter length victory on Argyll, the 10-1 outsider of four, in the Friary Selling Chase at Southwell on February 25, 1907.
Teddy went on to win six races that year, three of them on Blue Beard, beginning with a Market Rasen selling hurdle on Easter Monday. The other two came wins within a period of seven days in September: a selling hurdle at Shirley Park and a selling chase at Southwell, the latter being the second leg of a double initiated by Gay Paris in the Craven Selling Hurdle.
He enjoyed his most successful year in 1908 with 13 wins, placing him joint-sixth in that year’s amateur riders’ table. The main contributor was selling chaser Hallgate, on whom Teddy won at Haydock and Manchester in January, Haydock again in March, then Worcester and Hall Green in May.
In addition, he won three selling chases on Thermal: at Haydock in March, Shirley Park in September and Uttoxeter in October. He also won twice on Chips II: the Harrington Hunters’ Chase at Derby in March and the Midland Counties’ Red Coat Chase at the Midland Hunt meeting at Nottingham in May; and won twice on Pancake: a Private Sweepstakes Chase at Belvoir Hunt in March and a Uttoxeter National Hunt Flat Race in October.
It wasn’t all an unrelenting flow of success that year, however. Riding Hallgate in the Open Selling Steeplechase Plate at Melton Hunt on Wednesday, April 8, his chance evaporated at the first fence when a horse swerved in front of him, causing Hallgate to fall.
Teddy had a good record at the annual Quorn Hunt fixture, held in April. In 1910 he registered a double on Revelstoke in the Midland Hunt Chase and April Fool III in the Farmers’ Hurdle. He repeated the feat at the 1913 meeting, winning the Half-Bred Chase on Floddenfield and the Tally-Ho Hunters’ Chase on Jim IV.
He rode 11 winners that year, 1913, including a treble at Market Rasen on Easter Monday, March 24, when he won the Maiden Chase on Russian, the Town Chase on Jim IV, and the Town Hurdle on Ferule. In addition, he recorded a double at Melton Hunt on Floddenfield in the Farmers’ Chase and Tittle Tattle in the Ladies’ Purse Chase.
He rode what would prove to be his last winner on Yeaton in the Bryn-y-Pys Chase at Bangor-on-Dee on Friday, April 17, 1914. His final mount was when finishing second on Flying Storm in the Tally-Ho Hurdle at Wetherby on Whit Monday, June 1, 1914.
By then, war with Germany was just a matter of weeks away. Sadly, Teddy Brooks was killed in action on May 13, 1915. He was 29.
He left real and personal estate of £112,396. Probate was granted to Adele Brooks, his widow.
