Tony Broughan

Tony Broughan

Article by Alan Trout

John Anthony Broughan, known as Tony, rode six winners over jumps in the first half of the 1980s.

It appears that his first ride in public was a winning one, for at Wolverhampton on March 23, 1981, 11-year-old Brandy Fare was a comfortable winner of the Dudley Opportunity Handicap Chase, beating Bullet Master by 12 lengths, having taken the lead at the eighth fence. 

Tony had his second winner that season when Fair Brutus landed the West of England Opportunity Selling Handicap Hurdle at Newton Abbot on May 21, the winning margin on that occasion being eight lengths.

Despite that promising start it was nearly two years before Tony won another race. This time it was on the 13-year-old Hilly Way, who beat three others to take the Louth Handicap Chase at Market Rasen on May 7, 1983. It was not until after the final fence that the veteran was able to overhaul Royal Don and win by a length and a half. A former top-class two-mile chaser, more than four years had elapsed since Hilly Way had won the Two Mile Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival under Ted Walsh. 

The gap between Tony’s third and fourth successes was rather shorter, for at Carlisle on December 21, 1983 he partnered Full Measure to a six-length victory in the Derwentwater Handicap Hurdle. The seven-year-old was trained by former jump jockey David Moorhead and had finished fourth with Tony aboard on his only previous start that season.  

There was another easy win at Market Rasen on Boxing Day when Tony brought Royal Radar home ten lengths clear of Londolozi at the end of the Kernel Handicap Chase. The seven-year-old led all the way, his task being made simpler when closest challenger Loch Ryan House fell at the last. 

Tony had his sixth and final win at Ayr nine days later when Full Measure proved too good for Secret Finale at the end of the Stair Handicap Hurdle, scoring by three-quarters of a length. He had his final ride just a few weeks later when unseated from Conn The Cobbler in the Hollybush Novices’ Chase at Ayr on March 12, 1984. 

Tony Broughan’s winners were, in chronological order:

1. Brandy Fare, Wolverhampton, March 23, 1981

2. Fair Brutus, Newton Abbot, May 21, 1981

3. Hilly Way, Market Rasen, May 7, 1983

4. Full Measure, Carlisle, December 21, 1983

5. Royal Radar, Market Rasen, December 26, 1983

6. Full Measure, Ayr, January 4, 1984