Twenty-nine-year-old Harold Hanbury's tale begins on 30 October 1883, at the then-popular "Hay & Corn" meetings, which always drew large fields. At Brighton, Benedict opened the proceedings by winning the Selling Hurdle Race, after which Mr Hanbury bought him in for 110 guineas. The following day, the horse was sent on to nearby Lewes to contest a two-mile flat race, the Southdown Club Welter Handicap (Thursday, 1 November 1883), with Mr Hanbury himself in the saddle.
At the top of the hill, Benedict stumbled and threw its rider. Labourer James Moore, of Spring Gardens, St John's, Lewes, witnessed the accident and later recalled:
"Mr Hanbury rode one of the horses in a two-mile race in which ten or eleven started. They seemed huddled together when they came past me. When they were about 27 yards from me, I noticed that the deceased's horse shifted about a bit, and then fell on its knees. It shifted deceased off his saddle, and he hung on the side with both hands on the near rein. He fell from the horse, about a yard, to the ground. He alighted on his buttocks and then seemed to bounce on to his head, neck and shoulders. No horse hit him; he was quite clear of the horses."
Spectators quickly realised the fall was more than ordinarily serious, as the unfortunate jockey lay prone where he had fallen, blood oozing from both nose and mouth. A rude kind of stretcher was improvised, and Mr Hanbury — insensible — was carried to the home of Captain Morley, some three-quarters of a mile away, suffering, as one paper put it, from "slight concussion of the brain." A friend later told the press that Mr Hanbury was near death.
News of his death was announced on Saturday, 3 November, though this report proved premature. He lingered on, never regaining consciousness from the moment of the accident, and finally died on the Saturday afternoon at half past one, at Captain Morley's home, surrounded by his entire family. An inquest held in Lewes on Monday, 12 November, returned a verdict of "Accidental death."
Harold Charles Hanbury was the eldest son of Mr Charles Hanbury of Belmont, Herts, a member of the well-known brewing firm Truman, Hanbury and Co. He had joined the Carabineers in 1876, though — contrary to what most papers of the time reported — he did not hold the rank of captain. A highly successful amateur rider, he was associated with Mr Arthur Yates' stable and had already ridden fourteen winners that season, his last being Rappel (5-2) at Worcester on Friday, 26 October. He lived at Bishop's Sutton, Alresford, Hants.
Harold's cousin, who bore the same name, had been killed some years earlier after falling from his horse in London.