Brigadier Gerard needs no introduction. His record speaks for itself. Beaten once in 18 races, the humbly-bred champion is a favourite of many who saw his exploits on TV – win after win after win. He won at all distances up to a mile and a half but was best at a mile and ten furlongs.
In three seasons, from 1970-72, he won amongst others the Middle Park, 2,000 Guineas, St James’s Palace, Sussex, Queen Elizabeth II (twice), Champion (twice), Eclipse and King George VI & Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. The Guineas win against Mill Reef and My Swallow, prior to which he was the third of the three potential stars, is regarded as one of the best quality renewals of the race.
His owner, journalist, breeder and former champion amateur jockey John Hislop wrote the book The Brigadier, which tells his story in detail.
In more hyperbolic times than the 1970s he would be regarded with Frankel-like fervour. A revisionist book, Brigadier Gerard and Me: A Personal Journey Through Horse Racing was published by his groom Laurie Williamson fifty years after his glory days. It gives a contrastingly pithy account of those around the horse, and makes a not unreasonable argument that he was Frankel’s superior.
The shock of his sole defeat in the Benson & Hedges Cup (now the Juddmonte International) at York is put down to having had two hard races in the previous six weeks, one on undesirable soft going and the other, over a mile and a half, at the limit of his stamina. Plus Roberto was receiving twelve pounds, ran best when fresh, as he did on that fateful day, and was allowed a soft lead. It transpired that Roberto broke the course record that day, and further analysis revealed that the Brigadier did too. Many years later Joe Mercer put it down to him being a sick horse, full of mucus after the race, but no such excuse was made immediately after the race.
The original Brigadier Gerard was a heroic literary character invented by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He wrote seventeen stories about this French hussar set in the Napoleonic wars starting in 1894, having killed off his most famous creation Sherlock Holmes in order to spread his authorial wings. In the face of huge public demand he resurrected the great detective in 1903 and didn’t write about the Brigadier again.
Sandown’s Brigadier Gerard Stakes is the most prestigious race run at a British evening meeting. The mile and a quarter event for high class four-year-olds and older horses, began in 1973, the year after the Brigadier retired. It was a name-change, having hitherto been called the Coronation Stakes, which was inaugurated in 1953. It’s a favourite of Sir Michael Stoute, who won it twelve times. Many of those horses were ridden by Ryan Moore, who has seven wins to his credit.