Souter Johnnie is one of the characters in Burns’ most famous poem, Tam O’Shanter. Souter was Tam’s
ancient, trusted, thirsty crony;
Tam loved him like a very brother,
They had been drunk for weeks together.
They would settle down in the pub on market days, tell each other tall stories, sing songs and get sozzled.
Souter Johnnie was based, as were many of Burns’ fictional creations, on real-life characters. The real Johnnie was John Davidson, a shoemaker in the Ayrshire village of Kirkoswald, who lived in a cottage he built himself. The Davidson family lived there from 1785 until his death in 1806. The cottage is now in the care of the National Trust for Scotland.
The first running of the Souter Johnnie Handicap at Ayr was on 3 June 1953, when it was part of a special two-day meeting celebrating the Queen’s coronation. Other races there referred to Burns characters such as the Holy Willie Selling Handicap Plate and the Poosie Nansie Handicap.
Next year the Souter Johnnie was run during the mid-July meeting. It was appropriate that a Scottish newspaper tipster should select a horse called Good Brandy. It was “a good thing”, he said.
16 July 1991 was the date of the last race, in a period that saw the end of other evocatively Scottish race titles at Ayr.