Book review: Ready wrapped for Christmas - Beckhampton's story is full of local interest
Beckhampton: The Men and Horses of a Great Racing Stable by Paul Mathieu (published 2015 by Racing Post Books - £25.)
This well-researched book combines local history, horse racing stories - and some racy stories too - successes and failures on and off racecourses, characters (some very good and some pretty awful) and lots and lots of racehorses.
Flicking through its 350 pages you might be a little alarmed by the number of names - names of owners, trainers, stable staff and, of course, of horses. It seems at first that as though the author has swallowed the names from entire week's worth of the Racing Post - enough to confuse the most ardent of flat racing fans.
Do not be put off. This book is a store of wonderful episodes in the very long history of Beckhampton's training stables - and it has a wealth of fascinating illustrations.
It all began, believe it or not, in 1835 when Beckhampton Inn was still a coaching stop on the road to Bath. Billy Treen, a man who would have run rings round Lord Alan Sugar, spotted a business opportunity in the inn's ample stabling.
Even before London was linked to Bath by the railway, Beckhampton Inn (famous, apparently, for its 'strong Wiltshire beer, known by the genuine name of Kennett Ale') had been losing custom.
Not only did he hold the Inn's licence, he was training and riding - and earned a few extra guineas as clerk of the course at the Devizes and North Wilts races. Billy Treen trained Beckhampton's first classic winner: Deception won the Oaks in 1839.
Treen had started as a jockey - winning his first race at the ripe old age of fourteen. He rode race horses owned by Lord Palmerston who, when he became Foreign Secretary, once commanded Treen to ride a relay of horses to a Channel port to fetch a recently signed treaty - not something that worries modern handicappers.
Paul Mathieu's book takes you through all Beckhampton's trainers and prominent along the way are the Darlings - father and son. Sam began training in 1897 and won seven classics including two Derby winners.
His son Fred began training at Beckhampton in 1916 and notched up an incredible nineteen classic winners - including six Derby winners. One of Fred's loyal owners was Lily Langtry - the 'Jersey Lily' who had been the Prince of Wales' mistress. The photo of her and her hat and veil with a diminutive Fred is one of the delights of this book.
Fred steered Beckhampton through the Second World War's shortages - and successfully stopped American tanks ploughing up the ancient grass gallops. He had the privilege of running 'the best horse ever trained at Beckhampton': Tudor Minstrel whose eight - or was it ten? - length victory in the 1947 2000 Guineas is recounted with gusto. As is the 'nightmare ride' the Minstrel gave Gordon Richards in the Derby.
Beckhampton then joined Herbert Blagrave's large portfolio of equestrian property. He is a character you might not want to meet. And for a time Noel Murless and the maverick Dick Warden - an ex-Special Operations Executive officer - shared the stables.
In 1953 Gordon Richards became champion jockey for the twenty-sixth time, but was injured in a paddock accident, retired and turned trainer. He had stables at Beckhampton for a short time - until he fell out with Blagrave.
From the start of the 1956 season Jeremy Tree was Beckhampton's sole trainer - and held the licence there for 34 years. If anyone is the hero of this book it is Tree with 'his Olympian frame' - and he is still remembered by many among the more elderly people of Marlborough.
He turned Beckhampton into 'a modern international stable'. Tree was part of 'London society' and brought a wide range of rich new owners to Beckhampton - inlcuding many Arab connections. He was trainer to the important Saudi owned Juddmonte Farms stud.
Tree retired in 1989 and Beckhampton passed to its current trainer - Roger Charlton. The chapters on Roger Charlton begin with a bit of a tease: "From swimming pool attendant to Derby-winning trainer isn't an obvious career path, but it's served Roger Charlton well."
It turns out Charlton was a pioneer of swimming therapy for horses and introduced the first pool at Lambourn. Charlton took over the stables at the beginning of 1990 and that summer won the Derby with Quest for Fame - as the chapter heading puts it: "Roger Charlton's dream debut."
Since then Charlton has trained for the Queen, has brought Al Kazeem back twice to win Group Ones before his final retirement this year, and won innumerable races in Britain and around the world - including the French Derby.
Last week Charlton watched his entry in the Melbourne Cup come home four lengths behind the winner to take ninth place and win £65,000. That horse's name - harking back to his Derby winner Quest for Fame - was Quest for More...there are sure to be many more winners to come Beckhampton under Roger Charlton's careful eye.