Mick & David Easterby

Great Rock beats Walter Easterby's Abbotsbury Abbot at Edinburgh on 17th April 1961.

National Racehorse Week: Great Rock

Feature | Racehorses

It's National Racehorse Week and we're going to celebrate by telling the stories of some of the horses that have put us on the map over the last 63 years.

We'll start with the first ever winner, Great Rock.

It was a lady by the name of Mrs Straker who really set me out on the road to finding a winner. Mrs Straker and her husband, Major Straker, were well known figures on the northern racing circuit, having horses spread across a number of trainers, including my brother Peter. Mrs Straker had heard of my successful application for a training licence and called me to arrange a visit to New House Farm.

Mrs Straker arrived promptly at nine o'clock the following morning and had a look around the yard. There wasn't a lot to see, and after having seen the established yards where her other horses were trained I expected her to be disappointed.

However, I was to be proved wrong as Mrs Straker was very happy with what she saw, in particular my determination and dedication.

"I'm going to give you your first winner", Mrs Straker instructed. "He is called Great Rock. I've just bought him and I'm going to send him to you in the morning. But he needs to run fresh. He must run fresh."

Like many a horse I would train in the coming years Great Rock was what you'd game in the game a "cast-off". Born in 1953 and by the little known stallion Black Rock, Great Rock had seen a racecourse for the first time for trainer Gerry Laurence in June 1955 at Ayr, the racecourse being immediately next to Laurence's stable. Laurence thought Great Rock to be a poor racehorse and sold him cheaply to Mrs Straker with just a string of places to his name.

Mrs Straker initially sent Great Rock to Bill Dutton, who trained at Grove Cottage in Malton, and as a three-year-old he won a number of races, improving as he went further. Great Rock's finest hour came at Newcastle in 1957 when he won an eventful renewal of the two mile Northumberland Plate. Seventeen runners went to post on 29th June 1957, the drama unfolding at the first bend when seven horses fell in a horrific pile up at the first bend. The fallers were in the middle of the field and brought down the trailing horses but unbelievably only one jockey was injured with concussion and a broken leg, whilst all of the horses lived to see another day. Great Rock had won the race at odds of 10/1.

The following season Great Rock had won the Manchester Cup ridden by Bill Elsey's apprentice, Don Morris, to collect a first prize of £2,000. Bill Dutton died in 1958 and the horse was then sent to Harry Whiteman, who trained Great Rock to win the Edinburgh Spring Handicap in April 1960.

In 1961 I would become the fourth trainer of Great Rock, now eight years of age. He was a good horse to have in the yard for a trainer in his first season.

I got Great Rock fit on the three-furlong plough gallop. That's what you did, you got the horses fit and you got them to run as fast as they could. There were no blood tests and fancy foods and treadmills. You just got your horses ready to run for their lives and that's all there was to it.

I wanted to train a winner more than I'd wanted anything else in my life. I'd seen Uncle Walter send out winners and I'd seen my brother train winners and the day would come when it would be my turn.

My first runner as a racehorse trainer took place at Thirsk on Tuesday 14th April 1961. The horse was Spring Bronze, owned by Mr Bailey, in the Hambleton 3-y-o Plate and he finished down the field. The following day George Black's Nigarda would run at Thirsk and again was unplaced.

I had been no more than hopeful with my first two runners. I hadn't fancied them to win nd just wanted to see them run respectably. However, I was more optimistic about the chances of Great Rock who I declared to run at Edinburgh on 17th April 1961 in the Edinburgh Spring Handicap. He was one of two entries that day, with Henry Brown's Steal A March entered in the following race, the Inveresk Plate.

At about half past four on the morning of the Edinburgh race meeting I put the two horses onto the wagon and set off for the 200 or so mile trip north of the border to Edinburgh racecourse which was located at Musselburgh, to the east of Scotland's capital.

Upon arrival at Edinburgh racecourse the horses were unloaded and taken to the racecourse stables where they would await their respective races. I kept checking my watch and as the time for the first race drew ever close I went to collect Great Rock from his stable and then met up with Great Rock's jockey, Jimmy Etherington. Jimmy had been briefed many times and I'd gone over and over the tactics with him. We were as ready as we'd ever be. The wait before the race had seemed endless but eventually the horse was saddled, and the blinkers and noseband duly fitted. It was time to see what Great Rock could produce on the racecourse.

"You do your best lad", I whispered to Great Rock, and with that he was led off into the parade ring. I'd done everything I could, it was now down to horse and jockey.

My heart was pounding, I knew this was the best chance I had had so far in my young career, and that Mrs Straker had put her trust in me, and I wanted to repay her kindness. To add further pressure Uncle Walter also had a horse in the same race, and if we didn't win we at least had to finish ahead of his horse.

Great Rock had worked well at home, and it was only a matter of time before the ability that he'd shown me at home would be produced on the racecourse. I just hoped that it would be today.

The horses filed out and cantered down to the start. There was a good crowd at Edinburgh on that Monday afternoon. Weekday afternoons were for the punters, the gamblers. If you wanted to get a bet on you had to go to a racecourse. It was just two weeks later, on 1st May, that off-course betting became legalised and racecourse attendances went into a big decline, but that afternoon there were plenty of people lining the track.

Once they had reached the start the horses were called in and lined up. Starting stalls had not yet been introduced and it was a starter and a flag that gave the signal. The horses jumped off and after three furlongs Great Rock was going well. My heart beat faster and faster as the runners approached midway.

Great Rock travelled beautifully throughout the race and he was always up with the leaders. A furlong out he was still going well and there was plenty in the tank as two horses drew clear of the field. One was Great Rock and the other was Abbotsbury Abbot, the horse trained by Uncle Walter. Both horses had blinkers so could see little of each other as they battled it out to the line, but after a mile and a half it was Great Rock who prevailed by a neck. The third horse, Starry Rock, was a long way back.

Cutting from The Irish Times, Dublin, Ireland. 18 April 1961

Mrs Straker had been good to her word and I had justified her faith by training a winner.

I was on cloud nine, on top of the world. I'd trained my first winner and I'd beaten Uncle Walter's horse. That made it even better. I had managed to train a winner having only held a training license for a few weeks.

Mrs Straker congratulated me and I went to meet Jimmy and shook his hand. Mrs Straker collected the prize and the winning money and from that day there was to be no looking back. I had got a taste for winning and I wanted more.

Every trainer remembers their first winner and Edinburgh on 17th April 1961 would go down as a landmark in my training career, and looking back six decades later it was like it all happened yesterday.

Great Rock is a horse who will never be forgotten in these parts, the first of over 2,500 winner to be sent out of New House Farm. However, Great Rock's victory at Edinburgh would be his only one for my stable and in late 1963 Mrs Straker took difficult the decision to sell him.

On departing Sheriff Hutton Great Rock headed north to join George Robinson's yard near Berwick-upon-Tweed. He loved jumping and went on to have a successful career over hurdles, winning his share of races in Scotland and the north of England.

I'll be ever grateful to Great Rock and Mrs Straker, every trainer remembers his first winner and that day at Edinburgh in April 1961 will be forever etched in the Easterby fokelore.