Exceptional miler by an unfashionable sire

Foaled in 1968, Brigadier Gerard was a member of an exceptional crop that included My Swallow and Mill Reef. An exceptional miler, he was beaten only once in 18 starts. Named after Arthur Conan Doyle’s swashbuckling hero, Brigadier Gerard was bred by John Hislop, who owned him in partnership with his wife.

Brigadier Gerard’s dam La Paiva, who traces back to the great Pretty Polly, was not herself a winner but had bred a number of winners by different stallions before being sent to the far-from-fashionable Queen’s Hussar, whose stud fee had dropped to 200 guineas by 1967. Queens’ Hussar had won the Lockinge and the Sussex Stakes and was later to sire Her Majesty’s Classic winner Highclere.

Trained by Major Dick Hern, Brigadier Gerard made his debut at Newbury in June 1970, when he was sent off the outsider of five. He put his rivals in their place, romping home by five lengths. His juvenile career proceeded unbeaten as he added the Champagne Stakes at Salisbury, the Washington Singer back at Newbury and the Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket. Mill Reef and My Swallow were both rated above the Brigadier, but the Hislops nonetheless received an offer of £250,000 for the colt – an offer they rejected.

The 2000 Guineas the following May was seen as a match between Mill Reef and My Swallow, but Joe Mercer was able to settle Brigadier Gerard on the rail and burst clear up the rise for an emphatic three length win. An accurate assessment of his stamina saw Brigadier Gerard miss the Derby – won by Mill Reef – in favour of the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, where he courageously battled on soft ground to get up by a head.

He had an easier race in the Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood, winning by five lengths. He returned to the Sussex track to take the Goodwood Mile by eight lengths, before winning the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot in September by ten lengths. He stepped up to 10f for the first time in the Champion Stakes at Newmarket, where he again encountered soft ground and showed real gameness in narrowly beating Rarity and Welsh Pageant.

As a four-year-old Brigadier Gerard extended his unbeaten sequence to 13 with victories in the Lockinge Stakes, the Westbury Stakes, the Prince of Wales’s Stakes – where he set a new course record – the Eclipse Stakes and the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes, his first run over a mile and a half.

He was then sent to York for the Benson & Hedges Gold Cup, where he was sent off a 1-3 chance against that year’s Derby winner Roberto, unfancied after a poor run in the Irish Derby, and the Derby second Rheingold, who had won the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud. In the event, Roberto sparkled, taking the lead 6f from home and sprinting for home. Although Brigadier Gerard challenged, he was unable to make any impression on Roberto who smashed the track record.

That was to be Brigadier Gerard’s only defeat, as he went on to add repeat victories in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and the Champion Stakes. He retired to the Egerton Stud at the close of his four-year-old season with 17 wins from 18 starts. He was not a success as a sire, with the St Leger winner Light Cavalry his only son of note. He is commemorated in the Brigadier Gerard Stakes at Sandown, and with a pub, The Brigadier Gerard, in York, scene of his only defeat.

Brigadier Gerard | Mill Reef