One of South Africa’s greatest racehorse trainers, Herman Brown Snr passed away on Saturday 25 March at the age of 93.
While the dapper smartly attired trainer always wore a hat in his professional days, he endured a tough upbringing in Johannesburg’s southern suburbs.
Herman Brown with Michael Roberts on Sun Monarch
His father, also Herman, had a small string of horses and he advised his son to move on when he was 18.
After a few years in Port Elizabeth, Herman Brown moved to the Newmarket stables in Durban and then Summerveld, next to Fred Rickaby.
In a tribute to a man he labelled a ‘second father’, multiple SA champion jockey Michael Roberts told the Sporting Post that the best thing that happened to him early in his career was being apprenticed to the master conditioner.
“In those days trainers applied for apprentices. I got a very lucky break when my name was allocated to Mr Brown. He was a master horseman, a gentleman and a man who knew how to deal with people. I became his son for the time I was apprenticed to him. Those were the days of Gatecrasher and I recall that, while trainers then were limited to 40 horses, Mr Brown had a whole row of top division horses – Glenever, Best Ever, Beacon Isle – they were all top notch.”
Herman Brown was on record as stating that Michael Roberts, with Basil Marcus, were the best that rode for him.
“Michael, an Afrikaans boy from Oudtshoorn, was taken for elocution lessons by my wife so he could learn English when he was at the Jockey Academy in Mariannhill,” Mr Brown once said in an interview.
Herman and Thelma Brown (Summerhill)
Talking to the Sporting Post, the Gr1 winning trainer Michael Roberts said that he still applied the principles that he learnt then, in his profession today.
“Mr Brown’s yard was called ‘Ups ‘n Downs’. Some things hold true in racing forever!” he smiled.
“Mr Brown would chat to me on a Monday. He’d explain what I did right – what I did wrong. What I said that I shouldn’t have said. It was an education that laid the foundation for my success.”
The champion jockey recalled that the top Brown patrons in his time were John and Mary Liley, and that David Payne was the stable jockey.
“They had Bold Monarch, Sun Monarch – too many top horses to mention. Just six months ago, I went to fetch Mr Brown and took him back to the old yard at Summerveld. He was frail but always sharp of mind. He enjoyed it – we reminisced about all the animals I would keep – the pigs, the goats, the pigeons – heaven knows what all we had there,” smiled Muis as he fondly recalled a gentleman who clearly made a massive impression on his life.
Herman Brown in recent times – frail but a sharp mind
In the past few years, Herman Brown lived with his daughter Louise and his wife of 70 years, Thelma.
When reflecting back, we note that he really had some incredible horses in his string.
Names like Foveros, Turnocat, Rock Star, Glenever, Forty Winks, Bold Monarch, Sun Monarch, Wave Crest, Jet Pilot and others are a part of the fabric of SA racing.
But Mr Brown always said that Gatecrasher remained the best horse he ever trained.
“He had big, loping strides but had trouble with his legs. I had to bandage his legs and treat them with ice every day,” he is on record as saying.
Although Gatecrasher, pictured above, was his favourite, the son of Kirsch Flambee also provided Herman Brown with the most heartbreaking moment of his career.
The Durban July was the one race to elude him.
He recalled in an interview some years ago that Gatecrasher had the 1975 July sewn up.
“He was ahead, roaring to the post and I had instructed his jockey, Garth Puller, not to use the whip in his right hand, as the horse would drift and change his running line,” said Herman.
“In his excitement, Puller did just that, sending Gatecrasher sideways to interfere with Distinctly on the inside rail. Our moment of joy was cut short when an objection was upheld and we were relegated to third.”
Herman Brown bore no grudges, acknowledging that rules are rules, you win and lose – and he lost that day.
While it is one of the ultimate trophies, he at best enjoyed seconds in the July with Bold Monarch (1977) and Versailles (1984).
Gatecrasher and Foveros gave him two Metropolitans, and he won the Queen’s Plate three times and the Cape Guineas twice.
Herman Brown and Forty Winks after his Champion Stakes victory at Turffontein
Veteran Racing man Selwyn Elk told the Sporting Post that he would miss his ‘old friend’.
“He was one of the few guys left from my time. They don’t make them like Herman Brown anymore. There are too many prima donnas around today,” he added, before recounting a story when he was invited with Buller Benton and Herman Brown to the then opening of the Wild Coast Casino.
“We weren’t allowed to talk about racing when using the landline in the Clairwood admin office. So I called my soon to be ex-wife and had to explain in almost morse code where and who I was with and where I was going. Herman had a good laugh. He was such a man’s man and a gentleman at the same time,” recalled Selwyn Elk, who kindly supplied the image below of a Jock Leyden cartoon that appeared in the Daily News on the Monday after Gatecrasher stepped in a pothole at Clairwood and had to scratched from the Durban July.
The wording from Gatecrasher in his hospital bed says:
“Herman, why scratch me from the July? You know I could beat that bunch of mokes on three legs!’
Herman Brown was famously also on the beach when Sea Cottage was shot ahead of the 1966 July.
“I was further up from Blue Lagoon when I heard what sounded like a car backfiring. A fisherman told me what had happened and the hitman was a Durban gangster, Johnny Nel,” he once recalled. “He was the only bloke in Durban with a yellow convertible car and he was soon caught. He got three years, I think.”
The brilliant Sea Cottage
Snooker was another sport Herman Brown excelled at.
In 1970 he hit the double, winning the Natal Trainer’s Championship and Natal Snooker Champs. He was proud of the fact that he played world number one Joe Davis when he came to South Africa. “Afterwards he told me I could go far in the game,” he recounted.
South African horseracing has lost a legend.
Our condolences and deepest sympathies go out to the Brown family.
