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Wednesday, 22 May, 2002, 17:47 GMT 18:47 UK
Hern will be sorely missed
Joe Mercer riding the legendary Brigadier Gerard
Dick Hern will forever be remembered as one of the most successful flat trainers of all time.
And he will always be linked with the legendary colt Brigadier Gerard.
Hern - who died on Wednesday aged 81 - saddled 17 Classic winners, including three Derby winners in Troy (1979), Henbit (1980) and Nashwan (1989), and six in the St Leger in a 40-year training career. Other highlights were training the Queen's Dunfermline to win the Oaks and the St Leger in Jubilee year in 1977. But despite over a 1,000 winners, Hern's greatest training triumphs were achieved with two horses - "The Brigadier" and Nashwan. In 1971, Brigadier Gerard beat Mill Reef to win the 2,000 Guineas on top of a host of other group one races.
In 1989, and confined to a wheelchair, Hern saddled Nashwan to the 2,000 Guineas and Derby after confounding doctors by returning to training following a broken neck in a hunting accident in 1984. He also underwent major heart surgery in 1988.
"The Major", as he was widely known, was champion trainer four times - in 1962, 1972, 1980 and 1983. He was honoured by The Queen with a CVO in 1980 and a CBE in 1998. He retired from the training ranks at the end of the 1997 season. Joe Mercer, rider of Brigadier Gerard, who suffered defeat just once on a 18-race career, described Hern today as the "most wonderful" person. "It's just so sad to hear the news today," Mercer said. "It's a very sad loss. He was a lovely, lovely person and a nice to person to work for and a great guy to ride for. "He was just a fantastic trainer of horses. "He was a great person for understanding an individual horse. If he saw a horse wanted something doing different he would do it. "He had a great eye for detail and was just a remarkable person really, even when he was confined to a wheelchair and he was training horses."
Former champion jockey Willie Carson, who rode Hern's three Derby winners, said: "You always have to go back to Nashwan's 2,000 Guineas when the story was he had been kicked out of the stables and couldn't train horses from a wheelchair - and he did." Carson bred the leading Vodafone Oaks fancy Shadow Dancing along with Hern, and he had hoped his old friend would get to see her run at Epsom next month. "I'm surprised rather than shocked because after the filly (Shadow Dancing) won at Chester it lifted him, because he was struggling. "And he was looking forward to going to Epsom." William Richard Hern was born in Holford, Somerset on 20 January 1921. He was educated at Millfield and then saw service in the Second World War, becoming a tank commander in the North Irish Regiment. He began his riding career in 1938, mostly in point-to-points. He became assistant trainer to Major M B Pope in 1952 and by 1957 he had been appointed private trainer to one of the turf's leading owners, Major Lionel Brook Holliday. His first Classic success came in 1962 with Holliday's Hethersett in the St Leger. That season Hern became champion trainer for the first time and the youngest since the war. And he kick-started a Classic haul which would cement his place in racing's history books. |
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See also:
22 May 02 | Horse Racing
23 May 02 | Sports Talk
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