WHY ONE SHOULD NEVER MEET YOUR HEROES.

​If I have a fault, and I say ‘if’ reservedly, it is my natural propensity to believe as fact what I am told and what I read; in interpreting matters I am quite literal; vague instructions annoy me as much boy racers and the N.R.A. An instruction by definition should be concise and have contained within it information and clarity. If I have a second fault it is my natural propensity to be easily distracted from my point.
I will not say that John Hislop is a hero of mine. If I had met him I would not have been in awe of him, as I would if I bumped into Ruby Walsh or Sir Anthony McCoy. But I do have four of his books in my racing library, evidence enough to suggest that I respect and admire him as a writer. So you can understand how uneasy it made me feel when reading about Dick Hern that John Hislop and his wife Jean were very easy to dislike. I pride myself on my instinctive judgement and it was being suggested that I may have Hislop all wrong. In Peter Willett’s biography of Hern Mrs.Hislop is described by Hern as ‘the most unpleasant woman I ever met’.
My connection and admiration of Hislop began, I suspect, because he bred and owned Brigadier Gerard, the horse I regard as the greatest flat horse of my lifetime. To my mind there is a lack of appreciation for the courage of Hislop in wanting to establish the limitations of the Brigadier’s ability, a refreshing attitude that flies in the face of the established game-plan of keeping good horses well within their comfort zone. If the Brigadier had stayed in training as a 5-year-old John Hislop talked of aiming him at the Ascot Gold Cup. To my way of thinking Hislop was a throwback to the days when owner/breeders were sportsman first and businessman second.
Willett’s main criticism of Hislop, as no doubt relayed to him from the lips of Dick Hern, was that he wanted to take all the credit for the Brigadier’s racing programme, whereas, according to Willett, which races to run in came about through debate and discussion with the trainer. Certainly in his book on the life of Brigadier Gerard Hislop does give the impression that he directed Hern as to where he wanted the horse to run. He also made himself out to be an authority on breeding and that the Brigadier came into this world as a result of a deep understanding of pedigrees. Yet La Paiva, the Brigadier’s dam, was bred to Queen’s Hussar, seemingly, for no better reasons than he stood just up the road from where the Hislop’s had their stud and his covering fee was modest, which suited their budget.
In ‘Hardly A Jockey’, Hislop documented his career as an amateur rider and even those who he had vexed and annoyed throughout his life could not deny he was in a league of his own, winning 87 races between the years 46 & 56 from only 177 rides, though I did not sense any conceit or boasting as he recorded his career in the saddle. He was, as I am, a man of opinions and sad to report he could be very wrong on occasions.
What I have not read of him before opening Willett’s book is that with his wife he was a strident, and it has to be said rather peevish, critic of the Thoroughbred Breeders Association’s initiative, the European Breeders Fund. In fact the Hislops made themselves very unpopular on the matter, especially at the Jockey Club, by continually objecting to the scheme when it was debated. I suspect that if Hislop were a member of the Jockey Club they might have thrown him out. Even with her husband silenced, his wife made herself even more of a nuisance on the matter, writing lengthy letters to the Jockey Club so they could be quite sure why the E.B.F. was an abomination that would ruin both the breeding industry and racing and long telephone calls dotted and highlighted with expletives to the E.B.F. office in Newmarket.
Willett was of the opinion that the Hislop’s fury was because at the time the Brigadier’s popularity as a stallion was in decline and they feared they would be forced to disclose the greatly reduced price his nominations were being sold for. I suspect the Brigadier was being shunned by breeders as much because of his owner’s poor reputation as his overall lack of success as a stallion. What cannot be denied is that John Hislop was immensely proud of both Brigadier Gerard and having bred him.
Will I continue to read John Hislop? Quite possibly yes. He is history, a racing historian, and his contemporary writing is now a reflection on racing as it was in his time. In future, though, I will read him with Willett’s damning indictment of his character rising from the page.