The remarkable 1822 St Leger which saw lame 200-1 outsider Theodore win by four lengths

IN the D&S Times of 100 years ago this week, Major John Fairfax-Blakeborough wrote about the remarkable 1822 St Leger race that was held at Doncaster.

This article appears to be the first time that the Major had his name on an article in the D&S Times, so this was the start of his 54 year relationship with the paper. In fact, it is a relationship that continue to this day as his writings evolved into the weekly Countryman’s Diary which, on his death in 1976, was taken on by Peter Walker (also known by his pen name Nicholas Rhea) whose daughter, Sarah, now produces the Countryman’s Daughter column which graces these pages.

The Major was as remarkable as he was prolific, and he wrote 112 books. He was born in Guisborough in 1883 and his father, Richard, was a respected author and Yorkshire folklorist. The Major, known as Jack or just F-B, earned a Military Cross during the First World War for his bravery in seeing off the German Spring Offensive in 1918, and when he returned from the front, he inherited his father’s papers and his love for the countryside and all things horsey.

In 1922, he regaled his D&S readers with the story of the 1822 St Leger. “Taken in the aggregate, the plethora of incidents surrounding this particular St Leger make it one of the most noteworthy races ever run,” he said.

The St Leger was first run in 1776. It is named after its founder, Major-General Anthony St Leger, and is held in early September – 2022’s running is on Saturday.

But 1822 was the first, and only, time that the first four horses home were all trained by the same person – James Croft, of Glasgow House, Middleham. A plaque commemorating the feat and remarking on James’ “honesty and skill” still graces that stable.

The plaque pointedly notes the skill and honesty of James Croft who, uniquely, trained the first four horses home in the 1822 St Leger

The 1822 race was even more remarkable because the winner, Theodore, at 200-1 was the least fancied horse in the St Leger’s 246 year history.

And it was amazing because, as F-B says, Theodore was lame.

The horse had had a good season and had been considered as favourite for the race, but news begin to seep out of Middleham that he was far from perfect and corns had been found on his hooves.

Indeed, when jockey John Jackson – who we met last week as he retired to Broomfield Farm on the edge of Northallerton racecourse – was told to ride him, he burst into tears and cried: “What! Ride such a cripple as that!”

Theodore’s price plummeted. One punter waged £1,000 to a worthless walking stick that Theodore would not win, and its owner, Lord Edward Petre, a wealthy gambler, sold all his bets on the horse for just £200, indicating his complete lack of confidence. It would seem that the main purchaser of these worthless trifles was Marmaduke Wyvill of Constable Burton Hall, near Bedale, which some might say is suspiciously close to Middleham.

Glasgow House in Middleham is still a stables. Picture: Google StreetView

A new favourite, Swap, owned by the Orde-Powletts of Bolton Castle, was installed at 2-1.

But, in front of a crowd that F-B described as hundreds of thousands strong, jockey Jackson got Theodore ahead “by sticking his spurs into the animal’s flank as soon as the flag fell”. He never lost the lead and won by four lengths, causing those who had bought Petre’s worthless bets to go “mad with joy”.

It is said that for an investment of £200, Mr Wyvill had made £6,000 (that’s about half-a-million in today’s values, according to the Bank of England Inflation Calculator).

To make matters even more suspicious, Swap finished down the field behind Violet, Professor and Corinthian, which all came from Glasgow House.

And then, two days later, the Gascoigne Stakes were run over the same distance and at the same course. There were just two entrants: Theodore and Swap. Given their respective performances in the St Leger, Theodore was the outright favourite – and came hobbling home a long way behind Swap.

This, said F-B, created “a prodigious sensation”.

“The sporting authorities heaped obloquy, innuendo, suspicion and derision upon the main actors in Theodore's St Leger,” wrote F-B.

But not everyone, he said, alleged corruption. Indeed, in North Yorkshire, there was a feeling that James Croft’s reputation was getting trampled under the fix furore.

So 73 local men clubbed together to present the plaque to Glasgow House which pointedly says it is “to commemorate the honesty and skill of James Croft”.

F-B finishes his article by saying that the presentation was to “hallow that yard and honour the memory and unprecedented feat of James Croft in sending therefrom the winner, the second, the third and fourth horses in Yorkshire’s Turf Blue Riband”.

DOCTOR SYNTAX was the horse which won the first Northallerton Gold Cup in 1820, as mentioned last week. He was a Yorkshire-based star, winning five Richmond Gold Cups, five Lancaster Gold Cups and seven consecutive Preston Gold Cups, before he was retired to stud in 1824.

“In my very early years I lived in Prudhoe and nearby Stocksfield in Northumberland,” says Barry Thompson in Stockton, “and both villages have pubs called Doctor Syntax, and I wonder why a famous Yorkshire horse would be so commemorated with two pubs so close together but so far from home. There's another Doctor Syntax pub in Preston, where he won the Gold Cup a record number of times, and also one in Tasmania!”