FarmVet.com would like to Congratulate Gus on his recent win!!!

Point-to-Point Roundup: The Return of a Champion

Written by Brian Nadeau   

March 23, 2010

Radio Flyer (left) helped former champion jockey Gus Brown get back to racing at Piedmont Point-to-Point Saturday (Susan Carter photo).

If you had just awoke from a near six-year slumber Saturday at the Piedmont Fox Hounds Point-to-Point in Upperville, Virginia, nothing seemed out of place. 

Gus Brown and Augustin Stable were in the winner’s circle again.

Though a lot has in fact changed since Brown, a two-time champion jockey retired at the end of the 2004 season, it wasn’t evident Saturday when he returned to the irons for the first time since Camden in November 2004 and guided Radio Flyer to a win in a 3-mile timber contest. 

Not that winning with his first mount in half a decade has given him any grandiose ideas.

“This win didn’t give me any motivation to get back over hurdles or anything like that,” Brown said. “I’m not a jockey anymore; I’m a guy riding a few races for fun and that’s it.”

Brown decided to come back to riding over the winter with the hopes of piloting Professor Maxwell for trainer Richard Valentine in the Maryland Hunt Cup April 24. Along the way he schooled Radio Flyer twice for Valentine at Aiken and showed up at Piedmont to a warm reception. 

“We went to the start and Jeff Murphy looked over and said ‘Welcome back, it’s good to have you out here,’” Brown said. “That was really great to hear and the other riders that I rode against in the past who are still riding now, they are all genuinely happy to have me back and that’s a great feeling.”

Brown broke off Radio Flyer third in the five-horse field and the pair advanced willingly before taking the lead over the last and cruising home to a 1 3/4-length win over Endless Mountain. Though he admitted there weren’t any butterflies, Brown was also happy to have a few things going in his favor.

“It was a nice experience on a lot of different levels. I was riding a horse with good old form for a good friend who I consider to be a very good horsemen and I was in the familiar Augustin colors which I had a lot of success with in the past; so there was a lot of comfort there,” Brown said. “I’ve been on an odd horse or two (since retiring) but nothing like a race, so it was nice in that this was just a steer job and a push-button ride on a really classy horse.”

Radio Flyer has had his share of inactivity as well during the past few years. Now 9, the son of Irish-bred High Roller didn’t make his career debut until 2007, but proved it was worth the wait when he dominated a maiden timber at Willowdale by 9 1/2 lengths for then trainer Sanna Hendriks. Radio Flyer missed two years after that run and returned to run sixth in last May’s Radnor Hunt Cup, his only other start to date. Saturday both horse and jockey meshed back into the afternoon routine together.

“We took a few awkward fences, but to be honest to the horse, that was totally the jockey’s error. I was trying to do stuff at the fences with him and he’s a horse that doesn’t want that,” Brown said. “Once I figured that out all I wanted to do was not mess it up. He’s a really cool, kind horse to ride and he was just brilliant out there.”