Lewis legacy still paying dividends in stallion sheds
Bloodstock legend and bobsleigh expert taught Japanese the delights of a steak and chips dinner
Bloodstock agent Johnnie Lewis, who has died aged 80, had several notable claims to fame and not only in his chosen profession.
As an amateur jockey, he rode trainer Tim Forster’s first winner in the early 1960s, and while serving in the 11th Hussars, he trained with Tony Nash and Robin Dixon, the only British pair to win Olympic Gold in the two-man bobsleigh (1964), although a crash a week before the event put paid to Lewis’s own Olympic hopes.
Though his courage was never rewarded, he was considered the only man brave enough, or daft enough, to ride behind the Earl of Suffolk and Berkshire on a bobsleigh. One of his fastest times in a four-man bob occurred when, as the air rushed past them, the brake man misheard Lewis’s “brake, brake, brake” and thought he was saying “great, great, great”.
As a bloodstock agent, originally with the Curragh Bloodstock Agency before he ran the Newmarket office for the British Bloodstock Agency during its glory days, he gave the now successful jump agent David Minton his first chance by employing him as tea boy.
Lewis’s horse of a lifetime was Rafha. He bought her dam, Eljazzi, for Prince A A Faisal and they sent her to Kris, producing the tiny filly Rafha. Henry Cecil was keen to retire her after a productive juvenile season, but the Prince insisted she race on at three and she won the French Oaks. As a broodmare, she produced two stallions of great standing, Invincible Spirit and Kodiac.
For a long time, Lewis was the go-to man for nearly all deals between Japan and the northern hemisphere and was influential in the sale of Grundy, Generous, Lammtarra, North Light and Warning to the Far East.
What you might describe as a picky eater, he was, his wife, Itchy, recalled “difficult to feed in this country – peas were the only vegetable he would eat – let alone Japan”.
Chopsticks and sushi were decidedly off the menu, but the Japanese nevertheless loved him and soon learned to produce fillet steak and chips wherever he went.
He also had what might be described as a bloodstock agent’s nightmare, a wealthy client with a nervous twitch. While that was all right around the more laid-back sales rings of Europe, it was not so handy in the harsher sales arenas of America, where they were somewhat keener to sell and the merest blink of an eye might secure the next bid on a horse you were not even interested in.
His memorial service will be held in Childrey, near Wantage, at noon on Friday.
It might be a little premature to be hailing Laura “Midge” Werner as the next big thing, but the Stratford-upon-avon-born 21-year-old “bug rider” – apprentice – made a big impression when she rode her first winner, a 26-1 shot, at Santa Anita the weekend before last, less than 24 hours after winning a quarterhorse race at Los Alamitos.
Werner has taken a roundabout route to racing in America. Originally, she started riding out for Michael Mates near Stratford, when aged 14, sometimes riding up the gallops with a head torch after school on winter evenings.
Then, aged 18, she left home for Australia, but it was reckoned she would get greater opportunities as an apprentice in New Zealand, where she joined Kevin Myers and rode four winners in six months.
However, a friend back in Australia suggested the move to California and, with nothing to lose, she arrived there last December and had her first rides a month ago.
These days, she hardly answers to the name Laura having been called Midge when she joined the scouts, on account of her size, and it stuck; she is 4ft 9in and weighs just 7st 7lb. In one media report after her winner, her physique was likened to that of the legendary jockey Bill Shoemaker – well that is a good start.