Susan Bradburne
Racing trainer who saddled around 250 winners, many of them ridden by her children and husband
SUSAN BRADBURNE, who has died aged 70, trained racehorses in Scotland for 24 years, and came close to achieving a memorable triumph when she sent out Blue Charm to finish second in the 1999 Grand National.
A 25-1 shot, Blue Charm was leading over the last but proved unable to hold off the Irish-trained Bobbyjo, who crossed the line 10 lengths in front. On board Blue Charm was Lorcan Wyer, a late substitute for Susan’s son Mark, a gifted jump jockey who had broken his collarbone the previous day in the Aintree Foxhunters’ Chase.
The Bradburnes have proved a remarkable racing family. Both Susan and her husband, John, as well as their two children, Mark and Lorna, rode in and won races under rules. John Bradburne continued riding as an amateur until he was 49, twice competing in the Grand National in his fifth decade – on General Chandos, which pulled up at the 25th fence in 1991, and on Interim Lib in 1993, when the race was declared void after 30 of the runners carried on racing following a false start. Interim Lib was among them, and unseated Bradburne on the second circuit.
Susan, meanwhile, had been forced to retire as a jockey in her mid-thirties after a bad ankle break. On one occasion she and John had been riding in the same race at Ayr, during which she managed to knock him off his
horse at the water jump, an event which led to some momentary disharmony.
She was born Susan Camilla Rodwell on January 15 1949, the elder of two daughters of a wine merchant whose wartime Army service had been curtailed when he was captured by the Japanese at Singapore. Brought up at the family home, Oxhill Manor, near Banbury, she hunted from childhood and was educated at St Mary’s, Wantage, before finishing school in Switzerland. She began her working life with a high-end car dealership in London which sold to rich and famous clients, including the Beatles.
In 1973 she married John Bradburne, then a racecourse announcer, whom she had met at a hunt ball. After they moved to Scotland he became an estate agent, eventually setting up his own firm in St Andrews. John’s mother had a training permit, and after her death he took it over. Susan Bradburne in turn took over the stable on the Cunnoquhie estate, near Cupar in Fife, in 1988.
Her first winner came at Sedgefield in 1989, with Sonsie Mo, which she had bought out of a claimer at Musselburgh. Seeking an owner for this horse, she recalled that a friend had, towards the end of a well-fuelled dinner party, expressed a vague interest in owning a racehorse, and she phoned him with the “good news”. His initial reluctance was soon dispelled, as Sonsie Mo went on to win nine races and finish second on 10 occasions.
Susan Bradburne retired from training in 2012 with around 250 winners to her credit, some of them ridden by her husband and two children. John was on board her horse Off The Bru, who finished third in the 1992 Scottish Grand National at 200-1. Although mainly a National Hunt trainer, she also won the 2008 Cumberland Plate with Lochiel.
While she could be a formidable personality, with the small number of horses in her charge she showed great patience, bringing them on quietly; and she always sought to enhance her owners’ enjoyment of their sport. If an owner had commitments preventing his or her attendance at the races, Susan Bradburne would try to find a suitable meeting as an alternative.
A woman of boundless energy, she herself drove her horses to the races, thinking nothing of travelling five hours to a race meeting and five hours back, and then hosting a dinner party for 12. Her hospitality was liberal, one former jockey recalling that after spending a night at the Bradburnes’ he had to refresh himself the next morning with a Bloody Mary before he felt ready to face the world.
When diagnosed with leukaemia, Susan Bradburne was told that a “normal person” would survive for a year. “No one has ever called me normal,” she replied – and she survived for two. A fortnight before her death she attended the Cheltenham Festival.
Her husband and children survive her. Mark rode more than 350 winners before retiring in 2011; he is now a jockeys’ coach and runs his own electrician’s business. Lorna now lives at the 700-acre Rahinston estate in Co Meath, the family home of her husband, Harry Fowler, a director at Tattersalls Ireland.
Susan Bradburne, born January 15 1949, died March 28 2019