LOOK SHARPE: How Shark Attacked National History

Sports betting PR legend GRAHAM SHARPE brings you his latest ‘LOOK SHARPE’ column…

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JOHN, AKA, SHARK, HANLON, has been a difficult man to keep out of the racing headlines recently for one reason or another, but his was still a name I was surprised to find linked to a sequence of Grand Nationals and their fatal consequences for some of the runners and riders from over 150 years ago when I began to look more closely at them recently.

I’d finally got round to the task of sorting out the many horse racing and gambling-related books I own into some kind of logical order on the many shelves and bookcases they occupy in more rooms of our house than my wife is comfortable with. Well, to be fair, she’d still be far from comfortable with them – it – if there was only one.

After much earnest thought, I’ve managed now to get the books almost organised into just a few categories – two, actually – Horse Racing and Gambling. Of course, these two subjects quite frequently overlap so I’m pondering introducing a third category – Racing AND Gambling – so you can see how seriously I am taking this task.

As I catalogued the books I occasionally dipped in for a quick read of one or two, wondering why I had no recollection of ever owning, let alone reading, some of them, or having the slightest idea of how, where, when and why I acquired them.

Then I came across the book – well, that’s quite a posh description of what actually is more of a 42 page magazine, called ‘Memories From The Green Carpet’, written by Christopher Luke, himself a former jump jockey and also a Royal coachman, who participated in Her Majesty’s Silver Jubilee ‘state ceremony’.

This is a 2015 work of 14 chapters, one of which, on Page 11, and entitled ‘Supernatural Happenings?’, caught my eye – as it references a storied Grand National winner named Sergeant Murphy, who contested the great race half a dozen times between his debut in 1919, aged 9, when he finished a respectable sixth. He went two places better, at 100/7, in 1920, this time under W Smith.

He didn’t turn up for the next running, but was there in 1922, a 100/6 shot, partnered by Charles Hawkins, who bravely remounted to run on into 4th place again, now 12yo, and giving away at least three years to the other four in the first five.

A year later, in a 28 runner renewal and now 13, Sergeant Murphy, once agan 100/6, came home in front by a quite comfortable three lengths, partnered by a jockey who outranked him – Captain ‘Tuppy’ Bennet who, sadly, lost his life in December of the same year during a race at Wolverhampton in which he survived a fall but was then fatally kicked on the head by another runner as he lay on the ground – dying 17 days later at the age of just 24, without regaining consciousness.

Luke declares that as a result of this fatality ‘crash helmets became compulsory for all races in England and Ireland.’

Partnered this time by yet another jockey, J Hogan junior, in 1924, Sergeant Murphy went off at 100/6 again and took a highly respectable 5th place in what was, unsurprisingly this gallant horse’s swansong in the race.

Let me refer you back to the ‘Superntural Happenings?’ heading to Christopher Luke’s piece, in which he notes that the Sergeant was ridden in the 1920 race by jockey William Smith – he took a fatal fall at Gatwick racecourse from his mount, Sir Eyre in January, 1922.

Luke also discovered that the Sergeant’s 1922 rider, Charles Hawkins was subsequently fatally injured during a race at Auteuil, France , in December, 1922, giving the Sergeant a morbid hat-trick of fatalities amongst his career partners.

And perhaps this trio of deaths was an indication that the gallant Sergeant Murphy himself might experience a racecourse demise – which was indeed the case when he raced at Bogside at the age of 17, only to come down at a fence, suffering a broken leg, which resulted in his euthanisation where he fell..

But, back to Shark Hanlon…who, in 2022, became a Grand National winner when he sent out Hewick to win the 160,000 euro prize money of the American version of the great race. Then, in early 2023, an American racehorse owner, Pierre Manigault, whose great uncle, Stephen Sandford, had owned Sergeant Murphy when he won the National, a hundred years previously, becoming the first American owner to do so, thought he’d having a go at repeating the feat a century on, so brought his horse, Cape Gentleman, over, putting the runner in the charge of Hanlon, explaining, ‘I had always wanted to go to the 2023 Grand National and be there for the centennial of Sergeant Murphy.’ He added: ‘It was such an achievement at the time that Hollywood movie-makers turned it into the 1938 film, ‘Sergeant Murphy’ – starring future US President, Ronald Reagan.’

Initially, but unsuccessfully he reportedly tried to persuade Hanlon to sell him Hewick, but the approach was rejected.

But it did all happen – except that Cape Gentleman hadn’t quite read the script and had clearly had enough when he was pulled up at the 14th fence.

So at least by his presence he had brought history full circle, scratched his owner’s itch – and, more importantly, and hopefully for good, broken the curse of fatal falls connected with the Sandford family’s equine hero.

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Views of authors do not necessarily represent views of Star Sports Bookmakers.

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