The Bare-knuckle Champions of England

The fighter

The most extraordinary character ever to own a Derby winner was surely one John Gully, a former prize fighter, who won the race twice and every other Classic race in the English Calendar as well.

He achieved his initial public notoriety with a defeat. Bare-knuckled, he fought the reigning champion Henry Pearce in 1805 and was beaten in the fifty-ninth round! He was paid £500 for his efforts, but the following year was so impoverished that he had to walk from London to Doncaster races.

He won two subsequent fights, which lasted 36 and 28 rounds respectively, and then retired from the ring. Not surprisingly, his conversation was said to have become very slow: "Every word seemed to weigh a pound." Nevertheless. he decided to concentrate on horse racing and politics.He was elected MP for Pontefract, and as his respectability and wealth grew became a colliery owner, but racing and betting were his first love.

He suffered something of a setback in the St.Leger of 1827 when he ran Marmeluke, an extremely nervous animal by all accounts. Jockeys on the other runners (and, it was alleged at the time, the starter) conspired to ensure that there were a series of false starts and delays and Marmeluke was beaten. It cost Gully £40,000 in bets.

After a series of further unfortunate incidents Sam Day trained Pyrrhus The Fist to win Gully his first Derby in 1846. In 1854, Gully owned another Derby winner, Andover, in partnership with a money-lender called Henry Padwick.

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