The History of Beckhampton
Jeremy Tree
Jeremy Tree was the epitome of an English gentleman whilst, in fact, he was mainly of American descent. His father, Ronald Tree MP, was the son of Arthur Tree a former minister to Russia and Ethel Field a daughter of Marshall Field co-founder of Marshall Fields department store in Chicago now Macys. The Field family had horses in training with Captain Boyd Rochfort at Freemason Lodge in Newmarket. Ethel Field later married Captain David Beatty, subsequently the 1st Earl Beatty and First Lord of the Admiralty. Their second son was the Hon. Peter Beatty who had horses in training at Beckhampton with Fred Darling notably the 1938 Derby winner, Bois Roussel. Tree’s mother, Nancy Lancaster, was a niece of the first Lady MP Nancy Astor.
Born in 1925 and with that background it was inevitable that Tree was exposed to some of the finest bloodstock of the age. Frequent visits were made to Cliveden and Manton but also to Beckhampton which shaped his later life. Fred Darling was someone he greatly admired.
After spending a couple of years in the City Tree worked for Col. Dick Warden at Kremlin House. The two seasons he spent gave him enough confidence to start on his own in 1952 at Lansdowne House in Newmarket. His uncle the Hon Peter Beatty had died in 1949 and left his bloodstock to his nephew and these horses formed the bulk of his small string. He turned out 8 winners in his first year.
With Noel Murless moving to Newmarket Tree jumped at the chance to move to Beckhampton. He leased the main house and the stables at the rear. The top yard was leased to Gordon Richards by Mr Blagrave. Whilst on the face of it the arrangement worked well Gordon was never happy with the arrangement particularly the sharing of the gallops with Tree and Blagrave. At the end of the year he moved to Ogbourne on the other side of Marlborough where he had lived before his marriage.
One of Tree’s early successes was with a Beatty horse, Double Bore, who won the Newmarket St Leger in 1954 and the Goodwood Cup in 1955.
The sad death of Gerald Balding in 1957 followed by the retirement of Noel Cannon resulted in horses owned by Jock Whitney and the Morrison family joining the stable. 1960 saw Whitney’s Persian Road winning the Ebor and Sir Philip Dunn’s Monet the Steward’s Cup. Sir Philip’s daughter, Lady Rothschild, still has horses in training at Beckhampton.
In 1963 Tree’s first classic came along when Miss Monica Sheriffe’s Only for Life ridden by Jimmy Lindley, triumphed in the 2000 Guineas. It was nearly a fantastic double as the Morrison’s Spree was only beaten a length in the 1000 Guineas won by Hula Dancer. Tree also trained for Nijinsky’s owner, Charles Engelhard, most notably Double Jump, Mandera Riboccare and Roy Rock. Other successes for Whitney were Gulf Pearl (Chester Vase) D’Urberville (Norfolk, Temple and Kings Stand Stakes), Swing Easy (New, July, Richmond and Kings Stand Stakes, Quiet Fling (John Porter Stakes and Coronation Cup), and Bright Finish (Yorkshire Cup).
Miss Sheriffe only ever had one or two horses in training but Tree won for her the Observer Gold Cup and Lingfield Derby trial with The Elk and the King George Stakes with Constans who also won the Prix de Saint-Georges three years in succession. Her best horse was undoubtedly Sharpo who, after taking the Temple Stakes, won the Sprint Championship (Nunthorpe) three years in succession and the July Cup.
23 of Tree’s 52 principal winners in the UK, those races that were pattern from 1971 onwards, were in the colours of Prince Khalid starting with Abeer in the 1979 Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot continuing with Known Fact (Middle Park, 2000 Guineas, Goodwood Mile, and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes), Rainbow Quest (Great Voltigeur & Coronation Cup) Damister (Classic Trial Dante Stakes and Great Voltigeur) Dowsing (Diadem & Haydock Sprint Cup) and finishing with Two Timing (Prince of Wales Stakes) and Danehill (Cork and Orrery Stakes and Haydock Sprint Cup) in 1989.
Tree’s second and third classic wins came from Spree’s half sister Set Free her offspring Juliette Marny (Blakeney) and Scintillate (Sparkler) both won the Oaks with Juliette Marny following up in the Irish Oaks. Typical of Tree having decided Juliette Marny needed to concentrate more he fitted blinkers for the first time in the Oaks. Tree nearly pulled off the autumn double for Whitney in 1976 with Intermission (Cambridgeshire) and John Cherry (Cesarewitch) but due to the unusually dry summer he sent Intermission to Michael Stoute at Newmarket to complete her preparation.
Tree also had some notable successes in France. Rainbow Quest took the Arc, Double Jump the Prix Robert Papin, John Cherry the Prix Gladiateur and Sharpo the Prix de Saint George and Prix de L’Abbaye. Tree trained the quirky Sea Pigeon for Whitney. He only won once despite being good enough to run in the Derby. After moving north his notable wins were the Chester Cup and the Ebor on the flat and the Champion Hurdle over the jumps.
Tree was also responsible for putting a small band of mares together for Jock Whitney. Mainly kept at Mount Coote Stud in Ireland although some were sent across the Atlantic to Whitney’s Greentree Stud in Kentucky. Some of the mares came from the Beatty stock, others notably the Cambridgeshire winner, Lacquer the dam of Bright Finish and Brilliantine, were acquired privately. A few were bought as yearlings. The small band of mares included the female ancestors of Erhaab (Derby), Shaamit (Derby) Attraction (1000gns), Carotene (Champion Mare in Canada) as well as Frankel.
In 1967 Tree purchased a chestnut yearling for Whitney at the Houghton sale for £16,000gns, by Klairon out of Sun Rose she was called Peace and in 1971 he bought another chestnut yearling who was later named Rock Garden for 15,000 gns. After their racing careers both fillies went to Greentree, Rock Garden remaining there for the rest of her life. On Whitney’s death Prince Khaled acquired Peace, her daughter Flaming Peace and Rock Garden’s Lingfield Oaks Trial placed daughter Rockfest privately purchasing Peace’s Cambridgeshire winning daughter Intermission at Tattersalls December Sale. Whilst Peace and Intermission had an immediate impact for Juddmonte it took a good deal longer for Rockfest to have an impact through Rainbow Lake, Kind and ultimately Frankel.
Tree became unwell in the late eighties culminating in a brain operation which forced his retirement at the end of the 1989 season. He handed over the stable to his assistant of 12 years Roger Charlton.
The relationship between the two men had developed into a great friendship. On his retirement Tree had written to Prince Khalid indicating that there were three useful maiden colts in the stable, for Roger to train in his first year. Typically of Tree, never one to over egg his horses, they nearly pulled off a classic Derby treble with Sanglamore (French Derby), Quest for Fame (Epsom Derby) winning before Deploy, pace-making for Quest for Fame, finished second to that great filly Salsabil at the Curragh (Irish Derby).
Sadly Jeremy passed away in March 1993
Willie Carson, Roger and Jeremy
Monday Part Six - Roger Charlton