Abington Place’s Colorful Characters

ABINGTON PLACE’S COLORFUL CHARACTERS 
By Liesl King 
Racing’s history is filled with colorful characters, and none more so than George Alexander Baird or, as he was better known in racing circles, Mr. Abington. However, I am getting ahead of myself, as the story actually starts in Nat Flatman Street, Newmarket, a little road just off the famous clock tower between Vicarage Road and All Saints Road. Nowadays, travelers along this street are unlikely to give the name a second thought, yet Flatman was one of racing’s greats. 
Born in 1810, Elnathan “Nat” Flatman began riding as an apprentice for William Cooper after hiking to Newmarket, aged 15, with his meager belongings tied in a handkerchief. His debut, however, was a high profile one, as he was engaged to ride Golden Pin in the Craven S. Golden Pin finished unplaced, but Flatman went on to become the first Champion Flat Racing Jockey of Great Britain, winning the championship 13 times between 1840 and 1852. 
Despite 10 Classic victories, his greatest triumph came when he rode Voltigeur to victory in the Doncaster Cup, beating The Flying Dutchman. It was the only defeat The Flying Dutchman ever suffered. Flatman was also involved in one of the most controversial races in turf history, the 1844 Derby. Aboard Orlando, Flatman was beaten by Running Rein. Shockingly, it was subsequently discovered that not only was Running Rein was a ringer called Maccabeus, but he was actually a 4-year-old. Orlando was thus awarded the race by the stewards. 
After starting his remarkable career on a horse called Golden Pin, Flatman ended it on a mare called Golden Pippin. Golden Pippin is said to have kicked Flatman on the way back to the weighing room, causing a fractured rib and punctured lung. Infection set in, and shortly afterwards Nat Flatman died. For such a successful and talented jockey, his epitaph in the All Saints graveyard in Newmarket is incredibly humble, describing him merely as an “honest, sober, discrete and plain-living man.” 
Flatman left two sons behind, and it is here that we find the next colorful character of our tale–John Flatman. John was an architect by trade and also “an artist of some merit.” While he may not have followed in his father’s footsteps, John never ventured far from racing, with his beautiful wood engravings depicting the shenanigans of frisky Thoroughbreds and their hapless jockeys on the Downs. As an architect he designed, amongst others, the stables and trainer’s house on Bury Road, known as Abington Place. 
And it is here that we come full circle and return to our colorful character George Alexander Baird. The only son of a very wealthy family, Baird inherited a vast fortune at the tender age of nine, when his father died suddenly. Unfortunately for Baird, his inheritance was held in trust until he came of age. Living with trustees was rather a bore for the young Baird, especially as they disapproved of his association with horse racing, and hence he rode in amateur races under the alias Mr. Abington. Though the most successful amateur jockey in his day, he was often at loggerheads with the ‘establishment’, and some aggressive riding saw him ‘warned off’ for two years. Giving up riding, Baird became a successful owner and breeder, even employing his own personal trainer, a certain Martin Gurry. 
Baird and Gurry did not quite see eye-to-eye, though, and after a couple years Baird replaced Gurry. There was, however, the small matter of Gurry’s severance pay, a matter that remained unresolved for quite some time until Baird, threatened with court action, finally paid up. Gurry used the money to build his own training yard on Bury Road, naming it rather cheekily after his ex-employer–Abington Place. Gurry knew exactly what he wanted and Abington Place is functional as well as beautiful. The main yard, dominated by a tall clock tower, consists of three rows of boxes surrounding a courtyard, with the fourth side being the trainer’s house. Some fillies boxes, a feed range and a blacksmith’s shed completed the stables, and are accessed through an archway under the clock tower. 
While the clock turret and the house’s foundation stone is dated 1889, Abington Place wasn’t quite finished yet, as Gurry had run out of money. He was forced to wait until 1895, when his Oaks victory with La Sagesse enabled him to finish the project with a triumphal entrance gate, also designed by John Flatman. Above a pair of elaborate wrought iron gates, the arch’s keystone was carved on both sides with the monogram MG. No mistaking whose yard this was. 
Gurry eventually retired in 1917 and took up pig breeding, making way for the new owner of Abington Place, Alfred Sadler. Sadler was known as a “clever, painstaking and popular trainer whose nickname was ‘Flash Alf’, as he was always nattily dressed. Next in residence at Abington Place was Harry Wragg, ex- jockey and winner of 13 Classics. Wragg, who was the first to compete his horses abroad and to time gallops, retired in 1982, passing on Abington Place to his son Geoff, and in 2009 South African trainer Mike de Kock acquired the stables upon Geoff’s retirement. 
In the end, it seems rather fitting that Abington Place, designed by the son of Britain’s first Champion Jockey, named after one of racing’s most colorful characters and owned by the first trainer to race his horses abroad, now belongs to a trainer who is considered the master when it comes to racing horses all over the world.