INTERVIEW
Brough Scott, the famous racing
broadcaster, author and former
National Hunt jockey, brought it back
to life to coincide with the release of
the ‘War Horse’ film.
Brough has a home on the Island,
and has many relatives living here.
He explained: “I wrote a book about
eight years ago called ‘Galloper Jack’
which was about my grandfather and
was a proper history book. When the
book came out I couldn’t have asked
for better reviews, but I realised that
if I had really wanted to sell many
more copies I should have written it
as a study of Warrior rather than Jack
Seeley.
“I explored the idea of re-writing
the ‘Warrior’ tale, but never really got
round to it. Then at the beginning of
last year I was contacted by a company
doing a film about the real War Horse.
I was aware Steven Spielberg had made
the film that was due to come out, and
suddenly people wanted to interview
me about Warrior – a true War Horse.”
Brough
continued:
“While being
raised here
Warrior’s total
compass was
between Yafford,
Brook and
Mottistone. He
was out there
wandering across
the downs - apart
from the years
when he went to
war!”
An appearance
by Brough on
the BBC’s ‘One
Show’ further
promoted
Warrior’s amazing
achievements,
and it was after
that publicity
that Brough’s
publisher
somewhat
reluctantly agreed
to re-publish the
book.
Brough continued: “The original
book ended in 1934, but of course
Warrior lived until 1941. The idea
to have the book reproduced was in
my head when I knew Spielberg was
bringing out the film, but it was only
finalised because I got irritated at the
thought of being taken advantage of.
“Once the book came out I was
happy to go on talk programmes to
publicise it. The one thing I wanted
to ensure was that Warrior absolutely
epitomised the Isle of Wight; it was
where the horse was bred and raised
and spent all his life apart from the
four years winning the First World
War!”
Brough was born on December 12,
1942, and was educated at Radley
College and Corpus Christi College,
Oxford, where he read history. His
National Hunt career saw him ride
over 100 winners including victory
in the Imperial Cup and Mandarin
Chase.
He joined ITV in 1971, and was
regularly seen and heard on The ITV
Seven and later Channel 4 Racing.
He was also racing correspondent for
The Sunday Times and wrote for the
Racing Post, The Independent on
Sunday and The Sunday Telegraph. He
was awarded an MBE in the Queen's
birthday honours list in 20