According to Timeform, Brigadier Gerard, with an annual rating of 144, is the joint-third highest rated horse in the history of that organisation, alongside Tudor Minstrel and behind only Frankel and Sea-Bird. However, ‘Smokin” Joe Mercer, who rode Brigadier Gerard throughout his 18-race career, including 17 wins, argued that while Frankel might be as good as the ‘Big Fella’ he was not the greatest ever, as classified by Timeform and World Thoroughbred Racehorse Rankings.
Mercer highlighted the quality of the horses that had finished behind Brigadier Gerard at various points during his career. He said, ‘…they were horses like Mill Reef, who went on to be a champion; Faraway Sun, who was a good French horse he beat five lengths in the Sussex Stakes [in 1971], wasn’t beaten again that season.’
Bred and owned by Mr. and Mrs. John Hislop and trained by Major William Richard ‘Dick’ Hern’ in West Isley, Berkshire, Brigadier Gerard was unbeaten at two and three years. His most famous victory came in the 2,000 Guineas in 1971 when, despite starting only third choice in the betting, he lowered the colours of the aforementioned Mill Reef, striding away in the closing stages to win by three lengths. Mill Reef, of course, went on win the Derby, Eclipse Stakes, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, while Brigadier Gerard won the St.James’s Palace Stakes, Sussex Stakes, Celebration Mile, Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and Champion Stakes.
In 1972, Brigadier Gerard extended his winning sequence to fifteen, with victories including the Lockinge Stakes, Prince of Wales’s Stakes, Eclipse Stakes and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Consequently, in the absence of Mill Reef, he was sent off 1/3 favourite for the inaugural running of the Benson and Hedges Gold Cup, now the Juddmonte International Stakes, at York, in which he faced just four rivals. However, despite his prohibitive odds, he could never quite get to grips with the Derby winner, Roberto, who won by three lengths in a course record time.