Owned by Peter Savill, future Chairman of the British Horseracing Board, and trained by the late David Chapman, in North Yorkshire, Chaplins Club was a popular and prolific winner in the Eighties. Renowned for his toughness, Chaplins Club won a total of 24 races, including nine handicaps in a season twice, in 1985 and 1988, which was, at the time, a record since the turn of the twentieth century.
Indeed, in 1988 alone, Chaplins Club ran 27 times – at least once a month between April and November – and enjoyed a particulary productive period during the summer. In fact, in a 19-day period between July 16 and August 3, he won seven races, including the Tote Bookmakers Sprint Trophy Handicap at Ayr, from nine starts. During that purple patch, his winning tally included two victories in 24 hours twice, at Redcar and Doncaster on July 26 and July 27 and at Ayr and Pontefract on August 2 and August 3. Later in the season, he also recorded back-to-back victories at Haydock on September 30 and October 1. In between times, Chaplins Club came as close as he ever did to winning a mjor sprint handicap, running on well to finish second, beaten a length, behind So Careful in the Ladbrokes Ayr Gold Cup Handicap.
Fittingly, Chaplins Club won on his 160th and final start, as a twelve-year-old, in the Jolly Sailor Selling Handicap, over seven furlongs, at Redcar on July 9, 1992. By that stage of his career, he was rated just 45, but ridden by regular partner, Kevin Darley, he ran on under pressure to lead close home and win by three-quarters of length at 12/1. According to Chapman, he enjoyed a healthy, happy retirement until finally humanly euthanised, at the age of 26, in 2006.