Ex-England cricketer David Brown excelling in the breeding game

David Brown, the ex-cricketer who played 26 Test matches for England, and his wife Trish are enjoying a wonderful July through the endeavours of their Furnace Mill Stud, which is located near the Wyre Forest in Worcestershire.

Two days after seeing England deny New Zealand by the narrowest of margins in a nail-biting finish to the Cricket World Cup final, Brown received the Andrew Devonshire Award at the TBA Annual Flat Awards for his outstanding contribution to the industry, joining an illustrious roll of honour.

England's success came on the same weekend that Juan Elcano – a son of Frankel bred by the Browns – finished second to Mystery Power in the Superlative Stakes on just his second start.

David Brown, a Walsall native who took over 1,000 wickets for Warwickshire and another 79 for England, established Furnace Mill with his wife in 1976 and he also served as chairman of the British European Breeders Fund from 2004 to 2008, which he describes as 'one of the most successful self-help schemes ever'.

"It was a massive honour to receive the Andrew Devonshire award," says Brown, who was joined on stage by his wife. "It was unexpected as we're quite a small operation, and we were obviously delighted. Everyone who sent us congratulations pointed out there's a great woman behind every great man.

"I'd always been a racing man and enjoyed jumps racing for years. I was good friends with people like Terry Biddlecombe, Josh Gifford and David Nicholson. I used to play for their National Hunt cricket team before Sunday League came in.

"Trish and I met in the West Indies. She'd ridden in point-to-points here and on the Flat in Germany and Jamaica. When we got married, it was an amalgamation of interests - we'd literally just had a couple of show ponies for Trish while I was still playing, and she won the Royal Welsh Show with a yearling colt.

"I then had a benefit year and bought a broodmare called Santa Marta off Richmond Sturdy, and she bred us a winner named W G Greys. The cricket commentator Brian Johnston and the Queen Mother's racing manager Sir Martin Gilliatt had shares in him along with some other close friends."

Lucky break

Brown also took up pig farming, which surprisingly led to him finding the Furnace Mill foundation mare Sunny Spell.

"John Williams, a local pig farmer I used to buy hay and straw off, rang me to say he'd seen a couple of grey mares advertised in the paper down towards Bromyard and asked would I go and look at them with him," says Brown.

"Anyway, we ended up buying both of them, not for very much, and because he found them he got to take his pick.

"I got lucky because the mare I ended up with was a daughter of Vigo called Sunny Spell, who was in foal to The Brianstan. She produced a filly but we couldn't take her to the sales as she got injured, and so we ended up naming her Mainly Dry and put her in training with Kim Brassey.

"He thought a lot of her but unfortunately she got injured again. As we were sending a mare across to Thatching in his early years at Coolmore, I asked Niall Power what was the best deal he could do for me for this unraced filly, and so we sent her to Crofter for very little.

"She produced this big, backward horse and his nose ran all the time. We took him to the sales with no great expectations, but he was a lovely mover. Jack Berry bought him at the St Leger Sale and I met him at the Doncaster breeze-up sales the following spring.

"I asked him what the horse was like and he told me I was a prat. Fearing the worst, I asked him why and he said he was running for him in the Brocklesby that afternoon. He said 'I won't tell you it'll win, but it can't half run.'"

The colt, Great Chaddington, duly obliged, while Mainly Dry later produced the King's Stand winner Bolshoi and Ellebanna, the dam of Mine, who won three Bunbury Cups, a Victoria Cup and a Royal Hunt Cup.

"Getting into that family was more a stroke of luck than anything," says Brown. "We've also been lucky enough to buy one or two youngish mares recently and they've come good so far."

Purchased the same year by Furnace Mill were Penchant, the dam of Group 1-winning sprinter and sire Garswood, and Whatami, the mother of Juan Elcano.

"We've got a really nice Sea The Stars yearling filly out of Garswood's half-sister Edisia," notes Brown. "She's not over big, but is very racey and strong.

"Whatami has got an Oasis Dream filly, but we missed covering the mare this season as the foal got an infection and couldn't travel. She's also got a Lethal Force yearling colt who'll go to the Goffs UK Premier Sale. He's a nice, forward horse and a lovely mover.

"William Haggas trains the four-year-old Cape Cross filly Nkosikazi out of the mare and she's entered for the Listed Pomfret Stakes at Pontefract on Sunday, which could provide the pedigree with another nice update."

Whatami with her Oasis Dream filly at footCredit: Jane Brown / Furnace Mill Stud

Elite company

Furnace Mill also boards broodmares for the Elite Racing Club, headed by Marsha's dam Marlinka, who has a colt foal at foot by Frankel and is back in foal to Showcasing.

Zest, from the same family, had her first foal this year, a filly by Oasis Dream, while China Tea, the dam of Grade 2 Kingwell Hurdle winner Elgin, has been retired following a difficult few years at stud.

There could yet be a successor to take over the reins at Furnace Mill with the pair's granddaughter Emily Brown having won the Tim Dunlop Memorial award in 2015, a prize given to the top student to graduate from the National Stud Diploma course each year.

"She's worked with Coolmore Australia, where she's done six months of the foaling season and six months at the sales," says her grandfather.

"She'll do another six months on a stud farm until Christmas, after which she'll come back. We'd love for her to take over - she's seen some pretty smart studs and had some very good jobs. I just have a hankering she might want to go back to Australia but I hope I'm wrong, as we'd love for her to come here."

Champagne super over

"It was fantastic," says Brown of England's Cricket World Cup success.

"I said at the TBA awards that it was a little bit of a shame it revolved around a ricochet but that's the game and so be it. I think we deserved to win. We had a couple of hiccups but we were the best side in the competition.

"Eoin Morgan has done a wonderful job with them and they're a good side now. He gets them so enthusiastic and up for the job. I take my hat off to him."

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