'A wonderful character' - Collier Bay owner Wally Sturt dies aged 90

Wally Sturt, who died on Thursday, aged 90, was a prominent racehorse owner for over 40 years and the owner of Collier Bay, winner of the 1996 Champion Hurdle and Irish Champion Hurdle.

From an East End background – his home was bombed in the war and Sturt badly burned – he became a formidable businessman, making his fortune from housebuilding. In 1979 he bought his first horse, Cima, who finished second in the 1982 Triumph Hurdle and 1984 Champion Hurdle, in the latter to Dawn Run.

Cima was trained by Jim Old while his Flat horses were trained by Sir Mark Prescott. Sturt never wavered in his loyalty. He stuck with Old for 42 years and Prescott for 41. His only other trainer was Patrick Joseph Flynn, in Ireland, where Sturt’s Aries Girl won the 1994 Irish Champion Bumper after finishing second in the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham.

Old said: “Wally was incredibly good at taking bad news and a very good loser. He once had one of the favourites for the Triumph Hurdle. The day before the race I told him the horse had scoped badly and we couldn’t run him. A lot of owners would still have wanted to run. He just shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘If we can’t, we can’t'. That sums him up.”

Collier Bay’s Champion Hurdle victory was the jumps highlight, with Mole Board, Yahmi and Juyush all winning Grade 2 hurdles, while Sir Talbot gave the Old-Sturt partnerhip another Cheltenham Festival winner in the 1999 County Hurdle.

In 1992 Old also trained Al Mutham to win the Group 3 Sagaro Stakes, having recently finished third in the Triumph Hurdle but horses bought for the Flat were trained at Prescott’s Heath House.

Prescott said: “Wally was a lovely man, tough and a wonderful character. He loved punting and was also a great greyhound man. The demise of Walthamstow was a terrible blow for him.”

On the Flat, Sturt owned Brave Act, winner of the Group 3 Solario Stakes in 1996, and a string of good horses with a group of friends. Among them were two winners of the Cambridgeshire, Pasternak in 1997 and Chivalry in 2003. They would not have gone unbacked.

Sturt sponsored races at Newmarket and also at Walthamstow and for decades was a familiar figure at both racecourses and dog tracks.