|
Gilles De Retz (horse)
Gilles de Retz (1953–1969) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire best known for winning the classic 2000 Guineas in 1956. After winning twice from five starts as a two-year-old, the colt disappointed on his three-year-old debut before recording a 50/1 upset victory in the Guineas. Although the feat was not officially recognised at the time, Gilles de Retz's success made Helen Johnson Houghton the first woman to train the winner of a British classic. The colt failed to reproduce his best form in three subsequent efforts in 1956 and won once from four attempts as a four-year-old. He was retired to stud where he had little success as a sire of winners. Background Gilles de Retz was a dark-coated bay horse with no white markings bred by his owner, Anthony Samuel at his Eveton Stud. His sire, Royal Charger was a successful sprinter and miler who was trained by Jack Jarvis to win the Queen Anne Stakes and the Ayr Gold Cup in 1946. He made a promising start to his stud ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Charger
Royal Charger (1942–1961) was a British Thoroughbred that was successful as a horse racing, racehorse, but much more important as a Horse breeding#Terminology, sire. Background Royal Charger was a chestnut horse sired by the important stallion Nearco. His dam, Sun Princess, was a descendant of the famous broodmare Mumtaz Mahal (horse), Mumtaz Mahal. He was owned by Sir John Jarvis and trained by his unrelated namesake Jack Jarvis at Newmarket, Suffolk. Racing career Royal Charger failed to win as a two-year-old in 1944, but showed some promise when twice finishing second. As a three-year-old, he finished third in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket Racecourse, Newmarket on 9 May, beaten a neck and two lengths by Court Martial and Dante (horse), Dante. Later that year, he was placed in the Duke of York Stakes and won the Challenge Stakes (Great Britain), Challenge Stakes. As a four-year-old, Royal Charger won the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Ayr Gold Cup (carrying 133 Po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Queen Anne Stakes
The Queen Anne Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to horses aged four years or older. It is run at Ascot over a distance of 1 mile (1,609 metres), and is scheduled to take place each year in June. History The event was established in 1840, and during the early part of its history it was called the Trial Stakes. It was originally open to horses aged three or older. In 1930, it was renamed in honour of Queen Anne, the founder of Ascot Racecourse. The Queen Anne Stakes was classed as a Group 3 race in 1971, and it was promoted to Group 2 level in 1984. It was given Group 1 status in 2003, and at this point the minimum age of participating horses was raised to four. It is now the first race on the opening day of the Royal Ascot meeting. Records Most successful horse (2 wins): * Flambeau – ''1840, 1841'' * Toastmaster – ''1885, 1886'' * Worcester – ''1895, 1896'' * Dean Swift – ''1906, 1907'' Leading ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle Park Stakes
The Middle Park Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to two-year-old colts. It is run on the Rowley Mile at Newmarket over a distance of 6 furlongs (1,207 metres), and it is scheduled to take place each year in September. History The event was founded by William Blenkiron, and it is named after his stud at Eltham. It was established in 1866, and was initially titled the Middle Park Plate. It was originally open to horses of either gender. The race was formerly staged during Newmarket's Cambridgeshire Meeting in late September or early October. It was restricted to colts in 1987. It became part of a new fixture called Future Champions Day in 2011. From 2015, the Middle Park Stakes was moved from Future Champions Day and brought forward two weeks, returning to the Cambridgeshire meeting, to avoid a clash with the similar Dewhurst Stakes. The Middle Park Stakes was added to the Breeders' Cup Challenge series in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chesham Stakes
The Chesham Stakes is a Listed flat horse race in Great Britain open to two-year-old horses. It is run at Ascot over a distance of 7 furlongs (1,408 metres), and it is scheduled to take place each year in June. History The event is named after the 3rd Baron Chesham, who served as the last Master of the Buckhounds in 1900–01. It was established in 1919, and it was originally contested over 5 furlongs. It replaced a previous race, the first leg of the Triennial Stakes. The race has an unusual restriction, being open only to horses sired by stallions who won over ten furlongs or more. For a period the Chesham Stakes was contested over 6 furlongs, and it was extended to 7 furlongs in 1996. It is currently restricted to horses whose sires or dams have won at a distance in excess of 1 mile and 1½ furlongs, or in excess of 1,900 metres. The Chesham Stakes is now the opening race on the final day of the Royal Ascot meeting. Lest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ascot Racecourse
Ascot Racecourse ("ascot" pronounced , often pronounced ) is a dual-purpose British racecourse, located in Ascot, Berkshire, England, which is used for thoroughbred horse racing. It hosts 13 of Britain's 36 annual Flat Group 1 horse races and three Grade 1 Jumps races. Ascot Racecourse is visited by approximately 600,000 people a year, accounting for 10% of all UK racegoers. The racecourse covers , leased from the Crown Estate and enjoys close associations with the British Royal Family, being founded in 1711 by Queen Anne of Great Britain, Queen Anne and located approximately from Windsor Castle. Queen Elizabeth II used to visit the Ascot Racecourse quite frequently, sometimes even betting on the horses. Ascot currently stages 26 days of racing over the course of the year, comprising 18 Flat racing, flat meetings between April and October, and 8 National Hunt racing, jump meetings between October and March. The Royal Meeting, held in June each year, remains the highlight of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birmingham Racecourse
Bromford Bridge Racecourse was a racecourse in the Bromford area of Birmingham, England. Its official name was 'Birmingham'. It staged flat and national hunt racing. History The earliest recorded horse-race in Birmingham according to Chris Pitt and Chas Hammond took place in May 1747 but it is not known where that race took place. At various times racing took place at Smethwick, Handsworth, Sparkbrook, Hall Green and Four Oaks; but as Birmingham spread outwards the open ground needed for horse racing became scarcer. Bromford Bridge was an exception as it was well placed between the city and the countryside. The Bromford Bridge racecourse was opened in 1894 by brothers John and Stanley Ford. The lease of the land (measuring ) was supported by a company owned by the Earl of Aylesford. The first recorded meeting was on Friday 14 June and Saturday 15 June 1895. The first race, the Midland Welter Handicap, over a mile and a quarter, was won by Philology owned by Mr G F Fawcett. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salisbury Racecourse
Salisbury Racecourse is a flat racecourse in the United Kingdom featuring thoroughbred horse racing, southwest of Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. Fifteen race meetings a year are held there between early May and mid-October. History Racing at the track, located three miles from Salisbury, has taken place since the mid-16th century. Many great horses have won at the racecourse including Gimcrack (1768), Eclipse (1769), Sun Chariot (1941), Mill Reef (1970) and Brigadier Gerard (1970). Sir Percy, winner of the 2006 Derby, and Look Here, winner of the 2008 Oaks, had both won at Salisbury the previous year. Lester Piggott, the jockey, first rode in public at Salisbury in 1948 when he was an apprentice jockey aged twelve and weighed only five stone. American jockey Steve Cauthen made his British debut at the course in 1979 when he rode Marquee Universal to victory here. It was here in 1949 that Winston Churchill first raced Colonist II in the one mile Upavon Stakes. The horse won, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jockey Club
The Jockey Club is the largest commercial horse racing organisation in the United Kingdom. It owns 15 of Britain's famous racecourses, including Aintree, Cheltenham, Epsom Downs and both the Rowley Mile and July Course in Newmarket, amongst other horse racing assets such as the National Stud, and the property and land management company, Jockey Club Estates. The registered charity Racing Welfare is also a company limited by guarantee with the Jockey Club being the sole member. As it is governed by Royal Charter, all profits it makes are reinvested back into the sport. Formerly the regulator for the sport, the Jockey Club's responsibilities were transferred to the Horseracing Regulatory Authority (now the British Horseracing Authority) in 2006. History The Jockey Club has long been thought to have been founded in 1750 – a year recognised by the club itself in its own records. Some claim it was created earlier, in the 1720s, while others suggest it may have existed in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fulke Walwyn
Fulke Thomas Tyndall Walwyn CVO (8 November 1910 – 18 February 1991) was a British jockey and a celebrated racehorse trainer, who was particularly successful in National Hunt racing. Life Walwyn was born in Wrexham. His twin sister, Helen Johnson Houghton (1910–2012), was a racehorse owner and trainer who was one of the first women elected as a member of the Jockey Club. Their cousin, Peter Walwyn (1933–2017), was also a racehorse trainer. His father, Colonel Fulke Walwyn, was an officer in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, and Master of the Monmouth Hounds from 1922 to 1931. His mother died when Helen and Fulke were still young. He was educated at Malvern College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and then became an officer in the 9th Lancers but resigned his commission in 1935. He was a military policeman for two years in the Second World War, before serving with the 9th Lancers in France. Career As a jockey, his most notable victory came as an amateur rider on Reyno ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Hunt
In horse racing in the United Kingdom, France and Republic of Ireland, National Hunt racing requires horses to jump fences and ditches. National Hunt racing in the UK is informally known as "jumps" and is divided into two major distinct branches: hurdles and steeplechases. Alongside these there are "bumpers", which are National Hunt flat races. In a hurdles race, the horses jump over obstacles called hurdles; in a steeplechase the horses jump over a variety of obstacles that can include plain fences, water jump or an open ditch. In the UK the biggest National Hunt events of the year are generally considered to be the Grand National and the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Outline Most of the National Hunt season takes place in the winter when the softer ground makes jumping less dangerous. The horses are much cheaper, as the majority are geldings and have no breeding value. This makes the sport more popular as the horses are not usually retired at such a young age and thus become familiar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berkshire in 1957 because of the presence of Windsor Castle, and letters patent were issued in 1974. Berkshire is a county of historic origin, a ceremonial county and a non-metropolitan county without a county council. The county town is Reading. The River Thames formed the historic northern boundary, from Buscot in the west to Old Windsor in the east. The historic county, therefore, includes territory that is now administered by the Vale of White Horse and parts of South Oxfordshire in Oxfordshire, but excludes Caversham, Slough and five less populous settlements in the east of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. All the changes mentioned, apart from the change to Caversham, took place in 1974. The towns of Abingdon, Didcot, Far ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blewbury
Blewbury is a village and civil parish at the foot of the Berkshire Downs section of the North Wessex Downs about south of Didcot, south of Oxford and west of London. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,581. A number of springs rise at the foot of the escarpment of the downs. Some springs feed a small lake called the Watercress Beds, where watercress used to be grown. From here and elsewhere tributaries feed the Mill Brook which carries the water to the river Thames at Wallingford. The A417 road runs along below the escarpment above the springs and through the south of the village. The Blewbury citizens are often called Blewbarians. Prehistory The southern part of the parish is chalk downland and includes a number of prehistoric sites. The Ridgeway is an ancient trackway that passes just south of the parish. Half of the high Blewburton Hill is in the parish. It is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
