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Copenhagen

admin March 22, 2025

A grandson of the undefeated Eclipse and a son of Meteor, who finished second in the seventh running of the Derby, in 1786, Copenhagen enjoyed his own brief, but not entirely unsuccessful, racing career as a three- and four-year-old in 1811 and 1812. However, he is best remembered as a war horse, specifically as the favoured mount of Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington, who rode him at the Battle of Waterloo, which marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars, in 1815.

Foaled in 1808, possibly in the Danish capital, Copenhagen or, more likely, at Eaton Hall, the country seat of the Duke of Westminster, in Cheshire, North West England, Copenhagen was named, in either case, in honour of the British victory in the Second Battle of Copenhagen, which concluded in the autumn before his birth. Following his retirement from racing in May 1812, Copenhagen was sold to Charles Vane by his original owner Thomas Grosvenor and began his military career in Lisbon, Portugal during the Peninsular War.

Copenhagen was still a five-year-old when he was purchased by the Duke of Wellington, who went on to ride him before, during and after the Battle of Waterloo. Indeed, according to his epitaph, Copenhagen was ridden the ‘entire day’ – or, in other words, continuously for 17 or 18 hours – at the Battle of Waterloo by the ‘Iron Duke’. Wellington later wrote of his gallant horse, “…for bottom and endurance I never saw his fellow.”

In fact, Wellington held Copenhagen in such regard that when he died, of old age, on February 12, 1836 at the age 28, he was buried with full military honours, including a salute fired over his grave, at Stratfield Saye House, Hampshire. His grave is marked by a marble headstone, erected by the Second Duke of Wellington following the death of his father.

American Pharoah

admin March 22, 2025

Foaled in Lexington, Kentucky on February 2, 2012, American Pharoah was bred and owned by Zayat Stables, LLC, under the auspices of Egyptian-American businessman Ahmed Zayat, and trained by Bob Baffert. He was ridden on all bar one of his 11 starts by Victor Espinoza, winning nine of them.

American Pharoah was a beaten favourite on his debut in a maiden special weight race over 6½ furlongs at Del Mar on August 9, 2014, when ridden for the one and only time by Martin Garcia. However, the son of Pioneerof The Nile showed the benefit of that experience making all to win the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity, over 7 furlongs, and the Grade 1 FrontRunner Stakes, over 8½ furlongs at Santa Anita, on his next two starts. Indeed, those two taking victories, by 4¾ lengths and 3¼ lengths respectively, were sufficient to make him Champion Two-Year-Old Male Horse at the Eclipse Awards.

American Pharoah began his three-year-old campaign with wide-margin victories in the Rebel Stakes and Arkansas Derby, both at Oaklawn Park, as the result of which he was sent off favourite for the first of the Triple Crown races, the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, on the first Saturday in May. He justified market confidence in the ‘Run for the Roses’, staying on strongly in the closing stages to beat Firing Line by a length, and just over a month later became the twelfth horse in history to complete the Triple Crown. He readily won the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico by 7 lengths and the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park by 5½ lengths, before coasting home, at long odds-on, in the Haskell Invitational Stakes at Monmouth Park to extend his winning streak to eight races.

Keen Ice, runner-up at Monmouth Park, surprisingly reversed the form in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga in late August, but American Pharoah was not quite finished yet. On October 31, 2015, he made all for an easy, 6½-length victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland, thereby becoming the first horse to win the modern Grand Slam.

Seabiscuit

admin March 17, 2025

If ever there was a ‘rags-to-riches’ story in the history of horse racing, it is that of Seabiscuit. Foaled in Lexington, Kentucky on May 3, 1933, the diminutive colt was originally owned by Gladys Mills Phipps and her brother, Ogden Livingston Mills, under the Wheatley Stable banner, and trained by

James Edward ‘Sunny Jim’ Fitzsimmons. Despite powerful connections, Seabiscuit was still a maiden after 17 starts but, having won handful of run-of-the-mill races, eventually caught the eye

Robert Thomas ‘Silent Tom’ Smith at Suffolk Downs in East Boston, Massachusetts, as a three-year-old, in late June 1936. The grandson of Man o’ War was duly sold to businessman Charles Stewart Howard and so embarked on a journey that would make him an unlikely champion in his own right.

In his four-year-old campaign, in 1937, Seabiscuit won 11 of his 15 starts and was the leading money-earner in North America. The following season, as a five-year-old, by popular demand, he took on the 1937 Triple Crown winner, and Horse of the Year, War Admiral in a highly-anticipated match race for the newly-inaugurated Pimlico Special, billed as the ‘Race of the Century’, over 9½ furlongs at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. Ridden by George ‘The Iceman’ Woolf, Seabiscuit made the early running and, although joined by his younger rival in the back straight, drew away again in the closing stages to win by four lengths. He was voted Horse of the Year in 1938.

Seabiscuit died of a suspected heart attack on May 17, 1947 and was buried at Ridgewood Ranch, California, where his stud barn was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. His story has been told many times, most recently in ‘Seabiscuit: An American Legend’, written by Laura Hillenbrand and published in 1999, and its film adaptation, ‘Seabiscuit’, released in 2003; the latter was nominated for seven Academy Awards.

Black Beauty

admin March 17, 2025

Black Beauty is, of course, the main protagonist, and narrator, of the children’s classic “Black Beauty: His Grooms and Companions, the Autobiography of a Horse” by English author Anna Sewell. Having spent the last seven or eight years of her life writing the novel, Sewell sadly died on April 25, 1878, just five months after its publication. Nevertheless, Black Beauty remains in print 150 years later and, indeed, has sold over 50 million copies worldwide, thereby achieving one of her stated goals, which was “to induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses.”

Although beloved of younger readers, the novel paints an unflinching portrait of the many misguided, and downright cruel, practices involved in the treatment of horses in Victorian England, devoid of sugar coating. It is essentially a morality tale, which teaches the value of kindness, sympathy and understanding, but nonetheless contains accurate, carefully-observed descriptions of equine behaviour and plenty of practical information on the right way to care for horses. Consequently, Black Book was enthusiatically endorsed by animal welfare organisations, including the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA).

As the full title suggests, Black Beauty is the fictional autobiography of a handome, well-bred horse, who passes through the hands of several owners, some kind, some less so, but maintains a gentle, dignified voice as he strives to do his best, regardless of his circumstances. The story ends on a happy, if slightly bittersweet note when, after a lifetime of hardship and mistreatment finds a loving, permanent home which to spend the rest of his days. Black Beauty is reunited with Joe Green, whom he knew as a boy in his younger days, but is now coachman to his new owners. He says, “My troubles are all over, and I am at home.”

Frankel

admin March 17, 2025

Frankel was retired, unbeaten in 14 races, following a convincing 1¾-length victory over Cirrus Des Aigles in the Champion Stakes at Ascot on October 20, 2012. At that point, his trainer, the late Sir Henry Cecil, said, “He’s the best I’ve ever had, the best I’ve ever seen.” Nowadays, Frankel stands at Banstead Manor Stud in Cheveley, near Newmarket, where he commands a fee of £350,000, befitting a stallion who was leading sire in Europe, by prize money, in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Bred by Juddmonte Farms, Frankel raced in the famous pink, green and white colours of the late Prince Khalid bin Abdullah, the founder of that enterprise. Awarded a Timeform Annual Rating of 147, he remains the highest-rated horse in the history of that organisation, 2lb ahead of the 1965 Derby winner Sea-Bird and 3lb ahead of the likes of Brigadier Gerard and Tudor Minstrel.

Ridden throughout his career by Tom Queally, Frankel won 10 races at the highest, Group 1 level, starting with the Dewhurst Stakes, over seven furlongs, at Newmarket on October 20, 2010 and ending with the aforementioned Champion Stakes, over a mile and a quarter, two years later. In between times, he won the 2,000 Guineas, St. James’s Palace Stakes, Sussex Stakes and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes in 2011 and the Lockinge Stakes, Queen Anne Stakes, Sussex Stakes (again) and Juddmonte International Stakes in 2012.

Frankel started favourite on all 14 starts and was sent off at odds-against just once, on his debut in a maiden stakes race at Newmarket on August 13, 2010. Indeed, on his last four starts, he was returned at hugely prohibitive odds of 1/10, 1/20, 1/10 and 2/11. In his career as a whole, he accumulated an aggregate winning distance of 76¼ lengths and fractionally shy of £3 million in prize money.