Gallery 3
Featuring : The Thoroughbred and Owners and Trainers
Over million thoroughbred foals are born world-wide each year. Astonishingly, all can trace their ancestry back, father to father, to one of three imported horses – the Godolphin Arabian, the Byerley Turk or the Darley Arabian.
All three horses can be seen depicted in the painting by John Beer titled 'Father of the Turf'. This painting shows a number of other leading thoroughbreds including Eclipse regarded as one of the greatest horses in British racing history.
Eclipse, a chesnut foaled in 1764, was never beaten in eighteen races, at stud he sired the winners of over 860 races. More than eighty percent of the racehorses in the world trace back to him in the tail male line.
The skeleton of Hyperion can be seen, bred and owned by the 17th Earl of Derby. Hyperion won the Derby and St Leger in 1933. He also proved an outstanding success as a sire. When he died in 1960, he had sired the winners in Britain of 748 races.
An example of an old-fashioned stall has been recreated, in which horses stood, before they all enjoyed the freedom of a very larger loosebox. This one comes from Newmarket’s Freemason Lodge Stable, built in 1901 and later the quarters of Sir Cecil Boyd-Rochfort, the royal trainer.
A section devoted to Trainers including Major Dick Hern one of the greatest trainers of modern times and long time principal trainer to HM the Queen. He won every classic at least once and will always remembered for his achievements with Brigadier Gerard who won seventeen of his eighteen races.
Also represented is George Lambton trainer to the sixteenth Earl of Derby who horses included Hyperion. Lambton was a marvellous judge of the thoroughbred and entrusted with buying yearlings, he laid the foundation of the Aga Khan’s highly profitable racing empire. His autobiography “Men and Horses I have known” is widely regarded as the best book of racing memoirs ever written.