A Passion for ‘The Turf’
Ouija Board - Winning The Oaks in 2004.
Australia - Winning The Derby in 2014.
The Stanley family’s long and distinguished connection with horse racing and the breeding of thoroughbreds can be traced as far back as Ferdinando, the 5th Earl, who was keenly involved in the sport during the late sixteenth century. He built the octagonal tower at Leasowe Castle on the Wirral in 1593 as a stand for viewing the famous Wallasey races held on Meols sands. James, the 7th Earl, pursued the family’s interest in horse racing during the second quarter of the seventeenth century on the Isle of Man – where he was ‘Lord of Man and the Isles’ - by instituting races on the sands at Derby Haven, near his seat of power, Castle Rushen at Castlehaven. In 1704 his grandson James, the 10th Earl, presented a Derby trophy for these races, a small double-handed cup made in Dublin, which remains in the Derby Collection.
Detailed records in the Knowsley archive, relating to horse racing, exist from the early eighteenth century. These list the 10th Earl’s accounts on expenses paid to jockeys and vets, the sale and purchase of horses, as well as subscriptions for prizes at a number of race meetings across the North West including those at Ormskirk and Wallasey. In the late 1710s and early 1720s, when the Earl was extensively rebuilding the Hall, he commissioned the Flemish painter Peter Tillemans to depict the park, including one spectacular scene showing Lord Derby and his friends on a vantage point at Riding Hill, watching a horse race on a course from what is now the entrance to the Safari Park running down towards the Hall.
During the later eighteenth century it was Edward, the 12th Earl, who was renowned for his sporting enthusiasm and activities. He formalised his passion for horse racing in 1779, when he established the classic race known as The Oaks.
This race, for three-year-old fillies, was named after his Surrey residence near Epsom. The following year 1780 witnessed the founding of the most celebrated classic race of all, The Derby, for three-year-old colts. The race was named on the toss of a coin at a dinner party, held between the host Lord Derby and his great friend Sir Charles Bunbury, another influential figure in horse racing at that time. The distinctive black-and-white colours for Lord Derby’s jockeys were adopted in 1788. In the previous year of 1787, the 12th Earl’s most distinguished colt, Sir Peter Teazle, had won the Derby, being the first winner of this classic race for the family.
The 13th Earl, best known for his deep commitment to natural history, took little direct interest in horse racing and breeding. However, he was part of the aristocratic syndicate which in 1838 formulated plans for the Grand Liverpool Steeplechase, which was first run at Aintree in the following year of 1839. The ‘Grand National’ was instituted, and it is still run every Spring at Aintree, retaining its position as the most famous steeplechase in racing history. Edward Geoffrey, the 14th Earl, the three-times Prime Minister, was on the other hand passionate about horse racing and enjoyed many winners. His son Edward Henry, the 15th Earl, had little interest in the sport. By contrast his younger brother Frederick, who became the 16th Earl in 1893, together with his son Lord Stanley, the future 17th Earl, re-established the family stud at Newmarket, where it still flourishes to this day.
The forty-year-long partnership between the 17th Earl and his first trainer the Hon. George Lambton was certainly the most successful in the Stanley family’s history. Canterbury Pilgrim won The Oaks in 1896. On her retirement she was sent to stud, where she was destined to breed seven winners including Swynford (1910, The St Leger) and Sansovino (1924, The Derby). From her stemmed the entire success of the Stanley family racing empire throughout the first half of the twentieth century. The 17th Earl has recently been voted by the readers of Racing Post as the most important figure in British horse racing and breeding during the twentieth century. His most successful horse was Hyperion. In the two years that he raced, he won nine of out of thirteen races including The Derby and The St Leger in 1933. With Tommy Weston as the jockey, Hyperion won The Derby that year in the record time of two minutes and thirty-four seconds. The horse was retired to Newmarket after the flat season in October 1934 to sire a new generation of champions.
Hyperion - By Sir Alfred Munnings, 1933, oil on canvas, Knowsley Hall.
The 18th Earl continued the family’s passion for ‘the Turf ’, winning the Ascot Gold Cup in 1949 (Alycidon), the St James’s Palace Stakes in 1961 (Tudor Treasure) and The Queen Elizabeth Stakes in 1984 (Teleprompter). Teleprompter was undoubtedly the 18th Earl’s finest horse and won races in England, France and Ireland before going on to win the Budweiser Arlington Million in America. The exceptional tradition of racing and breeding thoroughbreds continues today. The 19th Earl’s Stanley House Stud, managed by his brother, the Hon. Peter Stanley, is still thriving in Newmarket. The family’s most famous success story is based on Lord Derby’s filly Ouija Board, who won seven group one races in three continents including The Oaks in 2004, the Hong Kong Vase 2005, the Prince of Wales Stakes 2006 and the Breeders Cup in 2004 & 2006. Very few great race mares become great brood mates but Ouija Board again proved herself to be exceptional when her fourth foal called Australia won the Derby in 2014. The 19th Earl wrote about his life changing experience of owning Ouija Board in his book A Mare in a Million (Highdown and Racing Post: 2007). The four-hundred-year old Stanley family passion for horse racing – alongside its commitment to the breeding of thoroughbreds in Newmarket – continues with vigour into the twenty-first century.
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