SUPER SCEPTRE RUN RAGGED BY TRAINER

Graham Buddry remembers a hard-working, brilliant filly

- Graham Buddry

There are five English Classics which resonate throughout the racing world. Their standing is such that a winner of any one of them increases its value at stud far more than the actual prize money won.

The Derby, the most famous Flat race in the world, has had its name added as a suffix to the top race in many countries as a mark of the prestige the race carries.

The oldest of the Classics is the St Leger, first run on 24 September 1776 for 25 guineas, having been devised by the MP for Grimsby, Major-General Anthony St Leger.

In 1779 The Oaks was run for the first time as the result of a dinner party where the 12th Earl of Derby and his guests came up with the race named after his estate.

A year later, in 1780, another new race came into being following another dinner party where legend has it that the Earl of Derby and Sir Charles Bunbury decided on whose name it should carry by the toss of a coin.

Most racing connoisseurs know he holds his own place in the history of the turf through the Bunbury Cup, but how many know that Sir Charles was the driving force who devised both the Two Thousand Guineas, first run in 1809, and the One Thousand Guineas of 1814.

Until the present day quite a number of horses have won two of these races, all of which are open to fillies while only three of them are open to the colts. The “Triple Crown” is deemed to be the Two Thousand Guineas, Derby and St Leger, while the “Fillies Triple Crown” consists of the One Thousand Guineas, Oaks and St Leger.