THE Derby may not always live up to its billing as the premier Flat racing classic, but the 1953 iteration certainly did. A memorable day on the Epsom Downs almost provided a winner for the newly crowned Elizabeth II with Aureole, only four days after the coronation.
The young Queen’s chief racing enthusiasm was for the Flat (unlike the Queen Mother, who largely owned steeplechasers) and her special interest lay in Thoroughbred bloodlines; she wanted to breed a Derby winner. Aureole, however, was bred by her father, George VI, by the 1933 Derby winner Hyperion, and she’d inherited the colt on his death in 1952. Aureole raced only twice as a two year old and began his three-year-old campaign with an encouraging fifth in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket. When he followed up with a win in the Lingfield Derby Trial, he was, for a time, ante-post favourite for the big race.
However, Aureole had a flighty temperament. As the Queen stood in the paddock beside the towering figure of the royal trainer Cecil Boyd-Rochfort on that hot, sunny day in early June, the flashy chestnut with a long white blaze was displaying signs of agitation. By the time the flag went up, he’d drifted to 9-1 in the betting, third in the market behind the 5-1 joint-favourites Pinza and Premonition.
Denne historien er fra May 31, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra May 31, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Tales as old as time
By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth
Do the active farmer test
Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair
Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin
Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts
SOS: save our wild salmon
Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish
Into the deep
Beneath the crystal-clear, alien world of water lie the great piscean survivors of the Ice Age. The Lake District is a fish-spotter's paradise, reports John Lewis-Stempel
It's alive!
Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters
There's orange gold in them thar fields
A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd
True blues
I HAVE been planting English bluebells. They grow in their millions in the beechwoods that surround us—but not in our own garden. They are, however, a protected species. The law is clear and uncompromising: ‘It is illegal to dig up bluebells or their bulbs from the wild, or to trade or sell wild bluebell bulbs and seeds.’ I have, therefore, had to buy them from a respectable bulb-merchant.
Oh so hip
Stay the hand that itches to deadhead spent roses and you can enjoy their glittering fruits instead, writes John Hoyland
A best kept secret
Oft-forgotten Rutland, England's smallest county, is a 'Notswold' haven deserving of more attention, finds Nicola Venning
