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Yes, well detected, Seasider, the answer is indeed Charles Balchin. The horse his older brother, Gus, twice finished 3rd on was Xanthus. That site you mention is a good resource, wish there was one for Newmarket, etc. Do you, or anyone, have any idea if the W.G. Craven who was a member of the Jockey Club was the same person as W. Craven who is listed as a trainer in contemporary newspapers of the late 1850s/early 1860s?
Anyway, back over to you.
GM, the link hereunder takes you to a copy of Baily’s Magazine that features an article on Jockey Club member WG Craven. (Move one page up to find the beginning of the piece.) Horses owned by him were trained firstly by Balchin* at Epsom and subsequently by William Goater at Findon, as at the date of the magazine (1865).
As the trainer W Craven was practising his trade in the late 1850s I suggest that he and WG Craven were not one and the same.
*Would he be the same Balchin as per your previous question, GM?
Thanks, Seasider, I’d never heard of Baily’s and you’ve found some invaluable information. Yes, same Balchin, however, also the same Craven and he was not a trainer! The link, allied to the Epsom site and what I had, has provided the missing part of the jigsaw for me. This is what I’ve deduced.
Charles Balchin shared training premises with his brother William from 1852-1854. William probably went to train in France at this point leaving Charles to train alone at Sutton from 1855 until his death in late 1862.
William George Craven became an owner in 1855. His horse referred to as Zanthus in Baily’s was actually Xanthus according to numerous other sources (the word Xanthus crops up many times in relation to Greek mythology, people, geography, the arts, etc; Zanthus only as an obscure place in Western Australia that may not even have been known under that moniker at the time). Xanthus ran in the 1858-1860 Grand Nationals, piloted by the third brother Francis Augustus (Gus) Balchin, and achieved 3/F/3. He must have been trained by Charles Balchin not his owner as erroneously indicated in some contemporary newspapers.
As Charles continued to train for Craven until the former’s death, Charles must also have trained Xanthus for the 1861 GN when the horse finished 5th to stable companion Jealousy who had a different owner as did The Freshman (fell), also saddled by Charles that year. Xanthus was ridden by Charlie Boyce in 1861. Boyce had trained for owner George Hodgman at Epsom from 1855-1860, he had left his employ, bought a pub, gone bankrupt and returned just to riding by 1861. Meanwhile, Gus Balchin had quit the saddle and taken over as trainer for Hodgman in 1860, he must have trained The Conductor (fell fatally) for the 1861 GN, Hodgman’s only runner.
In 1862 Charles, despite his injuries must still have been capable of calling the shots well enough to train two GN runners, The Tattler (ridden by Boyce), owned by Craven, and Xanthus again, although the latter may well have now been owned by the 4th Lord Sefton.
By the 1863 renewal Charles had died so Craven’s Master Bagot must have been trained by William Goater. Goater was mainly a Flat trainer (but did also saddle Derby Day in the 1872 GN) and W.G. Craven thereafter turned his owning interests from Jumps to the level. Meanwhile, William Balchin trained a runner in the 1865 GN, Arbury (ridden by Boyce!), who was not owned by Craven but by Count A. de Dampoerre, which suggests William Balchin had remained in Chantilly where his five children were born between 1858-1870.
You’re next question will be a breeze, Seasider, after sorting that lot out :)
It’s heartening to know that fake news was alive and well in the 1850s, GM.
Also, kudos to you for your ferocious attention to detail.
What is the connection between a race run at Newmarket, founded over 200 years ago for three year olds and upwards, and a football club currently playing in the EFL Championship.
Five Derby winners won this race between 1805 & 1869. All of them were victorious after their Derby successes rather than before.
Well, I’m being obliged to learn a bit about Flat racing (an anathema!), Seasider.
The race is the Newmarket Stakes and, if taking all three versions of it as the same race, and, without getting into the ‘person connected with race/horse who won it also connected with football club’ scenario, I see that it was won by The Owl in 1895 and The Owls is the current nickname of Sheffield Wednesday (they were originally known as The Groveites (played at Olive Grove), then The Blades(!) before moving to Owlerton in 1898).
I’m more easily seduced by jumps racing as well, GM, but when the answer is found you’ll know why I asked the question.
Anyway, that’s a fair shout on the race but incorrect.
The contest I’m thinking about was established in the latter half of the 18th century. Following a short period of discontinuity, the race resumed in the latter half of the 19th century with different conditions.
To be more specific about the Derby winners, four of them won aged 4 and the other won aged 5.
The Owls/Sheffield Wednesday answer is also regrettably incorrect. A further clue on this will follow, although nicknames are not a factor.
What a shame. I’d hoped you were going to describe how The Owl swooped to victory :)
The Owl was by Wisdom out of Rattlewings. Somebody’s avian knowledge is out of whack there because Rattlewings is colloquial for a Golden Eye duck which, as far as I’m aware, is unrelated to the owl family.
I mention this only because The Owl is not 100% irrelevant to the question, and might bear further investigation.
To consolidate the clues into one post, and adding a bit more to the piece:
What is the connection between a race run at Newmarket, founded over 200 years ago for three year olds and upwards, and a football club currently playing in the EFL Championship.
Five Derby winners won this race between 1805 & 1869. All of them were victorious after their Derby successes rather than before. Four of them won aged 4 and the other won aged 5.
The race is not the Newmarket Stakes.
The contest I’m thinking about was established in the latter half of the 18th century. Following a short period of discontinuity, the race resumed in 1878 with different entry conditions.
The football club is not Owls/Sheffield Wednesday. Nicknames are not a factor.
116 years before the football club played their first game at the current ground, a small house was built where the centre circle is now located. The connection to the Newmarket race concerns the original owner of this property.
Bunbury Cup named after Sir Charles Bunbury
The Stanley family,known as the Earls of Derby ?
Just to add,it is raining heavily on the south coast,I appear to be surrounded by Anoraks,in more ways than one.
A fiendish one, Seasider, but now I see the connection to our previous discourse and have cracked it.
The race is the Craven Stakes which was named after the 6th Baron Craven, William (they all seem to have been called William!), another Craven who was a member of the Jockey Club. And it was the 6th Baron who in 1780 built the original cottage, located where the centre circle now is at Fulham FC.
Nice try FN – my next clue would have been to classify the required answer as a Group race.
Instead, my attempt to slip in another Craven when people were least expecting it has been rumbled. Well done GM.
For completeness, The Owl won the Craven Stakes as well as the Newmarket Stakes, hence the reference to the horse above.
Your turn.
Thanks, Seasider. Talking of birds, my next one is rather whimsical and possibly easy:
Which dual Grand National winning trainer reputedly refused to doff his titfer to a magpie one day at Bourton Hill and broke his collarbone less than 15 minutes later when his mount fell at a gate (it goes without saying he politely raised his hat to all magpies thereafter!)?
WD GM34…….Some intriguing history,great read,keep it up gents.
Just reading about your namesake GM……Dorothy Paget book…in that 34 national Golden Miller was sent by train from Newmarket to Aintree,he carried 12-02,owner and trainer were reported to have had considerable amounts of money riding on the outcome.
The crowd that descended on Aintree was an estimated 250 thousand people,sent off 8/1 second favourite,the rest is history.
He had recorded a record time,9m 20.4 secs,knocking 8 secs off the previous best.
Wow……what an atmosphere that must have been,and what a performance,a great read so far.
If you have the book fine,if not be happy to forward it at later date,let me know.Cheers, FN. Yes, I have that book thank you. And tons of online resources (e.g. newspaper archives) because I’m currently making what I hope will be the ultimate Grand National history website.
Foolhardily, I have attempted to rate the relative merits of GN performances (best to 20 pounds/lengths below only) and Golden Miller’s 1934 effort is joint top with Crisp’s. GM just cruised away from a high class field on a course he disliked, is the only horse to have done the GN/GC double in the same year and won the GC five times. Undoubtedly the best horse of all time based on his career record. The 1930s & 1970s were the truest golden ages of steeplechasing, the 1960s, when Arkle was running was a relatively poor era.
GM beat the record of Kellsboro’ Jack set the previous year. Reynoldstown was marginally quicker than GM in 1935 but carried much less weight. Before KJ the record had stood for 40 years since Cloister but the ground in 1893 was like a road. I don’t think Cloister was quite as good as Come Away who beat him in 1891. The course was made 1/2f shorter in 1888 and pro-rata The Lamb’s time in 1871 was the best until the 1930s. The Lamb’s performance was incredible, the grey obliterated the previous record, the going on the grassed sections was Good to Firm but almost half the course was plough which The Lamb hated.
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