Peter Davies

[Refuse To Bend]

Seeing him being interviewed today as the owner of The Famous Five it got me thinking about Peter Davies trained by Henry Cecil in his early days. Owned by Lucayan Stud is it just coincidence they share the same name?

The more I know the less I understand.

[LD73]

The horse was a big flashy chesnut with white stockings and won the 1990 Racing Post Trophy (aka the Futurity) as a 2 yr old under Steve Cauthen where he beat the winners of the Vintage Stakes and Royal Lodge. He was from the first crop of French Derby winner Bering (runner up to Dancing Brave in that Arc).

He was owned by Charles St George who was a long standing owner with Cecil as he owned the mighty stayer and dual Ascot Gold Cup winner Ardross along with the likes of Great Marquess (won Jockey Club Cup and Doncaster Cup in which he beat Champion Hurdler Morley Street!), the unbeaten but ill fated Kneller (Ebor, Doncaster Cup and Jockey Club Cup winner), Lanfranco (William Hill Futurity), Michelozzo (St Leger winner), Tessla (May Hill & Fillies Mile winner), he also owned Saumarez for Cecil prior to him being sold to France early in his 3 yr old season where subsequently he
went on to win the 1990 Grand Prix De Paris and Arc.

Other notable horse that he owned were Bruni (St Leger and Yorkshire Cup winner), Ginevra (Oaks winner) and Lorenzaccio (who beat Nijinsky in the 1970 Champion Stakes).

Thought PD might be Cecil’s Derby horse the following season but he didn’t really progress at 3 and ended up going to Andre Fabre as a 4 year old in 1992, then went to David Loder in 1993 and actually won twice (his first wins since the Racing Post win), he then went on to finish 5th in the Arlington Million and then stayed in the US with Ron McAnally but remained winless and ended his career in South Africa as a winless 7 year old.

Incidentally, there are quite a few ‘famous’ Peter Davies so it is possible that he was named after one of them, interestingly one in particular was Peter Llewelyn Davies who won the Military Cross in WW1, but prior to that (after the death of his parents) he was informally adopted by a certain J. M. Barrie who was a family friend. Barrie publicly identified him as the source of the name for the title character in his 1904 play……….Peter Pan.

[Refuse To Bend]

Nice history and thinking about it the Peter Davies I was referring to would have been 40 odd years younger at the time of the horse.

The more I know the less I understand.

[Author]

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