Owen Tudor (horse)

Owen Tudor began his racing career by winning the Salisbury Stakes Salisbury. In his two other races he was sent to Newmarket where he finished unplaced in the Criterion Stakes and second in the Boscawen Stakes. In the Free Handicap, a ranking of the year’s best two-year-olds, Owen Tudor was rated eighth behind Poise, who as a gelding was ineligible for the Classics.[4]

Owen Tudor began his three-year-old campaign with a win in the Column Produce Stakes. He then started favourite for the 2000 Guineas but finished fifth of the nineteen runners behind Lambert Simnel. Another disappointment followed when he was well beaten in a race at Salisbury. As a result, he was not considered among the leading contenders for the New Derby, especially after a poor performance in a public exercise gallop on 5 June.[5] One of those who kept faith in Owen Tudor was the Champion Jockey Gordon Richards who insisted that the colt would have been his Derby choice had he not been prevented from riding by injury.[6]

Fred Darling saddled five runners of the twenty runners for the New Derby on 18 June, with Owen Tudor being one of the least fancied at 25/1. The ride on Owen Tudor went to the experienced northern jockey William "Billy" Nevett, who was given leave from serving as a Private in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps to take the mount.[7] Although the crowds could not compare with those at Epsom, an estimated 50,000 were in attendance,[8] and the facilities at Newmarket were inadequate for the numbers, resulting in many spectators spending the night in the open.[9] The size of the gathering also provoked security concerns, leading the Royal Air Force to fly almost constant patrol missions in the area.[10] Two furlongs from the finish, the race was wide open, with the horses spread across the wide Newmarket straight.[6] Owen Tudor took the lead soon afterwards and pulled ahead to win, beating his more fancied stable companion Morogoro by one and a half lengths.

Owen Tudor was then given a planned[11] break of two months before returning in August, when he finished fourth to Sun Castle in a race at Newbury.[12] He then disappointed again in the "New St Leger", run at Manchester Racecourse as Doncaster was unavailable,[13] finishing unplaced behind Sun Castle and Chateau Larose. In October the colt came back to form to beat Chateau Larose over fourteen furlongs in the "Newmarket St Leger"[14] (not an official substitute race).

Owen Tudor stayed in training at four and began by winning the ten furlong Trial Plate at Salisbury, ridden by Gordon Richards.[15] In July he returned to Salisbury but finished sixth of the seven runners behind Mazarin in the Quidhampton Plate over one and a half miles.[16] On his final start, Owen Tudor ran in the Newmarket Gold Cup a substitute for the Ascot Gold Cup run over two and a quarter miles. Starting the 5/2 favourite he took the lead at half way and won the race easily from the filly Afterthought with Lovely Trim third.[17] He was then retired to stud.[18]