Tikay - I've just read up on Robert Standish Sievier ..... some life story!
If a film was made with that content for a fictional character, everyone would say it's too farfetched to be true!
Real life often puts a 'good story' to shame ............
I have 3 books on Sievier, one being a first edition of his Autobiography, & it's (allegedly) signed by the Man himself. Of all my antiquarian books, that is one of my favourites. Oddly, I later read 2 biographies of him which were much better written, but told a totally different story! He was a very convincing man, but a very crooked one.
Sceptre, well he trained that horse like no man ever trained a horse, giving her 4 mile gallops twice daily, & racing her in big races all over England & France. Remember, getting a horse to an "away" meet in those days was not easy. And she'd run two or three times at a single Meeting. I was never quite sure if he was a genius or an idiot when it came to training, but who else could produce a racemare who could do this?
In 1902, she ran a close second in the Lincolnshire Handicap in March, with RS having backed her to win £32,000. Note that (for non horse-racing peeps) Classic horses don't run in handicaps, especially in March - & deffo deffo deffo not carrying 6st 7lbs....
Weeks later, amazingly, she won the 2,000 Guineas, which is open to colts & fillies, but generally only Colts run in it. She was a filly. (In Horse Racing, pound for pound, colts or horses are better than fillies & mares by a few lbs). A near miracle. Two days later, guess what? She won the 1,000 Guineas! I'm not aware of any other filly that has done that double.
It's the same with the Derby & the Oaks - the former is for Colts (but fillies can run in it) & the latter for fillies only. She ran in the Derby, but an interrupted preparation cost her dearly, & she "only" ran 5th, behind the legendary Ard Patrick. Two days later - yep, you got it - she ran in the Oaks. And won it cosily. (Or as Piggott might have said, "cothily"). So, three Classics already!
Next she went to Paris for the Grand Prix de Paris, (beaten), then to Royal Ascot (ran TWICE, 4th & 1st in the Coronation & St James Palace Stakes), Goodwood (ran twice, 4th in the Sussex Stakes, won the Nassau), then went to Donny and won the St Leger - her 4th Classic! - & ran again two days later in the Park Hill but was edged out.
Meanwhile, Sievier had been gambling recklessly (he used Sceptre as his main gambling medium, but backed anything & everything), & tried to sell her to raise funds. Nobody would buy her, of course, as Sievier had ruined her. To get out of the hole, he ran her in the Lincoln again the next March (carrying 9st 1lb now!) & there was a huge gamble on her, but she could only manage 5th.
Now, that is THE most remarkable story of a racehorse ever ever ever imo.
So when I say it pales into insignificance behind the tale of Robert, it says it all.
Interestingly, chat yesterday was about poker players who play poker well. Well, RS was a very gifted billiards player, (Billiards was THE game then, not snooker), & he gambled hugely on his prowess at the table in Gentlemens Clubs, & in fact, one such grim/gamble landed him in Court in a case against a member of the aristocracy.
Later he fled England for Australia, got up to his old tricks again (once a grimmer, always a grimmer), was soon in Prison, & then a murder went off for which he was the only suspect.
Subsequently, his life began to get more interesting.........
Of all the sporting tales, Ben Johnson, Tiger Woods, Babe Ruth, Ali, Gazza, Besty, Senna, da de da, none comes even close to Sceptre & Robert Standish Sievier.
I'll look out the author of the Bio about him, & the Title of the Book, & Post it here. Read it.
Author