Sansovino (horse)
Encyclopedia
Sansovino was a British Thoroughbred
racehorse and sire. In a career which lasted from 1922 to 1924 he ran twelve times and won six races. His most significant victory came as a three-year-old in 1924 when he won the Epsom Derby by six lengths in some of the most difficult conditions in the race’s history. He went on to have a modestly successful career at stud.
, who named the colt after the sixteenth-century Italian architect Jacopo Sansovino
.
Sansovino’s sire, Swynford
, who was also owned by Lord Derby, was an excellent racehorse who won the St Leger
in 1910 and went on to be a Champion sire in 1923 . Apart from Sansovino, he sired the dual classic-winning fillies Saucy Sue (1000 Guineas, Oaks
) and Tranquil (Oaks, St Leger) and the three-time Champion sire Blandford
. Sansovino’s dam Gondolette has been described as “one of the most famous mares in the Stud Book
” . She was the dam of Sansovino’s full sister Ferry (1000 Guineas) and the direct, female-line ancestor of such notable thoroughbreds as Hyperion
, Sickle
, Pharamond
, Big Game and Snow Knight
.
Sansovino was trained throughout his career by Lord Derby’s private trainer George Lambton
at the Stanley House stable at Newmarket, Suffolk.
in July for his first racecourse appearance and won the six furlong Ham Produce Stakes by a length from Cleone in a time of 1:15.2. A month later, he was moved up in class for the Gimcrack Stakes
, again over six furlongs at York
. Sansovino won comfortably, beating Dandelion by three quarters of a length but did not run again that season.
in May. Sansovino’s next start was in the Newmarket Stakes
a recognised trial race for the Epsom Derby
. He finished only third but did little wrong in being beaten a head and a neck by the top-class colts Hurstwood and Salmon-Trout after being unsuited by the slow pace and having been badly hampered in the closing stages.
Sansovino’s position as a major contender for the Derby was not, however, established on the public racecourse but in a private trial on the Newmarket training gallops. He was matched against his older stable companions Tranquil and Pharos
and won by six lengths, despite receiving only three pounds in weight The official weight-for-age scale suggests that a three-year-old should be receiving around fifteen pounds from a four-year-old at this point in the season, so the performance was extremely impressive. Indeed, according to one story, one of the riders of the beaten horses rushed home, pawned
his wife’s jewellery, and wagered the money raised on Sansovino for the Derby before the bookmakers learned of the outcome of the trial.
The Derby of 1924 was run in the some of the worst conditions ever seen at Epsom, although the race still attracted a huge crowd, including the King and Queen
. Two of the races on the card were abandoned as persistent heavy rain reduced much of the course to mud. Hundreds of cars and buses were stranded on the course as they sank into the "sodden turf". Sansovino was regarded as a certain stayer and started favourite at 9/2, although, as Lord Derby pointed out in reference to the conditions he had "no practice at swimming.". The weather had an undoubted influence on the running of the race: the rain-soaked starting tapes broke twice, leading to two false starts and several horses were hampered when one runner slipped and fell at Tattenham corner. Ridden by the twenty-one-year-old lightweight, Tommy Weston, Sansovino started slowly but was soon prominent as Dawson City set the pace. He was in the lead at half way and already clear turning for home. In the straight he pulled steadily further away from the field to win by six lengths from St Germans, with Hurstwood a neck away in third. The winning time of 2:46.00 was the slowest since the 2:47.0 recorded by Jeddah
in 1898. The victory was enthusiastically received, with Lord Derby, whose ancestor had given his name to the race, becoming the first member of his family to own the winner since the 12th Earl
in 1787. After the race Lambton claimed that he had "felt confident for months that Sansovino would win" and that he had achieved his life's ambition.
The race was also responsible for a small but famous alteration to Lord Derby's racing colours. Weston accidentally buttoned his white scarf through his black outer jacket. The resulting "white button" was preserved in all subsequent editions of the colours seen most recently being carried by the Breeders' Cup
winner Ouija Board.
Two weeks after the Derby, Sansovino was sent to Royal Ascot where he won the Prince of Wales's Stakes
, beating St Germans "in good style". Later in the same week he ran in the Hardwicke Stakes
but finished unplaced behind the four-year-old Chosroes. The colt was prepared for the St Leger but contracted a respiratory infection that spread among British racehorses in the autumn which left him coughing and disrupted his training. Lambton wanted to rest Sansovino, but Lord Derby insisted that he should run in the St Leger as the colt had already been heavily wagered on for the race by members of the public (Lord Derby himself never gambled). Sansovino was unable to reproduce his mid-season form and finished unplaced behind Salmon-Trout, although The Times
, pointing out that he looked well short of peak condition, felt that he was "not disgraced".
At the end of his three-year-old campaign one correspondent offered the view that Sansovino was "only a fair performer" who had emerged in a year with no outstanding horses.
The Sansovino Handicap was run in the horse's honour at Belmont Park
in the 1930s.
. Sansovino died in October 1940.
Thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...
racehorse and sire. In a career which lasted from 1922 to 1924 he ran twelve times and won six races. His most significant victory came as a three-year-old in 1924 when he won the Epsom Derby by six lengths in some of the most difficult conditions in the race’s history. He went on to have a modestly successful career at stud.
Background
Sansovino, a big, powerful bay horse, was one of sixteen Classic winners bred by his owner Lord DerbyEdward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby
Edward George Villiers Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby KG, GCB, GCVO, TD, PC, KGStJ, JP , known as Lord Stanley from 1893 to 1908, was a British soldier, Conservative politician, diplomat and racehorse owner. He was twice Secretary of State for War and also served as British Ambassador to...
, who named the colt after the sixteenth-century Italian architect Jacopo Sansovino
Jacopo Sansovino
Jacopo d'Antonio Sansovino was an Italian sculptor and architect, known best for his works around the Piazza San Marco in Venice. Andrea Palladio, in the Preface to his Quattro Libri was of the opinion that Sansovino's Biblioteca Marciana was the best building erected since Antiquity...
.
Sansovino’s sire, Swynford
Swynford
Swynford was a British Thoroughbred racehorse. Bred at the 16th Lord Derby's stud in Lincolnshire, England he was sired by John O'Gaunt, a son of Isinglass, winner of the British Triple Crown in 1893...
, who was also owned by Lord Derby, was an excellent racehorse who won the St Leger
St. Leger Stakes
The St. Leger Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain which is open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run at Doncaster over a distance of 1 mile, 6 furlongs and 132 yards , and it is scheduled to take place each year in September.Established in 1776, the St. Leger...
in 1910 and went on to be a Champion sire in 1923 . Apart from Sansovino, he sired the dual classic-winning fillies Saucy Sue (1000 Guineas, Oaks
Epsom Oaks
The Oaks Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbred fillies. It is run at Epsom Downs over a distance of 1 mile, 4 furlongs and 10 yards , and it is scheduled to take place each year in early June....
) and Tranquil (Oaks, St Leger) and the three-time Champion sire Blandford
Blandford (horse)
Blandford was an Irish bred Thoroughbred racehorse best known as the three-time Leading sire in Great Britain & Ireland who sired eleven British Classic Race winners including four which won the Epsom Derby. He was the Leading sire in France and also in England in the same year.He was bred by the...
. Sansovino’s dam Gondolette has been described as “one of the most famous mares in the Stud Book
General Stud Book
The General Stud Book was the original breed registry of the United Kingdom for horses. It specifically was used to document the breeding of Thoroughbreds and related foundation bloodstock such as the Arabian horse....
” . She was the dam of Sansovino’s full sister Ferry (1000 Guineas) and the direct, female-line ancestor of such notable thoroughbreds as Hyperion
Hyperion (horse)
Hyperion was a British bred Thoroughbred, a dual classic winner and an outstanding sire. Owned by Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby, Hyperion won £29,509 during his career - a considerable sum at the time. His victories included the Epsom Derby and St...
, Sickle
Sickle (horse)
Sickle was an English Thoroughbred racehorse who was later exported to the US where he was twice the Leading sire in North America...
, Pharamond
Pharamond II
Pharamond was an English Thoroughbred racehorse who became a successful sire of Champions in the United States where he was registered as Pharamond II. He was a full brother to Sickle, who also stood at stud successfully in the United States. Pharamond was bred and raced by Edward Stanley, 17th...
, Big Game and Snow Knight
Snow Knight
Snow Knight was a Thoroughbred racehorse who won Britain's most prestigious race in 1974, the Epsom Derby, then the following year earned an Eclipse Award as the American Champion Male Turf Horse.-Background:...
.
Sansovino was trained throughout his career by Lord Derby’s private trainer George Lambton
George Lambton
George Lambton was a British thoroughbred racehorse trainer. He was British flat racing Champion Trainer in the 1906, 1911 and 1912 seasons....
at the Stanley House stable at Newmarket, Suffolk.
1923: two-year-old season
Sansovino was sent to GoodwoodGoodwood Racecourse
Goodwood Racecourse is a horse-racing track five miles north of Chichester, West Sussex, in England controlled by the family of the Duke of Richmond, whose seat is nearby Goodwood House...
in July for his first racecourse appearance and won the six furlong Ham Produce Stakes by a length from Cleone in a time of 1:15.2. A month later, he was moved up in class for the Gimcrack Stakes
Gimcrack Stakes
The Gimcrack Stakes is a Group 2 flat horse race in Great Britain which is open to two-year-old thoroughbred colts and geldings. It is run at York over a distance of 6 furlongs , and it is scheduled to take place each year in August....
, again over six furlongs at York
York Racecourse
York Racecourse is a horse racing track in the southwest of the city of York in North Yorkshire, England with a spectator capacity of 60,000. The most famous race to be held at York on an annual basis is the Ebor Handicap, which is run during the Ebor Festival meeting in August...
. Sansovino won comfortably, beating Dandelion by three quarters of a length but did not run again that season.
1924: three-year-old season
Sansovino made his three-year-old debut at Birmingham Racecourse (a venue which closed in 1965), starting at odds of 1/5 against moderate opposition. He was not impressive in narrowly defeating a horse named Rugeley, but the form was boosted to an extent when the runner-up won the Chester CupChester Cup
The Chester Cup is a flat horse race in Great Britain open to thoroughbreds aged four years or older. It is run at Chester over a distance of 2 miles, 2 furlongs and 147 yards , and it is scheduled to take place each year in May....
in May. Sansovino’s next start was in the Newmarket Stakes
Newmarket Stakes
The Newmarket Stakes is a Listed flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and geldings. It is run on the Rowley Mile at Newmarket over a distance of 1 mile and 2 furlongs , and it is scheduled to take place each year in late April or early May.At present, the event...
a recognised trial race for the Epsom Derby
Epsom Derby
The Derby Stakes, popularly known as The Derby, internationally as the Epsom Derby, and under its present sponsor as the Investec Derby, is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies...
. He finished only third but did little wrong in being beaten a head and a neck by the top-class colts Hurstwood and Salmon-Trout after being unsuited by the slow pace and having been badly hampered in the closing stages.
Sansovino’s position as a major contender for the Derby was not, however, established on the public racecourse but in a private trial on the Newmarket training gallops. He was matched against his older stable companions Tranquil and Pharos
Pharos (horse)
Pharos was a British bred Thoroughbred racehorse and a Leading sire in Great Britain & Ireland.-Pedigree:Bred and raced by Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby, he was a brother to the stakeswinners, Fair Isle and Fairway who won 31 races and ₤71,635 between them...
and won by six lengths, despite receiving only three pounds in weight The official weight-for-age scale suggests that a three-year-old should be receiving around fifteen pounds from a four-year-old at this point in the season, so the performance was extremely impressive. Indeed, according to one story, one of the riders of the beaten horses rushed home, pawned
Pawnbroker
A pawnbroker is an individual or business that offers secured loans to people, with items of personal property used as collateral...
his wife’s jewellery, and wagered the money raised on Sansovino for the Derby before the bookmakers learned of the outcome of the trial.
The Derby of 1924 was run in the some of the worst conditions ever seen at Epsom, although the race still attracted a huge crowd, including the King and Queen
Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V....
. Two of the races on the card were abandoned as persistent heavy rain reduced much of the course to mud. Hundreds of cars and buses were stranded on the course as they sank into the "sodden turf". Sansovino was regarded as a certain stayer and started favourite at 9/2, although, as Lord Derby pointed out in reference to the conditions he had "no practice at swimming.". The weather had an undoubted influence on the running of the race: the rain-soaked starting tapes broke twice, leading to two false starts and several horses were hampered when one runner slipped and fell at Tattenham corner. Ridden by the twenty-one-year-old lightweight, Tommy Weston, Sansovino started slowly but was soon prominent as Dawson City set the pace. He was in the lead at half way and already clear turning for home. In the straight he pulled steadily further away from the field to win by six lengths from St Germans, with Hurstwood a neck away in third. The winning time of 2:46.00 was the slowest since the 2:47.0 recorded by Jeddah
Jeddah (horse)
Jeddah was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a career that lasted from 1897 to 1899 he ran nine times and won three races. In the summer of 1898 he became the first horse to win the Epsom Derby at odds of 100/1, and followed up by winning the Prince of Wales's Stakes at Royal Ascot...
in 1898. The victory was enthusiastically received, with Lord Derby, whose ancestor had given his name to the race, becoming the first member of his family to own the winner since the 12th Earl
Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby
Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby PC , styled Lord Strange between 1771 and 1776, was a British peer and politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries...
in 1787. After the race Lambton claimed that he had "felt confident for months that Sansovino would win" and that he had achieved his life's ambition.
The race was also responsible for a small but famous alteration to Lord Derby's racing colours. Weston accidentally buttoned his white scarf through his black outer jacket. The resulting "white button" was preserved in all subsequent editions of the colours seen most recently being carried by the Breeders' Cup
Breeders' Cup
The Breeders' Cup World Championships is an annual series of Thoroughbred horse races, most but not all Grade I, operated by Breeders' Cup Limited, a company formed in 1982. From its inception in 1984 through 2006, it was a single-day event; starting in 2007, it expanded to two days. The location...
winner Ouija Board.
Two weeks after the Derby, Sansovino was sent to Royal Ascot where he won the Prince of Wales's Stakes
Prince of Wales's Stakes
The Prince of Wales's Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to thoroughbreds aged four years or older. It is run at Ascot over a distance of 1 mile and 2 furlongs , and it is scheduled to take place each year in June....
, beating St Germans "in good style". Later in the same week he ran in the Hardwicke Stakes
Hardwicke Stakes
The Hardwicke Stakes is a Group 2 flat horse race in Great Britain open to thoroughbreds aged four years or older. It is run at Ascot over a distance of 1 mile and 4 furlongs , and it is scheduled to take place each year in June.-History:...
but finished unplaced behind the four-year-old Chosroes. The colt was prepared for the St Leger but contracted a respiratory infection that spread among British racehorses in the autumn which left him coughing and disrupted his training. Lambton wanted to rest Sansovino, but Lord Derby insisted that he should run in the St Leger as the colt had already been heavily wagered on for the race by members of the public (Lord Derby himself never gambled). Sansovino was unable to reproduce his mid-season form and finished unplaced behind Salmon-Trout, although The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, pointing out that he looked well short of peak condition, felt that he was "not disgraced".
1925: four-year-old season
Sansovino’s four-year-old season began promisingly as he beat the 2000 Guineas winner Diophon over a mile in the Spring Stakes at Lingfield but in his remaining races, he was disappointing. He returned to Epsom for his next two starts, finishing unplaced in the City and Suburban Handicap and then running six lengths second to St Germans in the Coronation Cup. On his final start he was injured when finishing unplaced in the Jockey Club Cup at Newmarket.Assessment
In their book A Century of Champions, John Randall and Tony Morris rated Sansovino as an “inferior” Derby winner.At the end of his three-year-old campaign one correspondent offered the view that Sansovino was "only a fair performer" who had emerged in a year with no outstanding horses.
The Sansovino Handicap was run in the horse's honour at Belmont Park
Belmont Park
Belmont Park is a major thoroughbred horse-racing facility located in Elmont in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, New York, on Long Island adjoining New York City. It first opened on May 4, 1905...
in the 1930s.
Stud career
As a sire Sansovino was described as “a disappointment, but still useful.” . His most important offspring were Sandwich who won the St Leger in 1931 and the filly Sansonnet, a champion two-year-old who became the dam of Tudor MinstrelTudor Minstrel
Tudor Minstrel was a British-bred Champion Thoroughbred racehorse. He was sired by Owen Tudor, the 1941 Epsom Derby winner.Ridden by Gordon Richards, in 1947 Tudor Minstrel won the 1 mile long 2,000 Guineas by 8 lengths, the largest winning margin in the race since 1900...
. Sansovino died in October 1940.