Ancestor Gateway Forum - STAMFORD MEMORIES GATEWAY (Lincolnshire England) used as PRIDE and PREJUDICE FILM SET New Topic  |  Search Thread Topic: Local Racehorse owners Topic Originator: Mike Laughton Post Date May 7, 2011 @ 10:48 PM  Local Racehorse owners Mike Laughton May 7, 2011 @ 10:48 PM Reply  |  Email  |  Print  |  Top LOCAL betting shops have always taken a hammering whenever a locally owned horse has won a big race. In the late 1980s local bookies lost more than £10,000 in one day when Cuvee Charlie won the Lincoln Handicap at 33/1. The horse was part-owned by Richard "Dickie" Davies (a good friend of Clem's) who ran the town snooker hall. Although Dickie only owned a quarter share, the horse ran in his name and colours. As most of the players at the snooker club were involved in other sports, virtually the entire sports community in the area had bets on the horse which was trained in Newmarket by Hugh Collingridge. In more recent times another horse trained by Hugh Collingridge - Lady of Gdansk - had several local people as co-owners. Although the filly didn't win a big race she did well in minor events. The best filly to be owned locally was Lucille Van Geest's Gussy Marlowe which won the Pretty Polly Stakes at Newmarket, the Nell Gwynn stakes at York and came third in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot all in 1991. The filly was trained in Newmarket by Clive Brittain. Lucille loved her horses and had a small stud farm in Bedfordshire where she bred Gussy Marlowe which was named after her daughter. Lucille and her husband John lived in Tinwell Road, Stamford. They donated more than £1 million to Stamford Hospital to build the extension that became the John Van Geest nursing home. Local horses have often done well over the sticks. In 1964 George Vergette's Purple Silk (trained in Market Deeping) finished second in the Grand National. And in 1982 Grittar owned by Frank Gilman from Morcott won the big race. Frank owned Nelson's the Butcher and other companies in Stamford. Kate:  Thanks for that Mike.  Have only been involved in office sweepstakes at work - I won once, "my horse" came first in the Grand National and had one of the fences named after him, yes, it was Foinavon (100-1) in  1967.