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Sceptre
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| Foaled: |
1899 |
Died: |
1926 |
| Sire: |
Persimmon |
Dam: |
Ornament |
| Dam Sire: |
Bend Or |
Sex: |
Mare |
| Colour: |
Bay |
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Breeder(s):
1st Duke of Westminster
Trainer(s):
Alec Taylor
Charles Morton
Robert Standish Sievier
Owner(s):
John Musker
Somerville Tattersall
William Arthur Hamar Bass
Robert Standish Sievier
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Dates & jockeys of important wins:
Description:
Sceptre was one of the greatest fillies in history, one of the toughest and gamest ever. She was bred by the 1st Duke of Westminster at his Eaton Stud and bought at the auction of his bloodstock after his death by Robert Sievier for the enormous sum of 10,000 Guineas. It was a good investment, for she won 13 of her 21 starts, including four Classic races. She was unlucky not to win the Derby.
Sievier, a big gambler, was felt to have exposed Sceptre to a punishing regime of races, and was exhausted by the time she ran the Park Hill Stakes two days after her successful St Leger. She was sold to William Bass in very poor condition, but her new trainer Alec Taylor built her up gradually. After the Hardwicke Stakes she took part in one of the greatest races of the 20th century, the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown, facing Ard Patrick and Rock Sand. She lost by a neck. She went on to win three more races that season.
As a five year old she was past her peak and had become a finnicky feeder, refusing black oats or white oats, a mixture, or food given to her on the ground, in a manger or in a sieve, according to her whim. She was however partial to a little piece of chocolate. In 1911 she was sold to Somerville Tattersall (she later belonged to John Musker and then Lord Glanely), but she only bred four winners and was barren for nine years before her death. But her daughter Maid of the Mist bore Sunny Jane and Craig an Eran, and Sceptre's descendant Relko won the Derby in 1963.
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