Cloister (horse)

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In 1893, the year in which Cloister won the Grand National, this fine, handsome, big stamp of a chaser made the contest look like a one horse race. The ground was hard that year due to a spring heatwave and Cloister won in record time, with record weight (12-7) and by a record distance (40 lengths).

Cloister was bred in Ireland by Lord Arthur Fingall from a mare on which the postman did his rounds. As a four-year-old he won 7 military or hunter chases in Ireland, in the colours of Major James Orr-Ewing. He was then sold to Lord Dudley who sent him to Richard Marsh to be trained for the 1891 Grand National, which he only just lost due to poor riding by his amateur jockey, Captain Roddy Owen. He was second again in 1892, after which he was sold to Mr Charles Duff and placed under the care of Arthur Yates. With the stable jockey, William Dollery, he finally gained his National - and in what style!

It was his last attempt - he injured himself in the final gallop before the 1894 race, an incident which was strangely known about by the ring before either trainer or owner had heard about it. His head is preserved in the National Horseracing Museum.^[1]