Dorothy Paget

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The Honourable Dorothy Paget (1905 – 9 February 1960) was a British racehorse owner. She was the daughter of Lord Queenborough and Pauline Payne Whitney of the USA. She was a cousin of Jock Whitney, owner of the dual Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Easter Hero and latterly American Ambassador in London. She was the granddaughter of William C. Whitney, a wealthy American businessperson and politician who was also a racehorse owner.

Perhaps her chief claim to fame is the establishment of the Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery in France. Dorothy took profound interest in the fate of the Russian refugees after having studied under Princes Vera Meshchersky, one of the Russian Red Cross trustees. It was she who purchased the plot for the cemetery, where such notable Russians as Ivan Bunin, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Rudolf Nureyev were later buried. She also saw to it that the residents of the residential home "were supplied with turkey and plum pudding at Christmas time"[1].

Horses owned by Miss Paget won a total of 1,532 races and she was leading owner in 1933-34,1940-41 and 1951-52. She owned seven Cheltenham Gold Cup winners, Golden Miller five times, 1932-1936 inclusive, Roman Hackle in 1940 and Mont Tremblant in 1952. Her four Champion Hurdle winners were Insurance in 1932 and 1933, Solford in 1940 and Distel in 1946.

Although Dorothy Paget spent today's equivalent of millions and millions of pounds on bloodstock, Golden Miller and Insurance were by far the best known of her horses. They were purchased from Mr. Phillip Carr, the father of A. W. Carr, the Nottingham and England Cricket Captain for 12,000 guineas (£441,000 in today's currency) for both of them. Her Derby winner, Straight Deal, was home bred and sire of the Champion Hurdle winner of 1957, Merry Deal, and it was at her Stud that the great Arkle was foaled.

Her many trainers, seventeen or eighteen in all, included Basil Briscoe, Owen Anthony, Frenchie Nicholson, Fulke Walwyn, Walter Nightingall (under both codes), Henri Jelliss, Sir Gordon Richards and, for a brief period, Fred Darling.

In her early years Dorothy Paget hunted enthusiastically and in the 1920's ran a fleet of Bentleys at Brooklands, driven with considerable success by Sir Henry (Tim) Birkin, a member of the Nottingham lace family. She lived for the most part in Hermits Wood, Chalfont St. Giles, Buckinghamshire, England.

At the outbreak of war in 1939 and for some five years previously the two biggest racecourse gamblers, as opposed to professional backers, were both women. The other was Mrs. J.V. Rank who, like Dorothy Paget, had a number of horses in training but nothing like so many. Neither would hesitate to have £10,000 (£320,000 in today's money) or more on their horses whenever they ran.

Dorothy Paget was only aged fifty-four when she died of heart failure on 9th February, 1960.

[edit] References

  • Gilbey, Quintin. Queen of the turf; the Dorothy Paget story. London, Arthur Barker [1973] [x], 3-160 p. illus. 22 cm. ISBN 0213164353
  1. ^ James E. Hassell. Russian Refugees in France and the United States Between the World Wars. ISBN 087169817X. Page 68.

[edit] External links

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