Mentmore and Crafton Studs
Encyclopedia
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...
horse breeding
Horse breeding
Horse breeding is reproduction in horses, and particularly the human-directed process of selective breeding of animals, particularly purebred horses of a given breed. Planned matings can be used to produce specifically desired characteristics in domesticated horses...
operations that were part of the Mentmore Towers
Mentmore Towers
Mentmore Towers is a 19th century English country house in the village of Mentmore in Buckinghamshire. The house was designed by Joseph Paxton and his son-in-law, George Henry Stokes, in the revival Elizabethan and Jacobean style of the late 16th century called Jacobethan, for the banker and...
estate on the Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....
and Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
borders, England.
The Crafton stud farm is located at Crafton, Buckinghamshire
Crafton, Buckinghamshire
Crafton is a hamlet in the civil parish of Mentmore, in Buckinghamshire, England.The hamlet's name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'farm where saffron grows'. Queen Edith, the wife of king Edward the Confessor, had a hunting lodge in the small area between Mentmore and Crafton known as...
, approximately one mile from Mentmore Towers and was founded circa 1850 by Baron Mayer de Rothschild. The most notable horses from this era included Rothschild's founding stallion
Stallion (horse)
A stallion is a male horse that has not been gelded .Stallions will follow the conformation and phenotype of their breed, but within that standard, the presence of hormones such as testosterone may give stallions a thicker, "cresty" neck, as well as a somewhat more muscular physique as compared to...
King Tom and his offspring Favonius and Hannah who between them won the Epsom Derby, 1,000 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 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 1871.
Mentmore Stud was built between 1913 and 1914 by Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery
Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery
Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, KG, PC was a British Liberal statesman and Prime Minister. Between the death of his father, in 1851, and the death of his grandfather, the 4th Earl, in 1868, he was known by the courtesy title of Lord Dalmeny.Rosebery was a Liberal Imperialist who...
to complement his nearby stud farm at Crafton which he had acquired through his 1878 marriage to Baron Mayer de Rothschild's daughter Hannah
Hannah Primrose, Countess of Rosebery
Hannah Primrose, Countess of Rosebery was the daughter of Mayer de Rothschild and his wife Juliana, née Cohen...
. The first two stallion
Stallion (horse)
A stallion is a male horse that has not been gelded .Stallions will follow the conformation and phenotype of their breed, but within that standard, the presence of hormones such as testosterone may give stallions a thicker, "cresty" neck, as well as a somewhat more muscular physique as compared to...
s to stand at Mentmore
Mentmore
Mentmore is a village and civil parish in the Aylesbury Vale district of Buckinghamshire, England. It is about three miles east of Wingrave, three miles south east of Wing.The village toponym is derived from the Old English for "Menta's moor"...
were Cicero
Cicero (horse)
Cicero was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. He was the best English two-year-old of 1904, winning all five of his races. In 1905 Cicero became one of the shortest priced successful favourites in the history of the Derby, winning at 4/11 to remain undefeated...
and Neil Gow. The 5th Earl won 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...
three times with Crafton-bred horses at Ladas
Ladas (horse)
Ladas was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a career that lasted from 1893 to 1894 he ran eleven times and won seven races. He was the outstanding British two-year-old of 1893 when he was unbeaten in four starts. In the following year he won the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket and the Derby...
, Sir Visto
Sir Visto
Sir Visto was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a career that lasted from 1894 to 1896 he ran thirteen times and won three races. As a three-year-old in the 1895 he won both the Epsom Derby and the St Leger at Doncaster...
, and Cicero
Cicero (horse)
Cicero was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. He was the best English two-year-old of 1904, winning all five of his races. In 1905 Cicero became one of the shortest priced successful favourites in the history of the Derby, winning at 4/11 to remain undefeated...
.
In 1929 both Crafton and Mentmore studs were inherited by Harry Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery
Harry Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery
Albert Edward Harry Meyer Archibald Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery and 2nd Earl of Midlothian , known by his third name of Harry, was a UK politician who briefly served as Secretary of State for Scotland in 1945...
who subsequently bred numerous winners; two of the most notable stallions
Stallion (horse)
A stallion is a male horse that has not been gelded .Stallions will follow the conformation and phenotype of their breed, but within that standard, the presence of hormones such as testosterone may give stallions a thicker, "cresty" neck, as well as a somewhat more muscular physique as compared to...
bred at Mentmore were Epsom Derby winners Blue Peter
Blue Peter III
Blue Peter was a British bred Thoroughbred racehorse whose career was cut short by the outbreak of World War II. He won the Epsom Derby and was later a Leading broodmare sire in Great Britain & Ireland....
(1939) and Ocean Swell
Ocean Swell
Ocean Swell was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a career that lasted from 1943 to 1945 he ran fifteen times and won six races. As a three-year-old 1944 he won the New Derby, a wartime substitute for the Epsom Derby run at Newmarket...
(1944).