Galopin
Sire	Vedette
Grandsire	Voltigeur
Dam	Flying Duchess
Damsire	The Flying Dutchman
Sex	Stallion
Foaled	1872
Died	1899 (aged 26–27)
Country	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Colour	Bay
Breeder	William Taylor Sharpe
Owner	Prince Gustavus Batthyany Henry Chaplin, 1st Viscount Chaplin
Trainer	John Dawson, Sr.
Record	9: 8–1–0[1]
Earnings	£4,950[2]
Major wins
Fern Hill Stakes (1874, 1875) New Stakes (1874) Epsom Derby (1875)
Awards
Leading sire in GB & Ireland (1888, 1889, 1898)

Galopin (1872–1899) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a racing career which lasted from June 1874 until October 1875 he ran nine times and won eight races. He was one of the best British two-year-olds of 1874, winning his first three races before sustaining the only defeat of his career in the Middle Park Plate. In 1875, he won all five of his races including the Derby. At the end of the season he was retired to stud where he became an extremely successful and influential breeding stallion.

Background

Galopin was a bay stallion standing 15.3 hands high, bred in Lincolnshire by William Taylor Sharpe. His reported sire, Vedette, was a successful racehorse, winning the Great Yorkshire Stakes, the Doncaster Cup (twice), and the 1857 2,000 Guineas Stakes. Vedette's value as a stallion had declined to such an extent that he was sold at auction for 42 guineas when he was seventeen.^[3] Apart from Galopin, the best of Vedette's offspring was Speculum, who won the Goodwood Cup, the Suburban Handicap, was third in The Derby, and was Britain's Champion Sire in 1878. Vedette also sired some good hunters. Genetic evidence ^[4] indicates that Galopin's offspring do not share the Y chromosome haplotype of the sire line to which Vedette belongs. This substantiates earlier suggestions that another horse, Delight, belonging to the sire line with the Y chromosome haplotype corresponding to that inferred for Galopin, was the latter's true sire.^[5] Galopin's dam Flying Duchess (1853) was by the 1849 Epsom Derby winner The Flying Dutchman.

As a foal, Galopin and his mother were sold for a combined price of 100 guineas by a representative of the Middle Park stud.^[3] A year later, the yearling was offered for sale again, and was bought for 520 guineas by the Hungarian aristocrat Gustavus Batthyany,^[6] acting on the advice of his private trainer John Dawson. Galopin was trained by Dawson at Batthyany's Warren House stable at Newmarket, Suffolk.^[7]

Racing career

Stud record

After the death of the Prince in 1883, Galopin was sold to Henry Chaplin for 8,000 guineas, but was not initially well received as a stallion because of the presence of Blacklock in his pedigree. He later stood at Blankney Hall, Sleaford, Lincolnshire. ^[2]

Galopin was the leading sire in Great Britain and Ireland in 1888, 1889 and 1898 and topped the broodmare sire list four times. He was the damsire of Bayardo and of the 1886 U.K. Triple Crown Champion, Flying Fox.^[2]

Assessment and honours

In May 1886 The Sporting Times carried out a poll of one hundred racing experts to create a ranking of the best British racehorses of the 19th century. Galopin was ranked nineteenth, having been placed in the top ten by 14 of the contributors. He was the third highest ranked horse of the 1870s, behind Isonomy and Cremorne.^[8]

From 1925, the London & North Eastern Railway had a tradition of naming locomotives after prominent racehorses, and their Class A1 locomotive no. 2575 (later British Railways no. 60076), which had been built in October 1924, was named Galopin after this horse, and remained in service until October 1962.^[9][10]

Pedigree

See also

• List of leading Thoroughbred racehorses

References