RACING
THE PECULIAR MISS PAGET The Honourable Dorothy Paget (1906-1960) was one of the most successful owners of her era. In all, her famous yellow and peacock blue colours were to win a total of 1,532 races on the Flat and over the jumps, including winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup an incredible seven times, plus owning the winners of the Derby and the Grand National. But despite her success, she led one of the most peculiar lifestyles of the 20th century. WORDS: SIMON LEYLAND PHOTOS: PRESS ASSOCIATION, EMPICS Five-times Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Golden Miller, also won the Grand National
66
B
ORN on 21 February 1905, Dorothy Wyndham Paget was the (very spoiled) daughter of the wealthy Almeric Paget, who would become Lord Queensborough, and the American heiress Pauline Whitney, whose father was Secretary to the US Navy. She grew into a bad-tempered lump of a woman and in the pampered and glamorous world of the wealthy she stood out as a beacon of dowdiness. A creature of habit, for over 20 years, she nearly always wore the same outfit to the races – a large, shapeless grey ankle-length tweed coat with a plain, dark blue collar, low heeled shoes, thick stockings and, with a cursory nod to fashion, a blue felt hat. Over the years her outfit would be replaced but always with something almost identical. Paget hated the sight of men and surrounded herself with a women-only staff who answered to colours and not to their names She would also not allow her horses to leave at the end of a day’s racing before she had relieved herself in one of the horseboxes. On more than one occasion horses had to be removed in order for her to complete her ritual. In fact on the day Golden Miller famously won his fifth Gold Cup, she performed her ceremonial widdle twice, on the way back from Cheltenham causing a traffic jam in the process. She would sometimes travel to the races by rail, generally reserving a whole carriage to herself and if dining in the restaurant, booking whole tables at a time. Her visits to the local cinema in Amersham, were equally bizarre due to her habit of booking the entire auditorium. Also, if she was not going to the races she would sleep all day, and then would spend all night on the phone to her bookmaker and trainers. Welcome to the peculiar world of Dorothy Paget. Paget did not play at racing; she embraced it wholeheartedly. She spent tens of millions in her pursuit to become Queen of the Turf, as she was called. Her best horses were without doubt the incomparable Golden Miller, five Gold Cups and a Grand National to his name (still the only horse to achieve the Cheltenham Gold Cup/Grand National double in the same season); the double Champion Hurdle winner Insurance; and her Derby winner Straight Deal, who
TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 51
EUROPEAN TRAINER ISSUE 51 PAGET.indd 66
25/09/2015 09:09