The H. S. LESTER MEMORIAL CHALLENGE CUP HANDICAP STAKES 51ST RUNNING

H. S. Lester began his involvement in bookmaking in the 1890’s, when as a 16-year-old, he worked for his father William as a bookmaker’s runner on the street corners of the East-end of London. He quickly progressed to making his own books and by 1905, he had made enough money to move to a much better house in Leighton Buzzard. His next house, “Sunloch”, in Banbury was paid for with the profits of betting on the eponymously named winner of the 1914 Grand National.

He started to own horses in 1931, and formed a profitable association with the trainer George Todd, whom he helped buy the stables Manton. Both H. S. and Todd believed that there was no point in owning racehorses unless money could be made from betting. They had some success and H. S. won over 100 races including the Brighton Cup, the Chester Cup, and the Queen Elizabeth Cup at Lingfield.

As the most accomplished risk taker in the family, H.S. would go to considerable lengths to secure the best odds when betting. He is reputed to have driven from Banbury to Brighton and back as he was convinced that he could get better odds on the course in person. The story goes, he drove his Rolls Royce to the course, secured the odds he was looking for, watched the horse come home first, collected his winnings, and drove straight back to Banbury. Petrol must have been a great deal cheaper then!

Not all his attempted coups worked quite as well. On another occasion, he had a horse running on the South coast and drove down to watch, convinced it would win. He carefully told everyone at the course that the horse had no chance, in order to protect the starting price bets he had placed earlier. This might have worked had he not been seen at the last minute placing a bet on his horse. As a result, the starting price tightened considerably - which did not please the trainer!

Away from racing, he was awarded an OBE for his contribution to WW1 and was Mayor of Banbury twice in the early part of WW2.

wing his death, his surviving sons founded The to be run at Salisbury, one of his and George dd’s favourite racecourses day is the 51st running of The Race The Lester mily has contained at least ten bookmakers over ee generations and many more bookmakers’ runners, spread over four generations

We hope you all enjoy today’s racing.

Best Wishes, The Lester Family