Tattersalls could not have chosen a better name than 'Sceptre' for the elite sessions of the mares' section of the December Sale, the first of which takes place today. The word 'Sceptre' is redolent of majesty but Sceptre the horse was even more special. Furthermore, hers was a story in which Tattersalls plays a prominent part.
Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster, was one of the most successful owners of the Victorian era. He raced some magnificent homebreds including the mighty Ormonde, whom John Porter trained to win the Triple Crown in 1886. Sadly, the Duke died in December 1899 and the terms of his will meant that the estate had to put his horses up for sale. Tattersalls' July Sale at Park Paddocks in 1900 was the chosen auction. The young 2nd Duke of Westminster, grandson and heir of the 1st Duke, wished to retain the cream of the stud but could not be there as he was overseas (on active service in the Boer War) so he deputed his agent Cecil Parker to accompany John Porter to Park Paddocks, with instructions that they should buy whichever Porter regarded as the best prospects.
Also bound for Newmarket in July Week 1900 was the redoubtable Robert Standish Sievier, one of the great racing characters of that (or any other) age. As a huge punter, he was often completely broke, but by chance he happened recently to have had a good run on the horses. In those days in which the old-school aristocratic owner/breeders reigned supreme, the best-bred young horses almost never came up for sale. ievier had scented a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to buy some top-class prospects and was determined to have the cream of the Eaton Stud consignment, whatever the price.
With Sievier nothing was straightforward. On this occasion, his little prank was to deposit funds (£20,000 in £500 bills) with Somerville Tattersall in advance, but only after the banks had closed the previous evening, thus ensuring that Mr Tattersall spent a nervous and sleepless night locked in his room in the White Hart Hotel, conscious that his cash-stuffed pockets made him an obvious target for villains!
It was widely agreed that the cream of the Eaton draft included a filly from the first crop of Persimmon out of Ormonde's full-sister Ornament. She was not the only perceived diamond in the mine, however, and two lots before her came a magnificent colt by the Ormonde horse Orme out of Kissing Cup. John Porter advised Parker that this colt should be bought, but Sievier wanted him too. The bidding quickly sped past the existing record price for a yearling (6,000 guineas) until, Sievier having bid 9,000 guineas, Porter raised it by another 100 guineas. Sievier admitted defeat.
The Orme colt's price stunned the audience, but it didn't remain a record for long. Two lots later, the Persimmon filly out of Ornament entered the ring.
Sievier opened at 5,000 guineas before the bidding followed the same pattern as the auction for the Orme colt. However, this time, when Porter bid 9,100 guineas, Sievier immediately bid 10,000. The problem for Porter and Parker was that the young Duke had not specified any sums. Porter had already steered Parker into spending 18,000 guineas of the Duke's money, and things now seemed to be getting out of hand. The two men reluctantly decided that enough was enough. Sceptre was now Bob Sievier's horse, at 10,000 guineas, a record which stood for 19 years.
All told, Sievier spent 22,500 guineas at that sale, the bulk of it on Sceptre and a colt by Orme out of Gantlet for whom he paid 5,600 guineas and whom he, rather cheekily, named Duke Of Westminster. His final purchase was not one of the Westminster horses but a massive colt by the 1894 Derby winner Ladas called Lavengro, bred by Lord Rosebery, for whom he gave 700 guineas.
Sievier put Sceptre, Duke Of Westminster, Lavengro and the others into training with Charles Morton at Letcombe Regis, near Wantage. The string enjoyed a very successful summer in 1901, not least because both Lavengro and Duke Of Westminster won at Ascot. Morton had to race Sceptre sparingly because she jarred up on the firm ground, but she won the Woodcote S. at Epsom and the July S. at Newmarket. All should have been rosy in Sievier's world, but it wasn't.
By the end of the year, Sievier was in trouble, as usual his punting having proved his undoing. Furthermore, it wasn't just that he had no money; he had no trainer either. Morton had received an offer to become private trainer for Jack Joel, an offer too good to turn down. Joel and Sievier were deadly enemies, not least because Sievier had developed the habit of goading Joel in his newspaper The Winning Post, and it was generally felt that Joel's principal motivation in hiring Morton was to disrupt Sievier's racing operations.
Even though he urgently needed money, Sievier rejected out of hand an offer of £60,000 for the three star juveniles. However, he had to sell something as his creditors were circling, and he finally accepted a bid of £25,000 from John Porter (on behalf of Mr George Faber) for Duke Of Westminster.
Temporarily, Sievier had some cash, but he still had no trainer. Undaunted, he did what he generally did, ie he took the unconventional option, which in this case meant deciding to train Sceptre himself. Fortunately, he was able to rent (from John Porter) a suitable property: Elston House at Shrewton in Wiltshire.
Sceptre's first run of the year was in the Lincolnshire H., a bizarre choice as a Classic trial but a big betting race which provided Sievier with the opportunity to have a serious 'tilt at the ring'. She ran really well, but not quite as well as Sievier needed: she finished second, beaten a head. Undaunted, he pressed on to Newmarket. First came the 2,000 Guineas, in which she and Duke Of Westminster started joint-favourites. During the race she never saw her former stable-companion as she made all the running to win in race-record time. Two days later she backed up in the 1,000 Guineas and again made all to set a new race-record.
At Epsom, everything went wrong for Sceptre in the Derby, including missing the start and then making up the lost ground far too quickly. She finished fourth behind Ard Patrick, leaving the impression that she would have won easily with a better jockey on board. It can only have been partial consolation for Sievier that Sceptre cantered home in the Oaks two days later.
Ascot was on the horizon, but that couldn't come soon enough for Sievier. In the interim he sent her to Longchamp for France's premier Classic, the Grand Prix de Paris. Again Herbert Randall (a former amateur whom Sievier used for no reason other than that he distrusted all the established riders) rode badly. Even so, she still finished within two lengths of the winner Kizil Kourgan, who herself was regarded in France as a true champion.
Back in England in time to go to Ascot, Sceptre was beaten in the Coronation S. under another shocker from Randall. Sievier finally decided that enough was enough, and engaged Hardy, the apprentice who had ridden her in the Lincoln, to ride her the following afternoon in the St. James's Palace S. She won in a canter, beating Rising Glass who had finished second in the Derby.
Sievier ran Sceptre twice at Goodwood too. She was beaten in the Sussex S. but blew very hard afterwards. Sievier's response was to give her three more gallops before the Nassau S., which was only two days later. These unconventional methods clearly worked as she hacked up in her second assignment.
At Doncaster she won the St Leger hard-held by three lengths. Sievier, of course, couldn't resist the temptation to run back her up two days later in the Park Hill S. Starting at 1/5, she raced like what she was, a tired horse, but finished second even so. Even Sievier accepted that Sceptre had had enough for the year, and scratched her from the Cambridgeshire. With his creditors closing in, he reluctantly entered her in the December Sale, but rumours that she had broken down meant that she did not reach her 24,000-guinea reserve.
Sievier had ended the 1902 season as champion owner with stakes of £23,686 and as the only owner/trainer ever to be Britain's champion trainer, a distinction which he is likely to hold forever. However, his disastrous punting meant that he began 1903 virtually penniless. The only way to keep his creditors at bay was to sell his pride and joy, which he did in the spring, for £25,000 to William Bass, who sent her to Manton to be trained by Alec Taylor Jr.
Alec Taylor Sr had been renowned for working his horses hard but his son took the opposite approach. Sceptre thus found herself enjoying a lifestyle very different from what she had previously known. Her first run of the summer came at Ascot (where she must have been surprised to discover that it was possible to go to a major meeting and run only once!) where she won the Hardwicke S. However, she was unimpressive and blew hard afterwards, forcing Taylor to concede that Sievier's old-school regime might actually have suited her.
Next came 'the race of the century', a legendary Eclipse S. fought out by the winners of eight British Classics, ie Sceptre, Ard Patrick (who had beaten her in the Derby) and Rock Sand, who ended that season as winner of the Triple Crown. Taylor was working Sceptre harder by this time, but even so had come to realise that she still wasn't fully fit. Despite not yet being at her peak, she failed by only a neck to beat Ard Patrick at the end of a battle royal up the Sandown straight, with Rock Sand wilting in the final furlong to finish third.
Sceptre went through the rest of the season unbeaten. At the end of the year, the observation was made to Taylor that, had he trained Sceptre from the outset, she would have gone through her career undefeated. Taylor's typically modest answer, itself something of a compliment to Sievier, was thought-provoking: “Very possibly. But if I had trained her throughout, she wouldn't have won four Classics.”
The story of Sceptre, who stayed in training as a five-year-old but was past her best by then, was far from over. She paid two more visits to Park Paddocks (for the July Sales of 1911 and '17). On the first of these, Somerville Tattersall, realising that she was about to be bought for export, knocked her down to himself (for 7,000 guineas) before subsequently selling her to John Musker. On the latter occasion she was bought, aged 18 and with what turned out to be her final foal at foot, for 2,500 guineas by Lord Glanely, at whose stud in Exning she died in February 1926, aged 27.
It goes without saying that Sceptre did not breed anything nearly as good as she herself had been. How could she have done? Even so, she still produced a 1,000 Guineas runner-up (Maid Of Corinth, by Cyllene). Maid Of Corinth's sister Maid Of The Mist was very smart too, and then did even better at stud, where she bred two Classic winners: Sunny Jane, winner of the Oaks in 1917, and Crag An Eran who in 1921 won the 2,000 Guineas and then finished second in the Derby to Joel's Morton-trained Humorist. Sceptre's descendants have continued to breed good horses, including the 1963 Derby winner Relko (Fr) and the 2000 Preakness S. winner Red Bullet.
The chapters on Sceptre are nowadays a long way back in racing's history books. However, she will never be forgotten, and Tattersalls are to be applauded for this extremely appropriate way of keeping the legend alive.
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