The teaser this time referred to the fact that of these fifty horses, the one shown as today`s card is the only one wearing a saddle. There is another possible answer, as it looks like he is the only horse in the set whose name was used for a railway locomotive, on the L.N.E.R, network, right from 1925 until 1962.
Galopin was foaled in 1872. He started racing as a two-year-old, and only ran for just over one year, fitting in nine races, eight of which he won, including the 1875 Derby. However, at the end of 1875, he was retired from racing and sent to stud, which I have to say he probably enjoyed a lot better..
He was quite small for a racehorse, just 15.3 hands high. However he supposedly had great parentage, his father, Vedette, winning the 2,000 Guineas. However Vedette had a long career, and got worn down, being sold for hardly nothing at auction at the age of seventeen. I can but hope he ended his days as a companion, or a riding horse, pottering gently about with a caring, gentle owner, and lots of sugar lumps - but I will not look it up in case I am wrong.
By the way, the word "supposedly" is there for good reason, as recent research into genetics has suggested that our horse is unlikely to have been fathered by Vedette. There are other facts that support this as well, firstly that he was sold with his mother for just a hundred guineas, and then resold soon after. This seems to be the first time that he was linked with Vedette, perhaps to whet the excitement of who would become his new owner, Gusztáv, 5th Prince Batthyany-Strattmann, a Hungarian nobleman who was a great lover of racing and racehorses, and who ran them under the name on our card, Count Gustavus Batthyany.
Now whilst researching him I actually found out why the horse was retired to stud, and that was that Count Batthyany had a serious heart condition, and, on doctor`s advice, racing was just too exciting. In fact he did die of a heart attack, but not until April 1883. In fact he did not even retire Galopin to stud himself, he simply sold him, for 8,000 guineas.
By the way I am delighted to learn that Galopin was indeed extraordinarily happy at stud, and in 1888, 1889, and 1898 he covered more mares than any other stallion.
And he died in 1899, aged twenty-six - the same year that he was immortalised as part of Kinney`s "Famous English Running Horses", as the Derby winner for 1875.
He also appears, along with cameos of his owner, and his jockey, as card 12 of F. & J. Smith`s "Derby Winners", which also mentioned why he was sold and the price he was sold for. Note that this card was issued 1913, and gives the owner as "The late Prince Batthyany"
This set appears in our original Ogden reference book as :
- 143. 50. RACEHORSES. Fronts lithographed in colour. Backs in blue with descriptive text. Home issue. 1907.
By the time of our original World Tobacco Issues Index this set is reduced still further, to just :
- RACEHORSES. Sm. Nd. (50) ... O/2-112
And the same text appears in our updated volume, with a new card code, of O100-448