Winchester Race Cup, 1825. A George IV silver racing cup and cover, Emes & Barnard, London, 1825

The winner of this cup at Winchester Races on 23 June 1825 was Fulwar Craven’s Longwaist, a bay colt, son of the Duke of Grafton’s Whalebone (1807-1831). He was bred in 1821 by the retired jockey, Tom Goodisson (1782-1840). Shortly after his Winchester success, Craven sold Longwaist to John Mytton (1796-1834) of Halston Park, Shropshire for £3150. A contemporary wrote, ‘Longwaist is now considered to be the best horse in England. He has challenged for the whip a Newmarket; and is ready to run any horse that has ever beat him, next spring, four miles over the course, at Newmarket, for 1000 guineas, or any other sum, however large.’¹ Longwaist died in 1835 after striking his head against a stable doorway, just after 5000 guineas had been refused for him.²

‘”FULWAR CRAVEN [1782-1860],” as with something more than a contempt for the conventional Mr. he insisted on being called, was a bit of a character it was hard to lose. There was an eccentricity about the man that was all his own. It was in obedience neither to any passing whim of fashion nor the “fancy” that he chose to be odd and remarkable – and remarkable he always was. He was an original, no doubt, in a day when there were more of the sort than there are in our own dull and decorous t.mes s; but even then, he ever stood out from amongst his fellows.³

‘We have to record the death of another of the notables of this neighbourhood – Fulwar Craven, Esq., of Brockhampton Park, which event occurred on Saturday last, the 14th instant, in the 78th year of his age. Deceased was for many years a leading character in the fashionable and sporting doings of his day, and although for the last seven or eight years he has resided principally at his country seat, yet for 40 or 50 year antecedent to that t.mes , his well-known figure and equipage were as familiar to the habitues of the High-street as the High-street itself. His death severs another connecting link between Cheltenham as it is to-day, and as it was in “the olden t.mes .”’⁴

Notes

1. Hampshire Chronicle and Southampton Courier, Winchester, Monday, 17 October 1825, p. 3e

2. Theo. Taunton, Famous Horses, London, 1901, p. 139

3. Henry Corbet, Tales and Traits of Sporting Life, London, 1864, p. 99

4. Cheltenham Examiner, Cheltenham, Wednesday, 18 April 1860, p. 8b