Hardwicke stakes 2013 thomas chippendale biography
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Lady Cecil's Thomas Chippendale dies from suspected heart attack minutes after winning Hardwicke Stakes at Ascot
By JONATHAN POWELL
Published: | Updated:
A spectacular win for the Cecil family was cruelly turned on its head in the space of 200 heart-breaking yards at Ascot.
One moment the crowds were cheering home Thomas Chippendale, the second hugely popular winner of the week for Sir Henry Cecil's widow Lady Cecil, then seconds later the horse collapsed and died from a heart attack less than a furlong past the finishing line in the Hardwicke Stakes.
Tragedy: Thomas Chippendale passed away moments after winning the Hardwicke Stakes
It was a mind-numbingly painful conclusion to an impossibly difficult week for Lady Cecil following the death of her husband from cancer on June 11.
He was the most successful trainer in the history of Royal Ascot with 75 wins and his widow was determined that the show should go on at the meeting he adored above all others.
Grieving
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Hardwicke Stakes
British horse race
Horse race
| Class | Group 2 |
|---|---|
| Location | Ascot Racecourse Ascot, England |
| Inaugurated | 1879 |
| Race type | Flat / Thoroughbred |
| Website | Ascot |
| Distance | 1m 3f 211y (2,406 metres) |
| Surface | Turf |
| Track | Right-handed |
| Qualification | Four-years-old and up |
| Weight | 9 st 1 lb Allowances 3 lb for fillies and mares |
| Purse | £237,750 (2022) 1st: £134,828 |
| 2024 | ||
| Isle Of Jura | Goliath | Middle Earth |
The Hardwicke Stakes is a Group 2flathorse race in Great Britain open to horses aged four years or older. It is run at Ascot over a distance of 1 mile 3 furlongs and 211 yards (2,406 metres), and it is scheduled to take place each year in June.
History
[edit]The event is named in honour of the 5th Earl of Hardwicke, who served as the Master of the Buckhounds in the 19th century. It was established in 1879, and it was originally open to horses aged three or older. The last three-year-old to win was Heli
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Chippendale's sombre end for stirring week
How credulously, in its hour of need, did the British Turf embrace the random favours of fortune as evidence of some balance or redress. In consecutive races last week, famous wins for his widow and sovereign respectively seemed calculated to console many who had gone to Royal Ascot grieving the most prolific trainer in its history. But those closest to Sir Henry Cecil will convene for his funeral today freshly versed in the callous indifference of fate's every dispensation.
For having celebrated a posthumous winner for Cecil on Thursday, just nine days after he finally yielded in his long fight with cancer, his family and staff at Warren Place were on Saturday dealt a savagely literal lesson in the notion of a "hollow victory". They descended to the unsaddling enclosure to welcome Thomas Chippendale, who had just carved the most fitting of memorials to his late trainer in the Hardwicke Stakes. This same colt, after all, had the previous