Hedworth Barclay

Born on May 10, 1859, Mr Hedworth Trelawny Barclay - familiarly known as Buck - was an amateur rider of repute and the owner of Bendigo, one of the most popular horses of its era and for which Mr Barclay turned down an offer of £20,000 in 1887.

Another good horse to race in Mr Barclay's colours - French grey jacket and violet cap - was Polariscope, which he had purchased from the Hon. George Lambton and on whose back he won several good Hunters' races.

Mr Barclay showed a rare lapse of judgement when, having won the three-mile Ladies' Plate at Sandown Park in 1888 on Playfair, beating Mr E. P. Wilson future Grand National winner Why Not, he subsequently sold him to Colonel G. H. Baird. Shortly afterwards, Playfair, itself, won the Grand National.

At Little Belvoir on March 2, 1894, Mr Barclay - riding Lord Arthur - won the celebrated point-to-point steeplechase between picked followers of the Quorn and Pytchley Hunts, six from each.

Mr Barclay won several races on that good hunter, Mon Roi: he also excelled in the Billesden Coplow Stakes, winning on no less than five occasions. 

On Thursday, May 27 1897, riding Dunrobin at Salisbury, he comprehensively out-rode Morny Cannon on the favourite, Dromens, to win the one-mile Stewards' Plate.

Hedworth Barclay, aged 85, died in Edinburgh on July 24, 1944.