Nineteenth century amateur rider Digby Collins was born on September 7, 1836, the son of Edward and Elizabeth Collins. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge. Having finished his university studies, he devoted his life to agricultural pursuits.
In 1858 he rented a farm in Shropshire, where, at that time, there were some races on the Flat and over jumps confined to horses owned by farmers. He was tempted to try his luck with two young horses he’d bought out of an Irish drove and grazed for 12 months. He trained them and rode them but they weren’t fully fit and both were pulled up. However, his enthusiasm for race-riding was duly fired by those early attempts.
Over the next few years, he devoted less time to farming and more time to training and riding horses, the best of whom was the mare Express. During 1861 and 1862 he rode her to win several hunt and steeplechases, the first of which was at Bangor-on-Dee. At that same meeting he also won the open steeplechase on a bay mare named Emily Harris
In 1863 he rode Express to win twice at Bangor, a £64 plate and a silver vase, both in a canter. They also won the Northern Cup at Hoylake. In 1864 they won the Hunt Cup at Birmingham and the three-and-a-half-mile Shrewsbury Handicap Steeplechase, worth £420.
In 1865 they finished second to Bridegroom in a steeplechase at the National Hunt Meeting, held that year at Wetherby. They also took part in that year’s Grand National, won by Alcibiade, but Express was knocked into by another runner, Arbury, and fell.
Around that time, Digby acquired a horse in unusual circumstances. He noticed a good-looking mare pulling a brougham in Piccadilly. No sooner had the coachman loaded his lady passenger, than the mare whipped round, lost her footing and fell, breaking one of the shafts. The lady passenger berated the coachman, telling him never to put the mare in harness again, and to sell her for whatever she would fetch. Digby bought her on the spot for £30. He named the mare Florida and rode her in a mile-and-a-half flat race at Montgomery and in a hurdle race at Llanymynech, winning easily both times. He later sold her for £220.
He owned another mare named Ann Page, whom he rode three times, winning twice: the Boreatton Park Stakes at Basschurch, and the Open Steeplechase at Birmingham. They were unlucky not to win on the third occasion, falling two fences from home when 20 lengths clear.
Digby appeared to have an affinity with mares. Another was Medora – which he renamed Nil Desperandum – on whom he won the Longner Hall Handicap Steeplechase. Yet another was Lady Pigot, who, although she only won one steeplechase for him, made amends when sent to stud, being the granddam of a horse named Midshipmite, who ‘farmed’ military races for many years.
