01/10/2025
What a lovely horse!
I think...I think the TB registry needs to open, bring in some new genetics. Also I think the horses would stay stronger, more powerfully built, more balanced, if the industry stopped using the futurity model, and instead went back to longer races with qualifying heats. The very fast but spindly legged type would not generally be hardy enough to run several heats in a day, and only those with balanced conformation would stay sound.
Isinglass (1890โ1911) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse who won the English Triple Crown.
In a career which lasted from 1892 until 1895 he ran twelve times and won eleven races. He was the best British two-year-old of 1892 and went on to become sixth winner of the English Triple Crown by winning the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket, The Derby and the St. Leger Stakes at Doncaster in the following year. He was undefeated in his last two seasons, setting a world record for prize money and gaining recognition from contemporary experts as one of the best horses seen in England up to that time.
Isinglass was a powerfully built bay horse standing 16 hands high, bred by his owner Harry McCalmont. He was sired by the double Ascot Gold Cup winner Isonomy out of a mare named Deadlock. Deadlock had a varied career, having been once sold for ยฃ20 and working as a carriage-horse before being bought by McCalmont.
Isinglass was trained at the stable of James Jewitt, who had previously trained the winner of the 1876 Grand National Steeplechase. Jewett handled the day-to-day conditioning of the horse while his racing campaign and strategy was mapped out by McCalmont's racing manager, James Octavius Machell who was described as "one of the most astute racing men to be found either in England or out of it". The horse was ridden in most of his races by Tommy Loates.
