Renowned bloodstock writer Tony Morris with the 23rd in his series celebrating 100 horses instrumental in shaping the Thoroughbred.
Chaucer, br c, 1900, St Simon – Canterbury Pilgrim, by Tristan
There was not a lot about Chaucer’s racecourse performances to suggest that he might make a name for himself as a sire. And, although he reached the advanced age of 26, it was not until after his death that his accomplishments at stud could be properly appreciated. Only then could he be recognised as a major influence.
There was never a reason to crab him in regard to his pedigree. He was by the outstanding sire of his era, while his dam had won the Oaks and was half-sister to Derby victor Jeddah, the pair being out of Pilgrimage, a rare winner of both the 2000 and 1000 Guineas. And when Chaucer was already in stud service further lustre was added to his pedigree with the emergence of his half-brother Swynford (by John o’ Gaunt) as a St Leger winner and champion 4-year-old.
What held Chaucer back was his sheer want of size; he would never quite get to 15.2 hands. His conformation was actually hard to fault, but references to him as an excellent model were commonly interpreted as a comment on a Thoroughbred in miniature. He was small, and for that reason not expected to excel as an athlete; when he duly proved to be an inconsistent performer far removed from top-class, he seemed to confirm the early impression his connections had formed of him.
Chaucer was the second foal of Canterbury Pilgrim, whose breeder, Caroline, Duchess of Montrose, disposed of all her bloodstock at Tattersalls’ July Sales in 1894. Her retirement from breeding meant redundancy for her highly esteemed stud groom John Griffiths, whose expertise was swiftly acquired for a similar role at Knowsley, where the 16th Earl of Derby had lately started to revive the connection with racing and breeding that had brought conspicuous success to a number of his ancestors.
Indeed, Derby instructed his son and heir – Edward, Lord Stanley – to pick Griffiths’ brains about the Montrose yearling fillies heading for that Newmarket auction, and to act accordingly. Griffiths recommended two; Canterbury Pilgrim was knocked down to Stanley for 1,800gns, but he wound up as underbidder at 4,100gns for Roquebrune, who was destined to become dam of Triple Crown hero Rock Sand.
(Derby was not in the market for mares, so Pilgrimage, then 19 years old, was readily overlooked. She fetched only 160gns, with Derby winner Jeddah inside her.)
Canterbury Pilgrim, who had appeared not to stay even half a mile as a 2-year-old, proved a revelation at 3, when her victories included not just the Oaks, but also the Park Hill Stakes at 14 furlongs and the Jockey Club Cup at two and a quarter miles. She was the first among a host of celebrities in the ‘black, white cap’ Derby livery to be trained by George Lambton.
Chaucer was under 15 hands when he made his debut in the well-contested British Dominion Two-Year-Old race at Sandown Park, and he exceeded expectations by reaching second place in a 13-strong field. Next time he finished only third of four in the Rous Memorial Stakes at Goodwood, but there was better to come.
He had worked well at home before the Gimcrack Stakes and was sent off a strong favourite for that York feature, in which he made the most of a 14lb concession from runner-up Sermon, whom he beat by three-quarters of a length. He followed that with a ready victory in the Boscawen Stakes at Newmarket before signing off for the season with second place, four lengths behind old rival Sermon, this time at level weights, in the Prendergast Stakes.
That was not a bad campaign for an under-sized youngster, and over the winter he improved physically, but he was unsurprisingly out of his depth in the 2000 Guineas, for which he started at 100/1. He was supposedly going to be more at home in the Duchess of York Plate at Hurst Park, going off favourite, but he ran flat, unplaced behind William Rufus, who was beating him for a third time. Four days later he finished far back in the Royal Hunt Cup, and after a long absence he ended his second season with another dismal effort with a light weight in a Hurst Park handicap.
Chaucer was much more active as a 4-year-old, running ten times. He began, unquoted and unfancied, with second place in a Kempton Park sprint handicap, and on the strength of that performance he started favourite for a similar event at Gatwick, only to finish a moderate fourth. His challenge for the Wokingham Stakes at Ascot was compromised by a slow start, but he came from way back to reach a respectable fifth place.
Unquoted also-ran
He seemed due for a win, and one duly arrived at the end of June in a handicap at Newmarket, and there soon came another under top weight in a mile handicap at Liverpool. A return to five furlongs for a York handicap did not work out well; he started a warm favourite at 7/4, but finished a poor fifth of eight. Then he tried a mile again at Doncaster, making no show in a field of ten.
Towards the end of October, his target was a 7-furlong Newmarket handicap, but he was once more an unquoted also-ran. However, it came as no surprise that Lambton had Chaucer cherry-ripe in November for a 6-furlong handicap at Liverpool, his owner’s favourite course; that resulted in a half-length victory. It was back to the usual story for the Derby sprint handicap that closed the colt’s campaign – easy to back at 10/1 and a modest fourth place.
Chaucer had 11 races as a 5-year-old, starting with a third in a 6-furlong handicap at Liverpool. He finished second in a similar event run on heavy ground at Newmarket ten days later, but proved better on a hard surface towards the end of May, scoring by half a length in a mile handicap at Doncaster.
He was given two targets at Royal Ascot, resulting in an unplaced effort in the Royal Hunt Cup on the Wednesday and a predictably pointless exercise against solitary rival Hackler’s Pride in the Rous Memorial Stakes on the Thursday. He was beaten five lengths by his celebrated opponent, who started at 25/1 on.
Next on his schedule was the Liverpool Cup over 11 furlongs at the end of July, and of course he won at the lucrative odds of 100/8. Lambton knew how to find favour with his chief employer.
Five further runs in 1905 proved fruitless. He ran seventh of ten in a 7-furlong handicap at Goodwood, far behind in a mile handicap at Derby, fifth in the Duke of York Stakes over ten furlongs at Kempton Park, third in a mile handicap at Newmarket, and finally second in the Liverpool Autumn Cup, failing by half a length to concede 11lb to the winner.
Was he a regular non-trier?
Chaucer opened his fifth campaign with a run in the valuable City and Suburban Handicap over ten furlongs at Epsom. He made no show behind Dean Swift, but was in good company in that respect, as future champion sire Polymelus and future dual Gold Cup winner The White Knight also failed to figure prominently. Things were different back at Liverpool, where he won the Cup for a second time, albeit by only a neck from Velocity, who was trying to concede him 11lb.
Chaucer was behind Velocity when they met again in the Chesterfield Cup over a mile and a half at Goodwood, the pair finishing second and third behind 3-year-old filly Gold Riach. He was then a disappointing last of three in the £100 Rothschild Plate over 11 furlongs at Windsor, and his racing career ended as fourth in the Great Yorkshire Handicap at Doncaster, run over the full St Leger distance of one mile six furlongs and 132 yards.
Eight wins from 35 starts amounted to no kind of advertisement for a prospective stallion. Sure, Chaucer was game, sound and durable, but after displaying a glimpse of quality as a juvenile he turned out to be nothing more than a run-of-the-mill handicapper.
It is hard to examine his record without forming the view that he was a non-trier on numerous occasions, a fraud on the public that trainers in the early part of the 20th century could commit without fear of reprisal from the Jockey Club. There was no rule of racing that insisted that horses should always run on their merits.
George Lambton, an establishment figure whose brother, the 3rd Earl of Durham, had for many years been one of the rulers of the Turf, could campaign his horses just however he liked. His management of Chaucer was extraordinary in that he never seemed to identify the horse’s optimum distance nor felt the need to do so.
Unthinkable as it would seem in our day, the direction of Chaucer the racehorse was never geared toward maximising the chances of stud success for Chaucer the stallion. Nevertheless, as soon as he was taken out of training he was advertised to stand the 1907 season at Knowsley for a fee of 18gns, his book limited to 15 ‘approved public mares’.
Higher profile than expected
In fact, Chaucer’s appeal to other breeders seems to have been limited, as Weatherbys’ official list of foals born in 1908 showed nine, five of them bred by the 16th Earl of Derby, who died in June that year. Two of the colts who were to run in the name of the 17th Earl soon brought their sire a higher profile than many could have expected.
One was Oliver Goldsmith, who scored twice in respectable company as a 2-year-old, while the other, Stedfast, was in a different league altogether. Though from a family of no particular note, he won three of his four races at 2, showing a lot of promise, and more than fulfilled that in his second season.
Not fully wound up when only third of four in the Union Jack Stakes at Liverpool in the spring, he progressed to finish second to Sunstar in both the 2000 Guineas and Derby, his Epsom effort especially laudable as he whipped round and lost 100 yards at the start but finished like a train, beaten only two lengths. He was undefeated in his eight subsequent races as a 3-year-old, which included an Ascot double in the Prince of Wales and St James’s Palace Stakes, the Sussex Stakes and Jockey Club Stakes.
Stedfast continued to thrive at four, when his victories included the Coronation Cup, Hardwicke Stakes and Champion Stakes, and at five, when he brought his career tally of wins to 20, three of them in walkovers. He had several close encounters with Prince Palatine, who was the best of the crop, beating him on two occasions.
A big chesnut horse withn a beautiful action, Stedfast was physically a very different type from his sire. He would always be recognised as Chaucer’s best son on the racecourse, and it was disappointing that his stud career proved unexciting, notable only for 1923 Oaks heroine Brownhylda, whose son Firdaussi won the 1932 St Leger.
Chaucer had only one season at Knowsley, moving to Lordship Stud in 1908, then on to another Newmarket base in Woodland, which remained his home for the rest of his career as a stallion. Largely thanks to Stedfast, he reached fifth place on the sires’ list in 1911 and emulated that achievement in the following year.
A first Classic win
He ranked only seventh in 1913, ninth in 1914, and as low as 16th in 1915, results that reflected the fact that until Stedfast’s surprise emergence as a superior athlete a majority of the mares in his book were of the sort appropriate for a stallion in the bargain basement.
But Chaucer always had Derby’s support, which would stand him in good stead, and the outstanding performances of his half-brother Swynford drew further attention to him. For the 1913 stud season Chaucer was advertised full at 150gns and slated to advance to 200gns in 1914, while newcomer Swynford was to stand at 300gns in both seasons. A Derby-bred filly born in 1913 was the first daughter of Chaucer to notch a Classic victory and become an influential broodmare.
That was Canyon, who won three times as a 2-year-old and was beaten a head in the Dewhurst Plate when trying to concede 1lb to the highly regarded colt Atheling. She opened her second season with a victory over hot favourite Fifinella in the 1000 Guineas, but she failed to match that form again.
She ran sixth to Fifinella in Newmarket’s substitute Derby before disappointing as third of the four runners when a well-beaten favourite, eight lengths behind Hurry On, in the Newbury Stakes. At the time nobody had seemed to appreciate just how good Hurry On was. When he won the September Stakes, the St Leger substitute, in a canter, with Canyon last of five, the penny dropped.
Then it became hard to imagine that the filly had ever started favourite to beat Hurry On, who subsequently trotted up in the Newmarket St Leger and Jockey Club Cup, retiring unbeaten after six races. In time he would become recognised as the best horse to run in England during the World War I years, ranking higher than substitute Triple Crown winners Gay Crusader and Gainsborough.
Canyon came from a family previously associated with the Duchess of Montrose and, before that, with her sometime husband, William Stirling-Crawfurd. The filly’s fifth dam was the latter’s Mayonaise, who had won the 1000 Guineas of 1859 by 20 lengths.
Chaucer was the sire of 17 foals born in 1914, only two of them bred by Lord Derby, but it was one of his mares, Anchora, who delivered the most important of the crop. Indeed, Anchora’s daughter Scapa Flow, beaten in a seller, but a 3-time winner in ordinary company over a mile and a half as a 3-year-old, turned out to be one of the greatest broodmares of the 20th century.
Few could ever match the dam of brothers Pharos and Fairway, sons of Phalaris who became notable achievers as runners and sires, and their younger sister Fair Isle, who won a 1000 Guineas. Pharos and Fairway will both be celebrated in future essays in this series.
At stud Canyon delivered seven winners, four of them by Phalaris. The best of them was Colorado, winner of the 2000 Guineas and third in the Derby before a championship season at four, when he won the Eclipse Stakes by six lengths. His brother Caerleon emulated him in the Eclipse as a 4-year-old.
Colorado died tragically young at six, having got only 44 foals, but there was a lot of quality among them. He ranked second on the sires’ list in 1932 and 1933 and fourth in 1934. His stock proved successful over a variety of distances, including winners of both the July Cup (Coroado) and the Gold Cup (Felicitation). It would be hard to name another stallion in the British Isles who delivered so much class among so few representatives.
In time Colorado would feature most prominently in pedigrees through his daughter Riot. Her Oaks-winning daughter Commotion (by Mieuxcé) produced unbeaten Combat, once-beaten Faux Tirage and Forli’s sire Aristophanes.
As mentioned earlier, Chaucer’s most talented son, Stedfast, proved a disappointing sire. By reason of his victory over Gainsborough in the 1918 Jockey Club Stakes, Prince Chimay was probably second-best of his sire’s colts on the racecourse. He generally under-achieved at stud in France, but he lasted longer in pedigrees than Stedfast through his son Vatout, who rose from selling company at two to win the Poule d’Essai des Poulains and finish in the frame in the Cambridgeshire and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at three. He made his mark as a stallion with sons Vatellor and Bois Roussel, who both outranked him in their stud careers.
Re-examination of his achievements
There were 19 foals in Chaucer’s 1919 crop, 13 of them fillies, and two of that sex attained celebrity. One was Lady Nairne, who never ran but would earn renown in time as the dam of Colombo, champion 2-year-old, winner of the 2000 Guineas, and briefly a sire of some consequence. The other notable filly was Selene, whose dam Serenissima (by Minoru) was just a minor winner, but whose pedigree would read better after her Swynford half-sister Ferry won the 1000 Guineas and Sansovino, her half-brother by the same horse, won the Derby.
In fact, the most significant upgrade to the pedigree came from Selene herself. Lord Derby considered her too small as a yearling, when entries for the Classics had to be made, but that was a decision he came to regret. Selene had a busy first season, winning eight of her 11 races, including the Rous Memorial Stakes at Goodwood and the Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket. She was ranked joint second-best filly of her generation, albeit 10lb inferior to the season’s champion, Golden Corn.
After her third place in the 1000 Guineas, Golden Corn had only one more race, finishing unplaced in the King George Stakes at Goodwood. By contrast, Selene went from strength to strength at 3, again winning eight out of 11. The Nassau Stakes at Goodwood and the Park Hill Stakes at Doncaster featured among her successes, which established her as the best of her sex as a 3-year-old in England since Derby and Oaks heroine Fifinella six years earlier.
Of course, Selene was to earn further renown as a broodmare, delivering two high-class colts by Phalaris in Sickle and Pharamond, and an exceptional son in Hyperion (by Gainsborough), who in his 3-year-old season was rated the best horse yet seen in England in the 20th century. Hyperion has already featured as a subject in this series.
Chaucer’s last significant daughter was Pillion, who scored a surprise victory over 28 rivals in the 1000 Guineas of 1926. The sire had been put down in February of that year following a paralytic seizure, that Classic triumph one of numerous events that took place after his death to cause a re-examination of his stud achievements and the realisation of his significance.
While his impact in the male line was soon recognised as negligible, he was a huge influence through his daughters. He was a key component in establishing and preserving the dominance of Lord Derby’s stud for more than three decades, and the annual lists of successful broodmare sires underlined his impact in that respect.
It was in 1924 that he first made a mark through the offspring of his daughters, when ranking second on that list. He took seventh place in 1925, and after his death he was routinely among the leaders – top in 1927 and 1933, second in 1928, third in 1926, 1929 and 1930, fourth in 1934, fifth in 1932 and sixth in 1931.
It has long been common to measure a stallion’s performance in terms of his male-line descendants, but Chaucer stands as a prime example of a horse who derived well-earned renown through the stud exploits of his daughters.