Ginevra (horse)

Ginevra
Sire	Shantung
Grandsire	Sicambre
Dam	Zest
Damsire	Crepello
Sex	Mare
Foaled	1969
Country	United Kingdom
Colour	Bay
Breeder	Earl of Suffolk
Owner	1) Charles St. George and Peter Richards 2) T. Hoshikawa (Mrs. Asano)
Trainer	Ryan Price
Record	10: 4 wins
Earnings	£46, 141
Major wins
Epsom Oaks (1972) Ladbrokes Oaks Trial (1972)

Ginevra (1969 – 18 March 1982) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and broodmare best known for winning the 1972 Epsom Oaks. After winning two minor races as a two-year-old she improved in 1972 to win the Ladbrokes Oaks Trial before taking the Oaks. She went on to finish third in the Yorkshire Oaks and the St Leger. At the end of the year she was sold to a Japanese breeding syndicate and exported to Japan. Ginevra did not produce any notable offspring, although two of her daughters had some success as broodmares.

Ginevra was foaled at the Earl of Suffolk's stud in Gloucestershire. Her sire, Shantung, was a winner of the 1959 Prix La Rochette, the Prix Edgard de la Charme and was the second leading sire in France in 1969. Ginevra's dam, Zest, was an unsuccessful racehorse that was bought by the Earl of Suffolk in 1967 for 1,200 guineas. Ginevra was entered in the Newmarket Houghton sale as a yearling in 1970 but failed to make her reserve price of 2,500 guineas, the bidding having stopped at 1,300 guineas. She was later was sold privately to the racing partnership of St. George and Richards for 2,000 guineas.

Ginevra was a bay filly with no white markings. Trained by Ryan Price throughout her career, Ginevra had a difficult and unpredictable personality. She was prone to escaping from her paddock and once jumped the fence three days before the running of the Oaks to graze on a nearby carriageway. Price often had to chase after her himself, noting, "You never knew which direction she was going to go. I must have walked hundreds of miles after the bitch."

Ginevra ran five times as a two-year-old. She won a minor race at Newmarket Racecourse in early June and finished third to Padrona in the Cherry Hinton Stakes at the same course later that month. Ridden by Lester Piggott Ginevra was unplaced in the Knavesmire Nursery Handicap in October at York. In October at Ascot, Ginevra beat Grey Gaston and Carcosa in the Tankerville Nursery Handicap. In the Free Handicap, a rating of the best juveniles to race in Britain, she was allotted a weight of 113 pounds, 20 pounds behind the top-rated colt Crowned Prince and fourteen pounds behind the top-rated filly Rose Dubarry.

...
Wikipedia