Graham Buddry remembers the amazing Pretty Polly

Since 1962 Newmarket racecourse has staged a race named after Pretty Polly, but who exactly was she?Petty Polly was foaled in March 1901 at Major Eustace Loder’s Eyrefield stud in Ireland before being sent to Peter Gilpin in Newmarket, a trainer who thought little of her at first, especially as she usually worked very lazily.One day, however, her work took her near a group of others being galloped and suddenly she shot off in hot pursuit, almost catching them before being reined in, and with her first race on the horizon she ...