Expert restoration has breathed new life into a historic horse racing trophy with ties to one of the turf’s greatest champions
We recently received a call from one of the country’s leading silversmiths located in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter. We have known each other for decades and he tends to pull the odd item of interest out for us to have first refusal on. On this occasion he offered me another horse racing trophy for our window display, but it had seen better days. The gold gilding had almost entirely disappeared and rubbed off; the main component of the trophy was battered to say the least, containing many dents and large scratches. It was just about attached to the stem, albeit by a very crude lead solder. The right-hand handle was detached at the bottom of the trophy, and it was all a bit wonky to look at, clearly having seen a long and eventful life both on display and in storage.
However, knowing our silversmith can work his magic on all silver items, I purchased this gem of a trophy and asked if he could restore it back to its former glory. The usual answer was conveyed back to me: ‘I’ll try my best.’ True to form, he took great care in carefully removing the dents, repairing the solder, rebuilding the handle and sympathetically regilding the piece so that its age and character remained, but its beauty was once again revealed.
The trophy itself was not immediately recognisable to me, but the race has great history. The Jockey Club Gold Cup originated in Newmarket in 1873; for a period the race switched to feature in the Cambridge meetings before being held on Champions Day at Ascot. The race was then upgraded to the prestigious Group one status in 2025, cementing its position as one of the most important races in the calendar.
Our trophy has great notoriety from when the race was run at Newmarket. It was won outright by a famous horse of the era, St Gatien. The horse was bred by Major Francis Brace and stabled at Exeter House in Newmarket. He was originally trained by Robert Sherwood; however, in 1883 Brace sold St Gatien for £1,400 to Jack Hammond, a former stable boy who had made his fortune as a professional gambler. St Gatien was entered for the 1884 Epsom Derby, resulting in a dead heat with Harvester. That year he also won the first of his Jockey Club Gold Cups. In 1885, St Gatien was transferred to the stable of James Waugh. St Gatien was the first horse to win the cup three times in succession, from 1884 to 1886. In doing so he retained the coveted trophy.
St Gatien had a very impressive record for the era, winning the Epsom Derby, Ascot Gold Vase and Cesarewitch Handicap, as well as the Jockey Club Gold Cup in 1884. He then won the Jockey Club Gold Cup and Ascot Gold Cup in 1885 and retained the trophy again in 1886, as well as winning the Rous Memorial Stakes that year. The restored trophy, now back to its former splendour, forms a real talking point as part of our window display at our London Street store, often stopping racing enthusiasts and collectors in their tracks as they pass by. It serves as a tangible link between Newmarket’s rich racing heritage and the thriving interest in historic sporting artefacts today.
With sporting memorabilia in great demand, we would be very interested to appraise and value any such items readers may want to sell. Whether it be trophies, medals, race cards, programmes or other racing curiosities, we are always delighted to see pieces with a story to tell. For further information on our free appraisal and valuation service, please drop by the store and speak to James at any time, Tuesday to Saturday from 9am until 4.30pm.