Dorothy Paget

Dorothy Wyndham Paget (21 February 1905 – 9 February 1960) was a British racehorse owner and sponsor of motor racing. Early life Paget was the daughter of Lord Queenborough and Pauline Payne Whitney of the American Whitney family. She was a cousin of Jock Whitney, owner of the dual Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Easter Hero and latterly American Ambassador in London, and granddaughter of William C. Whitney, a wealthy American businessman, politician and racehorse owner. Paget was educated at Heathfield School, Ascot, Berkshire. She lived for the most part in Hermit's Wood, Nightingales Lane, (she also owned Pollards Wood Grange), Chalfont St. Giles, Buckinghamshire, England. Horse racing and gambling Dorothy Paget's mother was a member of the New York Whitney family, which was one of the most prominent thoroughbred horse racing and breeding families in America. Paget too owned a stable of thoroughbreds as well as the Ballymacoll Stud breeding farm in County Meath, Ireland. Her horses won a total of 1,532 races in both flat and hurdling. She was the British flat racing Champion Owner in 1943, the year her horse Straight Deal won The Derby. She was leading National Hunt owner in 1933–34, 1940–41 and 1951–52. She owned seven Cheltenham Gold Cup winners, Golden Miller five times, 1932–1936 inclusive, Roman Hackle in 1940 and Mont Tremblant in 1952. Her four Champion Hurdle winners were Insurance in 1932 and 1933, Solford in 1940 and Distel in 1946. Golden Miller also provided her with her solitary victory in the Grand National in 1934, still the only occasion any horse has won the two major prizes of British steeplechasing in the same season. Although Paget spent today's equivalent of many millions of pounds on bloodstock, Golden Miller and Insurance were by far the best known of her horses. They were purchased from Mr Phillip Carr (the father of A. W. Carr, the Nottinghamshire and England cricket captain) for 12,000 guineas (£441,000 in today's currency) for both of them. Her Derby winner, Straight Deal, was home bred and sire of the Champion Hurdle winner of 1957, Merry Deal, and it was at her Ballymacoll Stud that Arkle was foaled. On her death in 1960, Ballymacoll Stud was acquired by the English industrialist, Sir Michael Sobell.