Blink Bonny

Blink Bonny
Blink Bonny. Etching by Charles Hunt & Son
Sire	Melbourne
Dam	Queen Mary
Sex	Mare
Foaled	1854
Country	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Colour	Bay
Breeder	William I'Anson
Owner	William I'Anson
Trainer	William I'Anson
Record	19:13-1-2
Earnings	£
Major wins
Gimcrack Stakes (1856) Epsom Derby (1857) Epsom Oaks (1857) Lancashire Oaks (1857) Park Hill Stakes (1857)

Blink Bonny (1854–1862) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and broodmare. In a career that lasted from 1856 to 1858, she ran twenty times and won fourteen races. She was the leading British two-year-old of 1856, when she won eight races including the Gimcrack Stakes at York. In 1857 Blink Bonny won five of her seven races and became the second filly, after Eleanor, to defeat the colts in the Epsom Derby. In the same season, racing against her own sex, she won the Epsom Oaks, the Lancashire Oaks, and the Park Hill Stakes.

Having retired from racing in 1858, Blink Bonny showed exceptional promise as a broodmare, producing three top class racehorses before her premature death in 1862. Blink Bonny was one of only six fillies to win the Derby, and has been regarded by both contemporary and modern authorities as one of the best fillies in Thoroughbred racing history.

Blink Bonny was a powerfully-built bay filly standing 15.2½ hands high with a narrow white blaze and one white fetlock. According to some reports, she was a difficult horse who was unpopular with stable staff on account of her "nasty temper", while others described her as being "remarkably docile." She was bred at Spring Cottage, Malton, North Yorkshire by her owner William I'Anson who also trained the filly at his Hungerford House stable. L'Anson, a Scot, named the filly after a turnpike-gate in Edinburgh, through which he regularly passed when traveling to England.

Blink Bonny was sired by Melbourne, a useful but unexceptional racehorse who became a hugely successful stallion, described by the Farmer's Magazine as "far away the best" of his time: apart from Blink Bonny, he sired the Classic winners West Australian, Sir Tatton Sykes (2000 Guineas, St Leger), Canezou (1000 Guineas), Marchioness (Oaks), Mentmore Lass (1000 Guineas) and Cymba (Oaks). He was Champion sire in 1853 and 1857. Her dam, Queen Mary, was one of the most important broodmares of the nineteenth century. She was "a queer-tempered mare, very wild in the paddock, and blowing defiance to any stranger who approaches her or hers." Apart from producing many good winners, her influence has continued to the present day, with her direct descendants including the 2002 European Horse of the Year Rock of Gibraltar.