Busybody (horse)

Busybody
Busybody parades before the Oaks, from Illustrated London News, May 1884
Sire	Petrarch
Grandsire	Lord Clifden
Dam	Spinaway
Damsire	Macaroni
Sex	Mare
Foaled	1881
Country	United Kingdom
Colour	Bay
Breeder	Evelyn Boscawen, 6th Viscount Falmouth
Owner	Lord Falmouth George Baird
Trainer	Mathew Dawson Thomas Cannon, Sr.
Record	6:5–1–0
Earnings	£10,620
Major wins
Middle Park Stakes (1883) Great Challenge Stakes (1883) 1000 Guineas (1884) Epsom Oaks (1884)

Busybody (1881–1899), was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and broodmare who won two British Classic Races in 1884. In a racing career which lasted from September 1883 until May 1884 she ran six times and won five races. As a two-year-old in 1883 she won her first three races including the Middle Park Plate and the Great Challenge Stakes before sustaining her only defeat when conceding weight to the winner Queen Adelaide in the Dewhurst Stakes. As a three-year-old she won the 1000 Guineas over one mile at Newmarket and the Epsom Oaks over one and a half miles at Epsom Downs Racecourse a month later. She was then retired to stud where she became a successful broodmare.

Busybody was a small, but exceptionally good-looking bay filly bred by her first owner Evelyn Boscawen, 6th Viscount Falmouth at his stud at Mereworth Castle in Kent. She was sired by Petrarch, a horse which won the 2000 Guineas and the St Leger Stakes in 1876. At stud Petrarch was particularly successful as a sire of fillies: his other daughters included Miss Jummy (1000 Guineas and Oaks) and Throstle (St Leger). Busybody came from an exceptional female family: her dam, Spinaway won the 1000 Guineas and Oaks for Lord Falmouth in 1875 and was a half sister of Wheel of Fortune, an even better racemare who won the same two races four years later. Spinaway and Wheel of Fortune were daughters of the Oaks winner Queen Bertha an influential broodmare, whose other descendants include the classic winners Larkspur, My Babu, Altesse Royale and Festoon.