Cossack (horse)

Cossack
Cossack with Sim Templeman. Painting by Harry Hall.
Sire	Hetman Platoff
Grandsire	Brutandorf
Dam	Joannina
Damsire	Priam
Sex	Stallion
Foaled	1844
Country	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Colour	Chestnut
Breeder	R. C. Elwes
Owner	T. H. Pedley
Trainer	John Day
Record	22:3-7-5
Major wins
Newmarket Stakes (1847) Epsom Derby (1847)

Cossack (1844– after 1862) also known as "The Cossack", was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a career that lasted from July 1846 to June 1849 he ran twenty-two times and won three races. In 1847 he proved himself one of the best British colts of his generation, winning Derby and being narrowly beaten in the St Leger. Although he continued to run well in important staying races for the next five seasons, he failed to win another race and was retired to stud in after running once as an eight-year-old in 1852. No subsequent winner of the Epsom Derby has run beyond the age of five. He was later exported to stand as a stallion in France.

Cossack was a dark chestnut horse standing 15.2 hands high, described by the Farmer's Magazine as having a "neat blood-like head", "clean shoulders" and "very muscular quarters". He was sired by the Northumberland Plate winner Hetman Platoff out of the mare Joannina, a descendant of the influential broodmares Filagree, Web and Penelope.

Cossack was bred at Billing in Northamptonshire by R. C. Elwes. In 1845 the trainer John Day together with a Mr Dilly, visited Elwes stable to view his yearlings. Dilly was unimpressed by the small, upright chestnut but Day thought differently and, after some negotiation, bought him for 200 guineas on behalf of his patron T. H. Pedley, a bookmaker from Huddersfield. Cossack was sent to be trained at Day's stable at Danebury in Hampshire.

Cossack performed impressively in trial gallops at Danebury and had built up a considerable reputation before appearing on a racecourse. His first public run in July 1846 at Newmarket when he started favourite for the July Stakes. He ran poorly, however and finished only third to the filly Miami, who went on to win the following year's Epsom Oaks. Cossack did not race again in 1846.