Limber Hill

Limber Hill
Sire	Bassam
Grandsire	Guido Reni
Dam	Mindoon
Damsire	Gainsborough
Sex	Gelding
Foaled	1947
Country	United Kingdom
Colour	Chestnut
Breeder	James Davey
Owner	James Davey
Trainer	Bill Dutton
Major wins
National Hunt Handicap Chase (1955) King George VI Chase (1955) Cheltenham Gold Cup (1956)

Limber Hill (foaled 1947) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 1956 Cheltenham Gold Cup. He was owned and bred by James Davey and trained in Yorkshire by Bill Dutton. After racing on the point-to-point circuit he then ran over hurdles before becoming a steeplechaser in 1954. He made an immediate impact and won the National Hunt Handicap Chase at the end of his first season. In the 1955/56 National Hunt season he was the leading staying chaser in Britain winning both the King George VI Chase and the Cheltenham Gold Cup. He continued to race until 1958 but his later career was disrupted by injury and he never recovered his best form.

Limber Hill was a chestnut gelding with a narrow white stripe bred by his owner James Davey who named the horse after his farm at Great Limber in Lincolnshire. He was the only horse of any consequence sired by the French-bred stallion Bassam. His dam Mindoon showed no racing ability and had had little prior success as a broodmare. In the year before Limber Hill was conceived she had been sent to a non-Thorouhbred stallion in an attempt to breed a field hunter. She was a distant female-line descendant of the influential British broodmare Pamela.

Davey sent the horse into training with Bill Dutton at Malton, North Yorkshire. Dutton first came to fame as an amateur jockey by riding Tipperary Tim to victory in the 1928 Grand National and later became a very successful trainer of both flat horses and jumpers. Apart from Limber Hill his most famous horses were the sprinters Pappa Fourway and Right Boy.

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