Robert T. Davies
| Robert T. Davies | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 19, 1849 Toronto, Ontario 
|
| Died | March 22, 1916 (aged 66) Toronto, Ontario
|
| Resting place | Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto |
| Residence | "Chester Park," Toronto |
| Education | Upper Canada College |
| Occupation | Businessman Racehorse owner/breeder |
| Spouse(s) | Margaret Anne Taylor |
| Children | George (b. 1875), Robert (b. 1879), Louise (b. 1882), Norman (b. 1886), Adelia (b. 1888), Wilfred (b. 1889), Melville (b. 1891), Leslie (b. 1895) |
| Honors | Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame (2001) |
Robert T. Davies (May 19, 1849 - March 22, 1916) was a Canadian businessman and thoroughbred and standardbred racehorse owner and breeder.
Born in Toronto, Ontario, he studied at Park School and Upper Canada College, in the early 1870s Robert Davies married Margaret Anne Taylor, the daughter of John Taylor, owner of paper mills in Todmorden Mills, Ontario, just north of Toronto. By the turn of the century, they had eight children and owned a large home at 244 Don Mills Rd (now Broadview/O'Connor) in Todmorden Mills they called "Chester Park."
Davies' brother Thomas Davies owned the Don Brewery at Queen Street at the Don River, which Robert helped manage. In 1877, Robert Davies founded the competing Dominion Brewery only two blocks to the west on Queen Street. Ten years later, his success led to the selling of shares in the company to a group of investors arranged by a London, England banking house. After his wife's family encountered financial difficulties, in 1901 Davies acquired most of the Taylor family holdings in the Don Valley, including two paper mills and the Don Valley Brick Works. By the time of his death in 1916, Robert Davies was one of the wealthiest people in Toronto.
As a boy, Robert Davies developed a love for horse racing and for a while was on jockey in Thoroughbred flat racing. In 1865 at the racetrack in London, Ontario, the then sixteen-year-old rode in that year's edition of the Queen's Plate. He soon turned to training his own horses and at age twenty-two raced and trained Floss who won the 1871 edition of the Plate. The following year, a horse he bred named Fearnaught won the Plate. As of 2008 Robert Davies is the only person to ever ride in the Queen's Plate as well as own, train and breed winners of that race.
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