Thormanby (horse)

Thormanby
Thormanby. Lithograph by John Sherer
Sire	Windhound (or Melbourne)
Grandsire	Pantaloon
Dam	Alice Hawthorn
Damsire	Muley Moloch
Sex	Stallion
Foaled	1857
Country	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Colour	Chestnut
Breeder	Benjamin Plummer
Owner	James Merry
Trainer	Mathew Dawson
Record	24: 14–4–4
Major wins
Gimcrack Stakes (1859) Epsom Derby (1860) Ascot Gold Cup (1861)
Awards
Leading sire in Great Britain and Ireland (1869)

Thormanby (1857–1875) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a career that lasted from May 1859 to July 1861 he ran twenty-four times and won fourteen races. He was regarded by experts as one of the outstanding horses of his era.

After winning nine races, including the Gimcrack Stakes at York as a two-year-old in 1859 he won the Epsom Derby on his first start of 1860. Although he failed to reproduce his best form in the autumn of his three-year-old season he returned in 1861 to win his first four races including the Ascot Gold Cup.

At the end of the 1861 season he was retired to stud where he sired the winners of many important races. His grandson, Bend Or, became the direct male ancestor of most modern Thoroughbred racehorses.

Thormanby was a lean, wiry, rather plain-looking chestnut horse with a white stripe and a white sock on his left hind leg. He was bred by Benjamin Plummer who had difficulty finding a buyer for the young horse as a yearling at the Doncaster sales before selling him privately for £350 to the trainer Mathew Dawson. Dawson bought the colt for his principal patron James Merry, who was initially reluctant to complete the transaction. Dawson had to keep and feed the horse at his own expense for several months before Merry agreed to hand over the money. Dawson trained the colt at Russley Park, near Lambourn.

Thormanby’s dam was the outstanding racemare Alice Hawthorn (left), who won fifty-two races including the Goodwood and Doncaster Cups. The identity of his sire was officially problematic, as Alice Hawthorn was covered by two stallions, Windhound and Melbourne in 1856. Melbourne, the sire of the Triple Crown winner West Australian was, however true-breeding bay, meaning that all his registered offspring were bay or brown. It is almost certain therefore, that the chestnut Thormanby was a son of the less famous Windhound. This view was supported by the testimony of Mathew Dawson, who was working at the stud at the time of Thormanby's conception: he reported that Alice Hawthorn had rejected Melbourne, but been receptive to Windhound.