Beech House Stud is an English Thoroughbred racehorse breeding farm located on Cheveley Road near Newmarket, Suffolk currently owned by Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum's Shadwell Racing operation.
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to the west and Scotland to the north-northwest. The Irish Sea lies west of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, and includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.
The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are considered "hot-blooded" horses that are known for their agility, speed, and spirit.
Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic premise – to identify which of two or more horses is the fastest over a set course or distance – has been unchanged since at least classical antiquity.
Originally a land parcel within the Cheveley Park Stud of Col. Harry L. B. McCalmont, it was purchased by Charles Hackford who sold it in 1930 to Martin H. Benson. Benson developed Beech House Stud into a major breeding operation. Among the sires he owned was Windsor Lad, winner of the 1934 Epsom Derby and St. Leger Stakes and in 1935, the Coronation Cup and Eclipse Stakes.
Cheveley Park Stud is a thoroughbred racehorse ownership and breeding operation in Newmarket, Suffolk, UK, which has bred and owned many notable horses. It is the oldest stud in Newmarket, the "capital" of British racing, with evidence of horse breeding on the site for over a thousand years, and became famous in the early nineteenth century.
Colonel Harry Leslie Blundell McCalmont was a British army officer, race-horse owner, yachtsman and Conservative party politician.
Martin Benson (1879–1972) was the co-founder of Douglas Stewart, one of the largest bookmakers in London, and also the owner of Beech House Stud, a Thoroughbred racehorse breeding farm located on Cheveley Road near Newmarket, Suffolk.
In 1938, Benson purchased the unbeaten Italian-bred Nearco from owner/breeder Federico Tesio for £60,000. The Leading sire in Great Britain & Ireland in 1947 and 1949, and one of the most important sires of the 20th century, Nearco's enduring legacy stems primarily from three of his sons: Nasrullah, Royal Charger, and Nearctic who sired Northern Dancer.
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern and Western Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and the enclaved microstates San Marino and Vatican City. Italy covers an area of 301,340 km2 (116,350 sq mi) and has a largely temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. With around 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth-most populous EU member state and the most populous country in Southern Europe.
Nearco was an Italian-bred Thoroughbred racehorse described by Thoroughbred Heritage as "one of the greatest racehorses of the Twentieth Century" and "one of the most important sires of the century." He was unbeaten, winning 14 races at distances from 1000m to 3000m, including the Derby Italiano and Grand Prix de Paris. He was then sold for a record amount and stood stud in England, where he became the patriarch of several of the most dominant sire lines in Thoroughbred history.
Federico Tesio was an Italian and a breeder of Thoroughbreds for horse racing. He has been called "the only genius ever to operate in the breeding world" and "the greatest single figure in the history of Italian racing".
In 1960, Beech House Stud became part of the substantial Thoroughbred racing holdings of Sir Victor Sassoon whose Epsom Derby winners Crepello and St. Paddy stood at stud here. Sassoon died in 1961 and although his widow continued the racing operations for a time, eventually Beech House Stud was sold to the Italian banker Carlo Vittadini, notably the owner of Grundy.
Sir Ellice Victor Sassoon, 3rd Baronet, GBE was a businessman and hotelier from the wealthy Baghdadi Jewish Sassoon merchant and banking family.
The Derby Stakes, officially the Investec Derby, popularly known as the Derby, is a Group 1 flat horse race in England open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run at Epsom Downs Racecourse in Surrey over a distance of one mile, four furlongs and 6 yards, on the first Saturday of June each year.
Crepello (1954–1974) was a British-bred Thoroughbred racehorse which won England's most prestigious race, the Derby in 1957 and was later a Leading sire in Great Britain & Ireland.
Buried at Beech House Stud:
