The Derby Stakes, also known as the Derby or the Epsom Derby, is a Group 1 flat horse race in England open to three-year-old colts and fillies. It is run at Epsom Downs Racecourse in Surrey on the first Saturday of June each year, over a distance of one mile, four furlongs and 10 yards, or about 1½ miles. It was first run in 1780.
Captain William George ("Bay") Middleton was a noted British horseman and an officer of the Royal Lancers. He was equerry to John Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. When Empress Elisabeth of Austria hunted in Britain, he was her pilot. He was described as "one of the best riders to hounds that ever lived, an amusing dare-devil and very good company."
Vanity Fair is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film directed by Chester M. Franklin and starring Myrna Loy, Conway Tearle and Anthony Bushell. The film is modernized adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1848 novel of the same name with the original Regency-era story reset in Twentieth Century Britain. Three years later Thackeray's novel was adapted again as Becky Sharp, the first three-strip technicolor film.
Aidan Patrick O'Brien is an Irish horse racing trainer. Since 1996, he has been the private trainer at Ballydoyle Stables near Rosegreen in County Tipperary for John Magnier and his Coolmore Stud associates. He is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest horse racing trainers of all time.
Michael Vincent O'Brien was an Irish race horse trainer from Churchtown, County Cork, Ireland. In 2003 he was voted the greatest influence in horse racing history in a worldwide poll hosted by the Racing Post. In earlier Racing Post polls he was voted the best ever trainer of national hunt and of flat racehorses. He trained six horses to win the Epsom Derby, won three Grand Nationals in succession and trained the only British Triple Crown winner, Nijinsky, since the Second World War. He was twice British champion trainer in flat racing and also twice in national hunt racing; the only trainer in history to have been champion under both rules. Aidan O'Brien took over the Ballydoyle stables after his retirement.
The British Classics are five long-standing Group 1 horse races run during the traditional flat racing season. They are restricted to three-year-old horses and traditionally represent the pinnacle of achievement for racehorses against their own age group. As such, victory in any classic marks a horse as amongst the very best of a generation. Victory in two or even three of the series marks a horse as truly exceptional.
Michael Terrance O'Brien was an Irish footballer and coach whose career took him to at least 17 different clubs. A well-built six-footer, O'Brien was highly regarded as a centre-half. O'Brien was a dual international and played for both Ireland teams – the IFA XI and the FAI XI. In April 1927, O'Brien made his debut for the FAI XI, four days after he made his last appearance for the IFA XI. During the 1930s, O'Brien managed both Queens Park Rangers and Ipswich Town.
George William Coventry, 9th Earl of Coventry,, styled Viscount Deerhurst from November 1838 until 1843, was a British Conservative politician. He was Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms between 1877 and 1880 and again between 1885 and 1886 as well as Master of the Buckhounds between 1886 and 1892 and again between 1895 and 1901.
Bertram Lytell was an American actor in theater and film during the silent film era and early talkies. He starred in romantic, melodrama, and adventure films.
James Cornelius Kirkwood Sr. was an American actor and director.
Barbara Bedford was an American actress who appeared in dozens of silent movies. Her career declined after the introduction of sound, but she continued to appear in small roles until 1945.
Theodore von Eltz was an American film actor, appearing in more than 200 films between 1915 and 1957. He was the father of actress Lori March.
Ernest Thurston Hall was an American film, stage and television actor.
Conway Tearle was an American stage actor who went on to perform in silent and early sound films.
Hermit (1864–1890), sometimes known, incorrectly as "The Hermit", was a 19th-century British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a racing career which lasted from April 1866 until July 1869 he ran 23 times and won eight races. He was a leading two-year-old in 1866 and won the 1867 Epsom Derby, despite breaking down in training shortly before the race. He continued to race until the age of five, but never recovered his form after running three times in three days at Doncaster in September 1867. After his retirement he had a long and highly successful career at stud.
Wilhelm Diegelmann was a German actor.
Richard Vernon was a British horse breeder and trainer and a politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1754 and 1790.
Good Luck is a 1923 comedy play by Ian Hay and Seymour Hicks.
Lucky in Love is a 1929 musical comedy film directed by Kenneth Webb and starring Morton Downey, Betty Lawford and Colin Keith-Johnston. It was an early sound film, made during the transition from silent films.
