Dorothy Paget.

Not a "Would you?" thread then?

It's a "no"  from me in the unlikely event g2d bestows the accolade upon dear old Dotty.

There's a good chapter on Paget in Hitting The Turf by David Ashforth. The Mail article somehow omits to mention that among all her spectacularly bad bloodstock deals she did manage to own none other than Golden Miller, probably the only chaser that might have compared to Arkle.

Her response to the gardener's complaints that he couldn't mow the lawn at night was "Tell Hall to grow gladioli," sent via the usual network of blue, yellow or pink notes, depending on the code allotted to each secretary or assistant.

In the village, Hall was known as "the eunuch", since the villagers couldn't believe Paget would otherwise employ a male - all her other staff, including drivers and mechanics, were female. She claimed that the worst experience of her life was being kissed once by a French drunk.

Remarkably she had been such an accomplished rider when younger that she had ridden in point-to-points side-saddle! Unfortunately she then fell in love with her larders and that was the end of that. She had to have her stockings specially made, as there were none in production big enough to fit her.

She went to great lengths to avoid human contact, booking the whole of Amersham's cinema when she fancied a night at the pictures.

If alive today, she would definitely be a late-night regular on Chit-Chat and would have enjoyed the Politics forum too. When she went to vote, she always took her own pencil out of fear the socialists should have stolen the public ones.

The horse, for younger forumites, is the legendary Golden Miller.

I'll be yer 2nd, Boxy..

right or left mac

is she the one who would ring her booky after the race had been run and still get her bets on?

Bookies used to take her bets during the night long after racing had finished. Her bets were astronomical and she was easily one of the biggest gamblers in Turf history.

Snap jollyswagman

amazing isnt it?

to be fair the way i'm doing at the moment if i rang up my bookie after the race they probably would take my bets

They ring me during the night to take my bets

I have risen thread on Horse Racing forum call old articles if anybody wants to read a longer post about her. Great read. It's on page 5

i thought i was the only loser in betfairland

As she got older and wider, she tended to spend her days sleeping rather than going racing. Ashforth describes Paget phoning up her bookmaker when she finally woke up late at night:

"I'll have £400 on the favourite in the first."
"Very good, Miss Paget. I'm afraid that one let you down."

Hot Chocolate weren't thinking of us two when they wrote that song

hope she took an early price

Photo of her on the racing forum, as mentioned above, which is worse than one here capt

He'd still doer

1.01 he would

She owned the Ballymacoll Sud in Dunboyne.
Her Irish trainer was Charlie Rogers I think he was her stud manager as well,he was the only trainer she didnt fall out with.
Her colours were Blue with a yellow hoop and she had many victories in Ireland but she never visited her Irish stud,I don't think she ever visited Ireland.

She was a great horsewoman in her day yet her first love was motor racing,she tired of that and transferred to racing.
She was also a huge punter.
She was obviously unsuccessful as has been previously stated here she had special rrangements with William Hill.

Definitely would have been a chit chatter. Lived within walking distance from me.

Given her connections (her mother was a Whitney, prominent USA thoroughbred breeders) and her upbringing she was a lousy punter.

Culvin would give her one