The Horse Corridor
of the works of art in Clarence House, the paintings in the Horse Corridor reflect the interests of Queen Elizabeth, who was a passionate owner and breeder of racehorses. Her racing career was marked by over four hundred wins, and a number of the pictures in the corridor celebrate her horses and victories on the turf. A horse called The Rip won thirteen races for her; the painting by Peter Biegel shows him going down at Cheltenham. Double Star, Makaldar and Laffy were some of her most successful horses, whose pictures hang in the Horse Corridor. Queen Elizabeth came from a long line of breeders, trainers and riders. The painting by John Frederick Herring Snr of a bay racehorse called Touchstone with a stable lad commemorates one of the remarkable successes of John Bowes (1811–85). The illegitimate son of one of Queen Elizabeth’s ancestors, the 10th Earl of Strathmore, Bowes had a string of notable wins and bred some of the most influential sires of the nineteenth century. In 1843 Bowes won the Derby with his horse Cotherstone, sired by Touchstone. An elaborately framed painting that also hangs in the Horse Corridor shows Cotherstone and his jockey surrounded by portraits of Touchstone, his dam, Emma, and two grandsires and grandams.
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the house and gardens
like so many
Touchstone, painted to celebrate his victory at the St Leger in 1834, by John Frederick Herring Snr.
‘Cotherstone’, winner of the Derby, 1843, with W. Scott up in the colours of John Bowes Esq., 1843, by John Frederick Herring Snr.
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The Horse Corridor.
