Betting your shirt on it . . .
QUESTION Admiring the Grand National jockeys’ colourful shirts, I wondered who makes them? TECHNICALLY, anyone can make jockey silks, but the best known company is Gibson Saddlers of Newmarket, silkmakers to the British Royal Family since 1932.
Queen Elizabeth’s colours are eye-catching – the jacket has a purple body with scarlet sleeves and gold braiding. The black velvet cap has a gold fringe.
There is also Allerton & Company of Bicester, the biggest silk manufacturer in Europe, and Treehouse Sporting Colours Ltd in Droitwich in central England.
It is thought that the practice of wearing racing colours to distinguish between the competitors began with chariot racers in Ancient Rome.
Racing silks first appeared in England in 1515 when Henry VIII was on the throne.
The frequency of race meetings and the number of horses in each race led to confusion so in 1762 the English Jockey Club at Newmarket requested that owners submit specific colours for their jacket and cap.
There are 18 basic colours that can be used in conjunction with 27 jackets and nine different cap designs.
Shapes and patterns may also be used, such as checks, diamonds, cross-belts, crosses and circles, together with epaulets and braiding.
However, the jockey’s breeches must always be white.
To ensure the design is unique and has not been assigned to someone else, racehorse owners have to register their chosen design of silks with the Jockey Club and Weatherbys.
Weatherbys is a private company that administers racing under contract to the British Horseracing Authority, acts as its bank and maintains the thoroughbred breed register.
Colours can be registered for a year, five years, ten years or life. Unlike horses’ names, they can be taken by someone else if you cancel your registration.
If the owner has more than one horse running in the same race, the jockeys wear different coloured cap covers to avoid confusing the punters. Steve Woods, Norfolk. QUESTION In 1613, the future Charles I’s sister went to Germany to marry. What became of her and are any of her descendants still alive? PRINCESS Elizabeth, eldest daughter of James VI of Scotland, was born on August 19, 1596, at Dunfermline Palace.
When her father succeeded Elizabeth I on the English throne as James I in 1603, Elizabeth, her brothers Henry, Prince of Wales (who died in 1612), and the future Charles I moved south.
Considered one of the loveliest princesses in Europe, she married Frederick V, Elector Palatine, at Whitehall Palace on St Valentine’s Day 1613.
They went to live in Heidelberg, Germany. It was a genuine love match.
In 1619, Frederick’s acceptance of the crown of Bohemia led to the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War.
After a reign of only 12 months, which led to them being known as the Winter King and Queen, the couple were driven from Prague in 1620 to a bitter exile of poverty in Holland.
Frederick died in 1632 while trying to regain his crown.
After Charles II’s restoration, Elizabeth came to London, where she died on February 13, 1662. She is buried in Henry VII’s Chapel in Westminster Abbey near her brother Henry.
She had 13 children, including Prince Rupert of the Rhine, who fought for his uncle Charles I during the Civil War.
With the demise of the Stuart dynasty in 1714, the Protestant descendants of her youngest daughter, the Electress Sophia of Hanover, ascended the British throne.
Therefore, Elizabeth is the matriarch of all British monarchs since George I and their descendants, the most recent being Prince Louis of Cambridge. Coryne Hall, royal biographer, Whitehill, Hampshire. QUESTION Which animal can hold its breath longest? MOST people can hold their breath for a minute, as can other primates such as monkeys and apes. With training, this can be extended to five minutes.
Magician David Blaine has performed the feat of holding his breath for 17 minutes. Guinness record breaker Tom Sietas held his breath under water for more than 22 minutes.
Many animals hunt under water, which uses a lot of energy, so it’s hard to assess how long they could stay submerged if they were inactive.
Polar bears submerge for three minutes while sea otters can last for ten minutes. The Emperor penguin can stay under water for 20 minutes, longer than any other bird.
The sperm whale was long thought to be the deepest diving mammal, staying under water for 90 minutes.
But the record for the animal who can stay under water for longest is held by Cuvier’s sperm whale, a smaller species of whale, that dives to an incredible 9,000 ft and can stay submerged for 138 minutes.
Humans replace 20% of the oxygen in our lungs when we breathe while whales, dolphins and porpoises replace around about 90%.
But marine animals don’t just depend on lung capacity, which in a large whale can be as big as a family-sized car.
When they inhale, oxygen is distributed to the brain, heart and other vital organs, and is also stored in muscles.
Many animals have a protein in their muscles called myoglobin that stores oxygen and colours flesh red.
Marine animals possess ten times the amount of land animals, which makes a whale’s flesh appear black.
These myoglobin proteins become electrically charged, increasing oxygen storing capacity tenfold. Bill Naylor, Wilsford, Lincs.
IS THERE a question to which you have always wanted to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question raised here? Send your questions and answers to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Irish Daily Mail, Embassy House, Herbert Park Lane, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. You can also fax them to 0044 1952 510906 or you can email them to charles.legge@dailymail.ie. A selection will be published but we are not able to enter into individual correspondence.