Yesterday’s hero
Graham Buddry remembers the epic race between two of the greatest horses ever, The Flying Dutchman and Voltigeur
Graham Buddrey on The Flying Dutchman against Voltigeur
The noble sport of horse racing has been around for hundreds of years and it has evolved during that time to the sport we know and love today. Those first tentative steps, however, were more often than not simple cases of “my horse is better than your horse” and the result was a match race; simply two horses racing one-on-one to determine which actually was the best.As this developed the concept arose that the matched horses could contest different distances and quite often with weights allotted according to their age or ability. A prize was put up by each side with the winner taking the stakes and soon the public got involved in betting on the outcome with sizeable chunks of cash changing hands as a result.
Many more races became structured over time with larger fields taking part and the match race in its true form quickly faded into obscurity.In the present day it is almost completely unheard of and the closest is often two giants of the turf amid a couple of also-rans and the odd pacemaker. Back in the early Seventies only injury prevented a “match” being set up over ten furlongs between two of the greatest horses of the twentieth century, Mill Reef and Brigadier Gerard, although it is extremely doubtful if this would have precluded other participants. (Over fences a match race did take place between Dawn Run and Buck House although it wasn’t perhaps the great success envisaged at the time.)
America had a famous match race on November 1,1938 at Pimlico between two champions in Sea Biscuit and War Admiral but perhaps the greatest match race of all time took place at York racecourse on May 13, 1851 between The Flying Dutchman and Voltigeur in what was an all Yorkshire epic.
The Flying Dutchman was owned by Lord Eglinton, trained at Middleham in Yorkshire and was an especially fast twoyear-old, winning all five of his races in excellent style, including the July Stakes at Newmarket and the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster. His sire was the unbeaten Bay Middleton, whose victories included the Two Thousand Guineas and Derby.
As a three-year-old in 1849 The Flying Dutchman started his season off in no less a race than the Derby itself against 25 other runners on heavy ground.Not fully fit even for such a race as this just two cracks of the whip were enough for The Flying Dutchman to land the prize by half a length.His season culminated in his fourth race of the year when easily adding the St Leger to his unbeaten sequence of races.
As a four-year-old The Flying Dutchman began the 1850 season in the Emperor of Russia’s Plate (the original name of the Ascot Gold Cup) over 2½ miles and cantered home eight lengths clear. This was an incredibly fast horse winning over longer distances and to prove his superiority his next event was at Goodwood over even further, yet still he sauntered home again with ten lengths to spare.
Easily acclaimed as the “Horse of the Century” The Flying Dutchman was set to have his final race in the Doncaster Cup where the opposition had all been scared off and a simple walk-over was expected to end his career.
Voltigeur was a year younger but was very similar in many ways having also been bred in County Durham, owned by the aristocracy, Lord Zetland in this case, and also trained in Yorkshire.
One run and one win as a two-year-old was followed with Voltigeur also making his three-year-old debut in the Derby. Twenty four runners faced the starter with Voltigeur a 16/1 chance after a poor look---
To confound events jockey Charles Marlow was apparently very drunk as he mounted Flying Dutchman
ing exercise gallop leading up to the race. What most people didn’t know was that his trainer was so drunk when they arrived at Epsom by train he had left the horse unattended in the railway van for two full days beforehand. To add to the intrigue, Lord Zetland had discovered late on that the correct entry fees had not been paid and was all set to withdraw the horse until he found out his tenants back in Yorkshire had bet heavily on his horse and some faced ruin if he lost. Fortunately Lord Zetland stumped up an additional £400, Voltigeur recovered quickly and they won the Derby with ease.
Three months later at Doncaster Voltigeur proved just how sound and strong a horse he was.The St Leger was a seven runner affair where the other jockeys conspired to box the favourite in on the rails and ruin his devastating late run. Marston, his jockey, thought fast and decided he had little option than to go to the front and make the running and this he did but Voltigeur tired close home as Russborough began a late, surging run for the line. Unable to separate them the judge declared a dead heat and, as was usual way back then, later that afternoon the two horses raced again. Voltigeur was kept on the move all afternoon to prevent him stiffening up and this time he tracked Russborough through the race before leading close home and winning the St Leger by a length, having raced nearly four miles to decide the event.
The following day Voltigeur was out again and kept his unbeaten record, albeit through a walk-over when no other horse took him on. Unperturbed, Voltigeur was entered for another race 48 hours later but this time it was the Doncaster Cup over 2½ miles against The Flying Dutchman.
Voltigeur would have a massive 19lb weight advantage when the two unbeaten colts, both winners of their respective Derby and St Leger, met. And the Flying Dutchman was reportedly not at his fittest.
To confound events jockey Charles Marlow was apparently very drunk as he mounted Flying Dutchman and totally ignored his riding instructions. Instead of setting a slow pace for the first mile and a half and then accelerate from there, Marlow went flat out from flag fall, at one point a good ten lengths clear.As he tied in the home straight Nat Flatman and Voltigeur easily caught the leader and won by half a length.
Needless to say arguments raged as to whether The Flying Dutchman would have lost if he had been fit and his jockey sober. The only solution was a rematch which was set for York racecourse on May 13, 1851 over 2 miles with each side putting up a £1000 stake although this was dwarfed by the reputed million pounds wagered on the race.
The weights for this clash of the titans was set by Captain (later Admiral) Henry Rous, with The Flying Dutchman set to give his year younger rival exactly 8½ lbs which seemed spot on as the two protagonists couldn’t be separated and would start evens the pair.
Both horses were fit, their jockeys sober and tactics planned. Flatman sent Voltigeur into the lead at a sensible pace with Marlow and The Flying Dutchman tracking his every move a couple of
lengths behind. Voltigeur gradually increased the pace to try and blunt The Flying Dutchman’s finishing speed while Marlow kept with him while trying to keep something in reserve for the finish. On they raced and eventually they turned into the home straight where The Flying Dutchman eased up on the outside of Voltigeur as the massive 100,000 crowd started to cheer and shout for their heroes.
Just over a furlong left to race and both horses were now flat out and racing hard with Voltigeur still in front and seeming as if he might still prevail but The Flying Dutchman’s remorseless stride valiantly drove his head in front.The head became a neck then half a length and by the time they passed the judge amid a frenzy of cheering and shouting The Flying Dutchman was a length ahead in what was widely acclaimed as the greatest match race ever witnessed.
A famous painting of the race, “The Great Match” by J F Herring was widely reproduced with allegedly “ne’er a village in the British Empire without at least one copy”.
At 27 Voltigeur sustained a fractured hind leg when he was kicked by a mare and was put down on February 21, 1874 and buried in the grounds of Aske Hall, where he was bred.
His cannon bone was preserved and is still displayed in a glass cabinet at York Racecourse where they run the “Great Voltigeur Stakes” in his honour while The Flying Dutchman eventually went to stud in France where he died aged 24.
For such an incredible race there was a wonderful epitaph. Voltigeur’s son was mated with The Flying Dutchman’s daughter and the result, Galopin, won the 1875 Derby.
In turn he sired the undefeated St Simon whose bloodline can be found in many American champions including Man o’ War, Citation, Affirmed, Secretariat, and Northern Dancer (among many others) and, of course, their numerous offspring.
In essence then, almost every great horse of today can be traced back to this pair.
The many great races contested and won down the years started with perhaps the finest of them all way back in 1851 when The Flying Dutchman and Voltigeur thrilled one of the biggest crowds ever gathered for a horse race and produced not just the race of the century but a race for all ages.
A painting of the race, ‘the Great Match’ by J F Herring was reproduced with allegedly ‘ne’er a village in the British Empire without at least one copy’