Shoe worn by the racehorse Alycidon.

Shoe worn by the racehorse Alycidon,
mounted on a wooden plaque with easel support and set with engraved metal plaques, 20 by 15cm.

Provenance: The Ray Goddard Collection (lots 97 to 178). For further information on Ray Goddard and the collection see lot 144.

Alycidon was a chestnut colt foaled in 1945 by Donatello out of Aurora (Hyperion). He was bred and raced by the 17th Earl of Derby (d.1948) the thereafter by the 18th Earl.  raced by Ahmed Al Maktoum and trained at Newmarket by Alec Stewart. The colt was trained at the Stanley House Stables, Newmarket, by Walter Earl.

The colt was a slow maturing type but announced himself as a 3-y-o with victories in the Princess of Wales’s Stakes, and the stayers’ races The Jockey Club Stakes and Kinge Goerge VI Stakes. The following season Alycidon won the Ormonde Stakes, before completing the stayers’ Triple Crown the Gold Cup at Ascot and the Goodwood and Doncaster Cups – a feat that had not been achieved for 70 years.

At Stud, and syndicated for £120,000 in 1950, he became an important stallion and was leading sire in 1955. Notable amongst his progeny are Homeward Bound (Oaks), Meld (Fillies’ Triple Crown) and Alcide (St Leger and the King George).

The Alycidon Stakes is named in his honour at Goodwood; and in 1961 the LNER named one of its “Deltic” diesel locomotives after the horse.