Ralph Beckett – 3rd Baron of Grimthorpe (1891 – 1963)

The names Ralph Beckett and Lord Grimthorpe may now be synonymous with Flat racing, but the third Baron Grimthorpe – Grandfather to the current Lord Grimthorpe and his cousin, trainer Ralph Beckett – was initially heavily involved in the National Hunt sphere.

A partner in the Leeds banking firm Beckett & Co, Beckett’s passion was for aircraft, and he was also partner and chair of Airspeed Limited, which built aeroplanes in York and Portsmouth. The company eventually merged with de Havilland during the Second World War, during which Beckett was mentioned in dispatches during his time in the RAF. After the War, he frequently took part in the Cresta Run at St Moritz.

During 1946, a striking French-bred chestnut called Fortina had finished second in the Grand Steeplechase de Paris as a five-year-old. That autumn, the entire was snapped up by Baron Grimthorpe and placed into training with Hector Christie in Wiltshire. He made a successful British debut in the Lancashire Chase.

Unable to get to the racecourse again until the delayed Gold Cup because of the exceptionally harsh winter, Fortina lined up against Dorothy Paget’s hot favourite Happy Home in the rearranged April running of the 1947 contest. Amateur jockey Richard Black had survived some early drama on the way to the course with the meeting proving so popular that the traffic was so bad that he had to abandon his car and run the final two miles to the track. The race itself proved far easier, scoring by 10 lengths from the favourite in a then course-record time. He still is the only entire to win the blue riband event.

Fortina raced just twice more before the lure of the covering shed. He finished his career unplaced in the King George behind Rowland Roy and retired to Grange Stud in Fermoy. He proved a great success, siring two Gold Cup winners in Fort Leney and Glencaraig Lady. His best horse was Fortria, a dual Champion Chase winner who also won an Irish Grand National and finished runner up in the Gold Cup twice. All of this in spite of his trainers misgivings, having proclaimed that Fortina had the smallest private parts of any horse he’d seen. Who says size matters!