Dispersal of Joel's blueblooded stock causes excitement around the world

In September 1980 I wrote an article in the Sporting Life about Light Cavalry, who had won the St Leger the previous weekend. To my astonishment, on the day after that piece appeared, I received a letter from the colt’s 85-year-old owner-breeder, Jim Joel, in which he thanked me for featuring his latest classic winner and told me how lucky he felt he had been to have revived the family of Absurdity, a mare who had produced a 1000 Guineas and Oaks winner for his father before World War I.

That dual classic heroine was Jest, later the dam of 1921 Derby winner Humorist, who was found dead in his box only 18 days after his courageous triumph at Epsom. That lamentable event was followed by a long spell in the doldrums for the Absurdity family, which produced nothing else of note for Jack Joel before his death in September 1940.

Jim certainly did have one stroke of luck, for when he inherited the Childwick Bury Stud in Hertfordshire, Amuse, a granddaughter of Absurdity, was carrying the Donatello filly Picture Play, who would win the 1000 Guineas of 1944. But he was too modest in ascribing what followed from Picture Play to luck.