‘Even the rich ones tend to be cash-poor and racing requires you to be cash-rich’ - the changing role of the aristocracy in racing

It was Newmarket, autumn 1942, and Peter Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, Viscount Milton, was buzzing. The young Grenadier Guards officer had long been obsessed by horses and by racing – never mind the war; in recent years attending sales had become one of his best-loved pursuits. 

Earlier in the year he had become a new patron of the trainer George Lambton and had acquired a reputation for buying fashionable yearlings – not least a filly by the Derby winner Hyperion, out of Entrance.

Suddenly, a fly buzzed in front of his face. Rubbing at his eye to remove it, he drew the auctioneer’s attention, who thought he was bidding. After all, it wouldn’t be unusual.