CHELTENHAM 2013: Fool-proof way of making a mint by only picking Ruby’s

The 4th Earl of Chesterfield’s name isn’t one that many of us will have come across in our days learning history in school but the man born as Philip Dormer Stanhope left quite a mark on Ireland and much, much more besides.

In a life that spanned 77 years, the vast majority of them spent in the 18th century, he served in the House of Commons, the House of Lords, as ambassador to the Hague, negotiated the second Treaty of Vienna, gave birth to the Chesterfield couch and got caught up in some sort of a dispute with Samuel Johnson over the first English dictionary. The time he spent in Ireland was shortlived but, by all accounts, a significant success and is evidenced by the fact that, to this day, the central avenue through the Phoenix Park in Dublin bears his name: Chesterfield Avenue.

If there was one area he gave a wide berth, however, it was horse racing. It was an aversion that he took with him beyond the grave and one made abundantly clear by David Randall in his book on Great Sporting Eccentrics when he quoted a clause from the Earl’s will after he died in 1773.