Racing’s greatest eccentric?

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33426, 7 January 1974, Page 12

Racing’s greatest eccentric?

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) • LONDON. i English racing has had more than its share, of eccentrics in its long history, but possibly the oddest of them all was the Hon. Dorothy Paget. For a quarter of a century, to her death in 1960, Miss ' Paget bestrode the racing scene like a colossus. (In her later years she weighed 20 stone.) Her quirks and oddities became famous. She hated men; she bet as if money meant nothing; she was outrageously 1 } capricious, masterful, and i domineering; she maintained a strange household run on military lines, but in which : night and day were reversed; land she was fabulously rich. } She shunned publicity, yet .because of her peculiarities I she became one of the best- ■ known and most publicised iwomen in Britain. She was widely hated, yet revered by a few—including her retinue of secretaries, who had most to put up with from her but were allowed to see the better, otherwise well-hidden side of her character. Miss Paget, whose story has been told in "Queen of the Turf—the Dorothy Paget : Story,’’ by Quintin Gilbey. ’was the daughter of Almeric Paget. Lord Queenborough, and an American heiress, Pauline Whitney. In her youth, she was slim and attractive, and the sons of many noble families courted her. But Miss Paget was not

[interested in men. and eveni tually came to detest them to ja pathological degree. During ' World War 11, when the ![ trains in Britain were ‘crammed, she asked the [Minister of Transport to perImit her to book a whole comipartment when travelling by .[train, as the proximity of a strange male invariably made

-.her vomit —but the Minister-; a did not oblige. }) ? Miss Paget was never so J e happy as when she got word 1 ' e from her trainer of the mom-i 2 ent—she had 17 in all during}J ' her racing career, most of ’ whom retired from the job— 1 *’ i that one of her horses was ‘‘a 1 Vgood thing,” and that she.' “(could have her “banco” or}} (“double banco” bet, her maxi-}' mum wagers. Once she had.} (£160,000 sterling on a horse.}' Having ascertained that the, auguries were right (for she} 1 was intensely superstitious),l--(she instructed her bookmaker' to back the horse to win her" £20,000. Unfortunately, it t opened up in the betting at.} , 1 to 8, making her stake ' e £160,000. j Miss Paget indignantly 1 turned down an offer from -i the bookmaker to cancel the wager. But for once she was 2 seen to tremble over a bet, J as she stood watching the “ racing tape. After an agonise ing wait, the tape chattered out the news—that the horse ® had won. Always fearful that her c, horses were being “nobbled" by villains of the turf. Miss Paget was sure that her ancient parrot, Robert, had (been “got at” when he fell into a terminal illness. The veterinary surgeon who

(attended the dying parrot had (great difficulty in reassuring (her that Nature was taking i its course with the old bird. Miss Paget owned one (great horsfc. Golden Miller, 'which won the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the British steeplechasing championship, five times, and also won the Ifamed Grand National (Steeplechase at Aintree. She ■ also won a war-time Derby, } run at Newmarket instead of ’■ Epsom, with Straight Deal 1(1943). Miss Paget thus erii joyed the rare distinction of (owning both a Grand National and a Derby winner. But Miss Paget’s over-all success in racing was quite 'slight in comparison with the money she ploughed into it. True to her ruling passion, she died while studying the Racing Calendar, in bed. Death was her biggest losing gambit—her estate was valued at almost £4 million, but } taxation took all but £736,000 of it.