In short, the nineteenth century politician who was known as ‘The Leviathan of the Turf’ was Lord George Bentinck. Born in 1802, Bentinck was the third son of William Bentinck, Fourth Duke of Portland and, two years before his death in 1848, famously led the protectionist opposition to the repeal of the Corn Laws in the House of Commons, which ultimately cost the Conservative Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, his position.
However, before devoting himself to his political activities, Bentinck was one of the most colourful and influential figures in the history of British horse racing. In Jewish mythology, the Leviathan was a primordial sea monster, but the term has come to mean anything that is very large or powerful, so his sobriquet is not entirely inappropriate.Bentinck was a hugely successful racehorse owner, responsible for seven British Classic winners, including the unbeaten filly Crucifix who, in 1840, won the 1,000 Guineas, 2,000 Guineas and Oaks. He was also an inveterate gambler, who regularly won, and lost, vast sums of money and the pre-eminent member of the Jockey Club of his day.
Alongside his friend, Charles Gordon Lennox, Fifth Duke of Richmond, who was also a steward of the Jockey Club, Bentinck was responsible was many of the innovations that shaped the faced of modern horse racing in Britain. At his local course, Goodwood, he introduced racecard numbers corresponding to those displayed on the numbers board for each horse, a pre-race parade in front of the grandstands, public saddling and unsaddling and a flag start. He also conceived the Stewards’ Cup, in its current guise, which was run for the first time in 1840. Thus, what became the ‘Goodwood Festival’ was seen as the epitome of good practice and many of the reforms implemented at the West Sussex course became commonplace elsewhere throughout the country.