Family C-5: Dinah

Dinah's family emerged in the mid-nineteenth century with a succession of sensational stayers, especially two mares, Musidora and her daughter Briseis. The family was developed for over forty years, beginning with Dinah, by breeder-owner-trainer James Wilson, owner of St. Albans Stud, a famous thoroughbred nursery in the Geelong region, on the Bellarine Peninsula in Victoria, Australia. When the family's most impressive runner, Newhaven, was shipped to England, where he won the Epsom Gold Cup (Coronation Cup) and other races, Wilson was offered £1,000 by his English owner to track down Dinah's pedigree and confirm its thoroughbred ancestry so Newhaven could be entered into the General Stud Book and attract high quality English mares. Wilson was unable to do so, and Newhaven, poorly patronized in England, returned to Australia, where he got only a few useful runners.

James Wilson purchased a colt, later named Buckley, got by the arabian (Bury's) Commissioner, that had been bred for export to India, and arrived in Victoria from Cumberland County with a herd of other horses. Wilson used Buckley as a hack, but found that he had some speed, and entered Buckley in several races, later taking him to Melbourne, where he won the Thesbian Cup, Hodges Handicap and another race, and over the course of a long career (to age 20), many matches. Wilson was finally able to secure Buckley's dam, Dinah, whose sire, imported Gratis, was known, but whose dam's identity was uncertain. At the same time Wilson purchased Dinah's filly Eleanor (1856, by The Premier) and her yearling filly by Rambler.

As a result of frustrated investigations by Wilson and later turf historians into Dinah's ancestry, it is generally believed that Dinah's dam was by Rous' Emigrant, and her grandam by Bay Camerton, both imported from Great Britain, of a type of breeding seen in many early Australian foundation pedigrees. Barrie asserted that it was "....almost certain Dinah's dam was bred near Doonside, New South Wales, where ...Charles Smith had his Bungarribee stud." Rous' Emigrant stood at Bungarribee, and Bay Camerton stood at Robert Lethbridge's nearby Fluscombe stud. Gratis, at Charles Roberts' Wallgrove Stud, was located ten miles from Bungarribee.

Whether by intent or mishap, Dinah's filly Eleanor dropped a filly named Milksop when she was 23 months old; Milksop was by Walparraman, a son of The Premier, so the foal was 2 x 2 to The Premier (a Matchem line stallion through Sorcerer). Milksop, bred to King Alfred, became the dam of Edward Twomey's Mermaid (1866), a winner of the Sydney Cup, the Randwick Handicap, and the City Handicap, in the latter two carrying heavy weights. Milksop was also third dam of Caulfield Cup winner G'Naroo (1886, by St. Albans).

At St. Albans, Dinah also bred Ebor (1858, by The Premier), unbeaten at age two, at age three winner of the Hamilton St. Leger and the Melbourne Stakes, seven races at age four, and at age six the Adelaide Cup. The next year Dinah dropped Wilson's great race mare Musidora (1859, by The Premier, see below), later the dam of three classic winners bred at St. Albans. Her daughter Briseis (1873, by Tim Whiffler) won the Melbourne Cup; Idalia, a sister to Briseis, continued the family line, which included 1973 Melbourne Cup winner Gala Supreme and recent descendants, such as the good handicapper Bourverie Mist (1988, by Pride of Place, 14 wins).

Notable Descendants