‘Brigid or Brigit – the name both of a Celtic goddess and of a Christian saint, with consequent confusion of traditions.
In mythology she is a triune goddess of healing, metalwork and poetry, daughter of the DAGDA. Her festival was IMBOLG, the beginning of the Celtic spring.
The saint was born, according to tradition, at Faughart, near Dundalk, Co Louth c.450, but her sphere of influence was Kildare, where she founded a double abbey, the first Irish convent for women, where a perpetual flame was kept burning in her honour until the Reformation.
The saint may have been a priestess of the goddess before her conversion and the fixing of her feast as 1 February compounded the confusion.
One story associated with the saint is that while she sat by the bedside of a dying pagan chieftain she plaited rushes into the form of a cross; when he asked about the significance of the cross she explained and he asked to be baptized.
The elaborate rush crosses associated with her feast day are taken to spring from that story, but even they may be part of an older pagan rite.’
So says Brewer’s Dictionary of Irish Phrase & Fable.
What Brewer’s might have related – for the benefit of all true racing followers – was Bridgid’s or Brigit’s crucial role in the creation of the Curragh of Kildare. Legend avers that the local chieftain was afflicted with the ears of an ass, of which he was deeply ashamed.
He appealed to Brigid, with instant success.
However, when Brigid suggested she be given a piece of land in return, the chieftain demurred. Undeterred, Brigid appealed for as much ground as her cloak could cover.
Heartily relieved, the chieftain immediately assented. Holding one corner of the cloak, Brigid delegated three of her nuns to take a corner each and keep running north, south and east until they were brought to a standstill.
By the time the first had had her path blocked by a redheaded woman, the second by a hare and the third by a blacksmith brandishing a red-hot horseshoe the ground they had covered constituted the Curragh of Kildare! Terrifi ed his donkey ears would reappear should he argue the matter, the chieftain gave his grudging consent.
In the light of the enduring debt racing owes to Brigid, surely somebody, at some time, had named a filly in her honour? Sure enough, someone had, an English peer of the realm, no less. ‘Twas the Lord Derby of the day who gave the name to a homebred filly Bridget.
She became the winner of the inaugural running of the Oaks at Epsom on 14 May 1779.
Lord Derby held a celebratory dinner in his Epsom racing lodge – The Oaks – that very night. What happened that night is related in Plantation Stud, printed for private circulation in 2007.
‘Enthused by the success of the Oaks, southern sportsmen promptly proposed a similar event for colts, fillies being in receipt of a 3lb sex allowance. . . All that remained was to decide on a name.
As the prime mover, General John Burgoyne, Lord Derby’s uncle by marriage, seemed the obvious choice. But Burgoyne demurred.
The assembled company renewed their search, narrowing it down to their host, Lord Derby, and the Jockey Club Stewards present, Sir Charles Bunbury.
‘As neither wished to advance his claims to the detriment of the other, the dilemma was resolved by the time-honoured expedient of tossing a coin, or so legend avers. True or not, the honours fell to Lord Derby.
The loser received due recompense when his high-class colt Diomed carried Sam Arnull to success in Bunbury’s pink and white striped silks in the inaugural running of the Derby, on Thursday, 4 May 1780.’
By remarkable coincidence, over a century later the Lord Derby of that day purchased another Bridget, a broodmare.
From her was to descend an extraordinary succession of successful sires, as Charles ‘Blood’ Leicester related in his Bloodstock Breeding.
‘Stallions tracing to Bridget (1888) by Master Kildare have excellent records and on the whole better than their racing records would warrant expectation. . . In fact it is hard to call to mind any racehorse of class from this tap root who was an unsatisfactory stallion except the Derby winner Mid-day Sun who had very limited chances at home.’
The first Epsom Derby winner owned by a woman, Mid-day Sun’s stud career unfortunately coincided with World War II.
By the time racing and breeding resumed Mid-day Sun was forgotten.