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Gildoran

Irish-bred Thoroughbred racehorse

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionDec 19, 2025
Entity authorityQ16981995
Source-derived summary

Gildoran (foaled 6 June 1980) was an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse and stallion. A specialist stayer he won the Ascot Gold Cup in 1984 and 1985. His other wins included the Sagaro Stakes and the Goodwood Cup. In all, he won seven races in a twenty-two race career which lasted from 1983 until 1985, during which he showed an aptitude for extreme distances and fast ground. He made little impact at stud.

Background

Gildoran was a bay horse with a white star and stripe. He was one of the best horses sired by Rheingold, the winner of the 1973 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Gildoran was the first foal of his dam Durtal, a top-class racemare who won the Cheveley Park Stakes in 1976. As a daughter of the influential broodmare Derna, Durtal was closely related to many leading racehorses including Detroit, Zabeel and Carnegie. Throughout his racing career Gildoran was owned by Robert Sangster and trained at Lambourn in Berkshire by Barry Hills

Racing career

1982 & 1983: early career

Gildoran raced twice without success over seven furlongs as a two-year-old in 1982.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Gildoran” as irish-bred Thoroughbred racehorse. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Gildoran, Irish-bred and Thoroughbred.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1980, 1984, 1985, 1983—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1980. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Gildoran, Irish-bred and Thoroughbred providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Gildoran”, the useful work is to connect “irish-bred Thoroughbred racehorse” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 19, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q16981995. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1980, 1984, 1985 and 1983.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

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  2. Expand the search: follow Gildoran primary sources, Gildoran archive and Gildoran research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Gildoran” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.