Sam (horse)
British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire
Sam (1815 – after 1827) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a career that lasted from April 1818 to May 1819 he ran nine times and won three races. In May 1818 he defeated fifteen opponents to record his most important win in The Derby. His only other wins came in a walkover and a match race. After running without success as a four-year-old, Sam was retired to stud but made no impact as a sire of winners.
Background
Sam was described as a "low, lengthy and plain sort of horse, with a sour countenance, and a delicate constitution," sired by the Doncaster Cup winner Scud out of the mare Hyale. Hyale produced several other winners and was a half-sister to Goosander, a highly successful broodmare who produced The Oaks winner Shoveler and the Derby winner Sailor. Sam was bred by his owner, Thomas Thornhill at his stud at Riddlesworth, Norfolk, and trained by Thornhill's father-in-law, Mr Perren.
Sam was named after his regular jockey Sam Chifney, Jr. Chifney was one of the outstanding jockeys of his era, and one of the first to hold horses up in the early stages of a race before finishing strongly: he became famous for this tactic which became known as the "Chifney Rush".
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 31, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7407055. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1815, 1827, 1818 and 1819.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sam (horse)” 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.