The Molyneux Cup, Liverpool Races, July 1861. A large Victorian silver-gilt ewer and four silver-gilt cups, the ewer Charles Thomas Fox & George Fox, London, 1859; the cups George Fox, London, 1861

The inscriptions read:

‘Liverpool

July Meeting,

MOLYNEUX CUP.’

‘Stewards.

The Earl of Sefton.

The Marquis of Hartington.

Lord Courtenay.’

The 1861 Molyneux Cup at Liverpool Races was won on Thursday, 11 July by Captain George Gray’s horse, Antwerp. ‘As might have been anticipated . . . the concluding act of the Liverpool July Meeting was performed before an exceedingly limited audience – in fact, the muster in the Ring and Stand did not number more than three hundred. Unlike the other two days, showers of rain fell at intervals during the afternoon, so that a more dispiriting aspect could not well be imagined than that presented on the Course, the few in the Enclosure huddling together under the portico of the Stand. The card contained seven races, and in order than the visitors from the Metropolis might take their departure early, the last race was set for half-past four. . . . [Following the Stanley Stakes] The Molyneux Cup was next decided, and formed an exceedingly handsome as well as useful prize, being a large silver gilt claret jug, with a cover and four goblets to match . . . . The result was a good turn up for the fielders, for Antwerp (who had a gallop on his own account previous to the start drew away at the distance, and won in a canter . . .’ (The Era, London, Sunday, 14 July 1861, pp. 3d/4a)

Antwerp was born in 1858 out of Urania by The Flying Dutchman (1846-1870). The latter, a celebrated thoroughbred racehorse and sire, was bred at Kirkleatham, Yorkshire by Henry Vansittart and sold to Archibald Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton. (Appendix to the Racing Calendar containing nominations for 1864, &c., p. 361; Thomas Henry Taunton, Portraits of Celebrated Racehorses, London, 1888, vol. IV, pp. 52-57)