* John Frederick Herring Snr. Surrey 1795-1863 Meopham, Kent

Bloomsbury, a brown colt, was the 1839 Derby winner.  The present painting portrays him with his jockey, Sam Templeman, up wearing the colors of his owner and trainer, Mr. W. Ridsdale.  Bloomsbury was by Mulatto, out of the mare Arcot Lass.  He was an outsider in the 1839 Derby at 25 to 1, but vanquished his rivals by two lengths.  Until this date, the Derby had been domintated primarily by horses trained in the south of England because of the difficulty of transporting horses from the North, but by 1839 the railways were in full swing and four northern-trained horses gained victories in subsequent years.

Herring, Snr. painted all the Derby winners starting with Mameluke in 1827 until 1851 except for the winner of the 1850 race.  Prints after Herring's Derby winners were published by S. & J. Fuller until 1841, primarily after engravings by Charles Hunt.