HALF a century ago, on August 31st 1966, Irish racing history was made.

Days after being the first woman to be granted a licence to train in Ireland, Anne Biddle saddled a winner with her first runner at Naas, just up the road from her farm and training establishment at Johnstown, next door to the present site of Goffs Bloodstock Sales.

The following are three pieces that were published in The Irish Field following that historic happening at Naas. All are exactly reproduced as they appeared in the issue of Saturday, September 3rd.

A decade earlier my father went to work at Palmerstown Stud and it was there that I spent my first 11 years or so of childhood. One of the most successful stud farms of the time, it stood the hugely influential stallion Milesian. The stud was owned by the four-time married Anne Bullitt, who also was known in racing and breeding circles as Anne Biddle, Anne Brewster and Anne More O’Farrell, and she enjoyed much success as an owner.

She was the champion owner in Ireland in 1958 when her colt Sindon won the Irish Derby. He was one of nine winners of 14 races that year which earned their owner the princely sum of £11,026. Two years later Zenobia won the Irish 1000 Guineas and the Pretty Polly Stakes, while other major flat successes included the Irish Champion Stakes with March Wind, the Blandford Stakes with Jongleur, the Phoenix Stakes with the champion filly Sarissa, and successive National Stakes with Mystery and Partholon.

Knight Errant won the Galway Hurdle for her and he went on to provide one of her three Galway Plate wins. Amber Point won the other two.

In England she won major races at Ascot with Ionian and Marco Polo, the Ebor Handicap with Partholon and at Epsom with L’Homme Arme. She was at the centre of some controversy when Scissors was disqualified after passing the post first in the Timeform Gold Cup.

Born in 1924 to William C Bullitt and Louise Bryant, a noted journalist and suffragette who was portrayed by Diane Keaton in the 1981 movie Reds, Anne Brewster died in August 2007.

By Burnaby

MRS Anne Biddle who received a trainer’s licence last week-end, was accorded a tremendous and richly deserved ovation at Naas on Wednesday evening, when her first runner as a trainer, Flying Tiger, trotted up in the Cork Stakes.

Mrs Biddle is a wonderful supporter of racing in all its spheres, and it was really delightful to see her record Irish racing history on Wednesday last, especially at Naas racecourse, which is so near her stud and training stables at Palmerstown.

It was also fitting that Liam Ward should have partnered Flying Tiger, as Ward, one of the best jockeys in these isles, has been associated with horses owned by Mrs Biddle for many years.

When Ward sent Flying Tiger, who started favourite, into the lead the large crowd started cheering and as Flying Tiger, with Ward aboard, was led into the No 1 enclosure to be greeted by trainer, Mrs Biddle, there was another ovation to hail the magnificent achievement of this fine horsewoman.

Naturally Mrs Biddle was tremendously thrilled and delighted. Press photographers and TV cameramen sought vantage points to record this historic occasion in the world of racing.

By Pandora

EVERYONE I spoke to this week said how nice it was, and how fitting, that a racing personality of such eminence as Mrs Anne Biddle will go down in the annals of our history as the first woman to be granted a trainer’s licence by the stewards of the Irish Turf Club.

She herself is a little surprised at all the fuss, but touched too at the letters she has received from people in all walks of life, even from nuns, congratulating her on her achievement.

She is pleased, naturally, that the licence has been granted, but she doesn’t look on it as a ‘great achievement’ or even a victory, for, unlike her colleagues across the water, she has never been ‘at war’ with the Turf Club as they were with the Jockey Club about women’s right to train horses.

The quintessence of femininity and charm she is by no means an ardent emancipist and has no urgent views one way or another about whether women would or would not make as good trainers as men. She admits, however, that she was very glad that the two English ladies, Miss Norah Wilmot and Mrs Florence Nagle, were at last granted the licences which they so richly deserved by the Jockey Club.

“Will the fact that you are now an official trainer make much difference to your life?” I asked, “you know, one always thinks of them getting up at six o’clock in the morning to oversee the gallops, charging into the weigh room at race meetings, all that kind of thing.”

“Do you really know any Irish trainer who gets up at six o’clock in the morning?” she countered. “No, I don’t think the granting of a licence to train in my own name instead of in the name of one of my employees is going to make much difference, but it straightens out certain unnecessary complications.

“Up to this, although I was responsible for all the horses here at Palmerstown, the licence to train them had to be applied for in the name of my travelling head lad, Stephen Lyons, who was held responsible by the authorities. Now my name goes down as owner and trainer and my responsibility is officially recognised, that’s really all there is to it.”

“What about racecourse procedure? Do you think that women will at last be allowed into the sacred precincts of the Weigh Room?”

“I haven’t thought about that side at all, or made any enquiries about it. But I don’t think it will be necessary for me to go into the Weigh Room, after all my head man will always be at the races to see to the saddling, etc., and he can probably represent me in the Weigh room also. I can’t really foresee any difficulties.”

By Pandora

DAUGHTER of millionaire Mr William C Bullitt, former American Ambassador to Spain and Moscow, Mrs Biddle had the wealth as well as the ability to build up the 700-acre Palmerstown Stud at Kill, Co Kildare, which she purchased in 1956, into the finest stud farm and privately owned training establishment in Ireland.

Recalling some of the scores of winners bred and trained there over the last decade, one thinks of Mystery, winner of the National Stakes, Partholon who also won the National Stakes as well as the Ebor Handicap, Zenobia winner of the Irish 1,000 Guineas, Satan winner of the Diadem Stakes, Ionian winner of the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes, to name just a few.

In addition to the horses which she trains herself at Palmerstown, Mrs Biddle also has a string of six with the French trainer Etienne Pollet, these include Stranger, a 3-year-old colt by Milesian out of Dalila; Zaladin, a three-year-old colt by Milesian out of Zenobia; Tancred, a grey colt by Milesian out of Fleur de Lys; Thessaly II, a three-year-old filly by Milesian out of Persian View; France, a two-year-old filly by Milesian out of Fleur de Lys, and Litany, a two-year-old filly out of Palestrina, also by Milesian.

It is interesting to note that the Palmerstown Stud was originally owned by Lord Mayo and made history during the latter half of the 19th century by becoming the first stud company ever to be formed in Ireland.