THE well-named Gustavus Weston won a thrilling Group 3 Qatar Phoenix Sprint Stakes at the Curragh and is a horse to watch for in the sprinting ranks into the future. A gelded son of Equiano (Acclamation), he is named after Olaudah Equiano, who was also known during his lifetime as Gustavus Vassa and Gustavus Weston.

A writer and abolitionist from Ihiala, which is today in south-east Nigeria, Equiano was enslaved as a child, taken to the British West Indies and sold as a slave to a captain in the Royal Navy, and later to a Quaker trader. Eventually, he earned his own freedom in 1766 and went to live in London.