Turtle Island

Turtle Island (16 March 1991 – 4 July 2014) was an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. He was one of the leading British two-year-olds of 1993 when he won four of his seven races including the Norfolk Stakes, Phoenix Stakes and Gimcrack Stakes. In the following year he won the Greenham Stakes before winning the Irish 2,000 Guineas by fifteen lengths. He was beaten in his three remaining races and was retired to stud, where he had some success as a sire of winners. Background Turtle Island was a bay colt with a small white star bred in Ireland by Ron Con Ltd and Robert Sangster's Swettenham Stud. Turtle Island's sire, Fairy King, who was full-brother to Sadler's Wells, failed to win a race after being injured on his debut, but sired the winners of over five-hundred races, including Helissio and Oath. His dam, Sisania, was descendant of the French mare Batika, making her a distant relative of the three-time Grand National winner Red Rum. In September 1992 the yearling colt was sent to the sales at Doncaster where he was bought for 23,000 guineas by Frank Barry. During his racing career, Turtle Island raced in the green and blue silks of Robert Sangster and was trained by Peter Chapple-Hyam at Manton in Wiltshire. He was ridden in all of his races by John Reid. Racing career