Lesson 1: History

A bit of a history lesson for a Thursday morning.

This is our newest addition, ‘Porto Ercole’, being ridden by Faye. She was bought last week at the Goffs HIT Sale. Porto Ercole ran twice in Ireland for Ger Lyons. She is by first-season-sire Caravaggio and out of the Gr. 1 - placed mare, Euphrasia.

Whoever named this filly deserves a prize for their research and this is how it came about:

Caravaggio was a famous Italian painter. In July 1610, he left Naples on a boat carrying three of his paintings and was supposed to arrive in Porto Ercole. Mistaken for a criminal near Rome, he abandoned his boat with his paintings and continued to Porto Ercole on foot. He arrived exhausted and died shortly after, but the cause of his death was unknown. He is remembered in Porto Ercole by a path of the great artists work.