Blair Atholl is a Perthshire village, dominated by Blair Castle, which for centuries was owned by the Duke of Atholl (qv). Traditionally the Duke is in charge of the only private army in Europe, the Atholl Highlanders. Parts of the castle date back to the 13th century.
Sometimes the place is referred to with just one l in its name. The famous Blair Athol Distillery single malt Scotch whisky was founded in 1798 as “Aldour” – an anglicisation of the Allt Dour (the burn of the otter) stream that gives its products their distinct flavour. The distillery changed to its current, less dour name in 1825.
The racehorse named Blair Athol was remarkable for winning the Derby of 1864 on his debut. He was owned and bred by his Malton trainer William l’Anson (a man surprisingly without a race name) who handled him with extreme caution as a two-year-old, entering him for nine races but not running in any. Despite his backwardness some gallops at home revealed his talent. Next year he was sporadically lame in the spring, which turned out to be due to a stable lad in the pay of bookmakers who surreptitiously kicked the horse’s legs and genitals from time to time, enough to make him lame and put him in a bad temper.
The villains’ malign work was unrewarded. The colt made it to Epsom, and his lack of experience did not upset him before the race, when eight false starts delayed proceedings, nor during the race itself in a 30-runner field. He won easily, in a record time.
He was first or second in five more races in quick time before triumphing in the St Leger – a Yorkshire winner of the Yorkshire classic. An injury he picked up in that race precipitated his retirement. He was champion sire four times.
He never ran at Kempton, for the course did not exist at the time of his annus mirabilis. The reason why a Blair Athol Handicap was run there in 1981 and 1982 (but never before or since) was because it was part of a meeting sponsored by Bell’s Whisky. Bell’s had taken over the distillery in 1932. They were subsumed into Guinness, which is now part of Diageo.
L’Anson had owned, bred and trained the 1857 Derby and Oaks winner Blink Bonny (the dam of Blair Athol). Nobody else achieved this feat twice until Arthur Budgett with Blakeney and Morston in 1969-73.
Thirsk – 26 miles from Malton – staged a race named after Blair Athol in 1966.