I feel I must be the only person in the country not to have had the Tudors bludgeoned into me at school, read Hilary Mantel’s books or watched the neverending stream of TV adaptations of their tediously complicated affairs.
In case there are any others, in a nutshell, Henry VIII’s loyal sidekick Cardinal Wolsey (qv) failed to arrange an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon so that he could marry Anne Boleyn (qv). Wolsey fell from grace and in 1529 was charged with high treason, only to die of natural causes before he could be tried and face the inevitable aftermath with the executioner.
In 1537 Henry acquired Esher Palace (qv) (next to where Sandown racecourse was laid out in 1875), by which time he had executed Anne Boleyn for failing to give him a male heir.
In fact, Henry and all his six wives had races named after them at Hurst Park, on the south side of the Thames almost within sight of Hampton Court.
Sandown inherited the two mile Henry VIII Novices Chase from Hurst Park when that course closed in 1962. Nowadays surprisingly few horses graduate to the very top level after winning it, though Altior (2016) was a notable exception and 2021’s victor Edwardstone went on to win the Arkle.