Humble Duty

Humble Duty was a grey filly bred at the Owenstown Stud at Maynooth in County Kildare, Ireland by Frank Tuthill. Her sire Sovereign Path, from whom she inherited her colour, was a top class miler who won the Lockinge Stakes and the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. Humble Duty's dam, Flattering was placed in the Cheveley Park Stakes and was out of Flatter, a moderate race mare but a half-sister to The Derby runner-up Gay Time. As a yearling, Humble Duty was sent to the Newmarket sales where she was bought for 17,000 guineas by the British Bloodstock Agency, acting on behalf of Jean, Lady Ashcombe, the widow of Roland Cubitt, 3rd Baron Ashcombe. Humble Duty was sent into training with Peter Walwyn at his Seven Barrows stable at Lambourn. ==Racing career==

1969: two-year-old season Humble Duty's first appearance on a racecourse came in May 1969 when she won the Ann Boleyn Stakes over five furlongs at Sandown Park. Although the winning margin was only a length and the opposition moderate, Humble Duty was immediately moved up in class to contest the Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot. She led for most of the race before being overtaken a furlong from the finish and took third place behind Farfalla. After a break of two months, during which she was affected by a cough, she returned in the Lowther Stakes at York in August in which she was matched against Mange Tout, a filly who had won the Prix d'Arenberg and the Molecomb Stakes. Humble Duty won by three quarters of a length from Pisces, with Mange Tout in third. Her final appearance of the year came in the Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket in October. Humble Duty led from the start and won by lengths from Farfalla and Black Satin. In the Free Handicap, a ranking of the best two-year-olds to have run in Britain in 1969, Humble Duty was the top-rated filly, seven pounds below the leading colt Nijinsky. 1970: three-year-old season On her first appearance of 1970, Humble Duty ran at Newbury in the Fred Darling Stakes, a trial race for the 1000 Guineas. She appeared less than fully fit and was given a very gentle race by her jockey Lester Piggott in finishing second to Highest Hopes. by three-quarters of a length from Gold Rod, Joshua and Welsh Pageant. In August, Humble Duty added another major victory over Goodwood's mile course when she won the Wills Mile by a length from Prince de Galles (Cambridgeshire Handicap) and Yellow God (runner-up to Nijinsky in the 2000 Guineas). In her final race, Humble Duty failed to reproduce her best form, finishing fourth behind Welsh Pageant, Gold Rod and Prince de Galles in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot in September. ==Retirement==

Humble Duty's breeding career was brief and disappointing. She produced two known foals, neither of whom proved to be of any use as racehorses. In 1974 she miscarried a foal sired by Mill Reef. Humble Duty died in 1975 at the age of eight. ==Assessment and honours==

In their book, A Century of Champions, based on the Timeform rating system, John Randall and Tony Morris rated Humble Duty a "superior" winner of the 1000 Guineas and the forty-seventh best filly trained in Britain or Ireland in the 20th century. Humble Duty was given a rating of 127 by Timeform in 1970. ==Pedigree==