Enstone Spark

Enstone Spark (foaled June 6, 1975 in England) is a Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the classic 1000 Guineas in 1978.

Racing career

Trained by Barry Hills, at age two, Enstone Spark won the 1977 Lowther Stakes at York Racecourse. In 1978, her Canadian owner, Dick Bonnycastle, was planning to ship Enstone Spark to race in California but an outbreak of contagious equine metritis forced a change of plans and she remained to compete in England.

In 1978 Enstone Spark earned the most important win of her career at Newmarket Racecourse with a victory in the Classic 1,000 Guineas Stakes at a time when she was still more than a month shy of her third birthday.

Stud record

Retired from racing a winner of five races with three second-place finishes in her two years of racing, Enstone Spark was assigned to broodmare duty. Bred to stallions such as Affirmed, Roberto, and Bold Forbes, her offspring were not successful in racing.

References

Enstone

Coordinates: 51°55′05″N 1°27′14″W / 51.918°N 1.454°W / 51.918; -1.454

Enstone is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire about 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Chipping Norton.

The civil parish is the largest in Oxfordshire, comprising the villages of Church Enstone and Neat Enstone (referred to collectively as Enstone) and the hamlets of Chalford, Cleveley, Fulwell, Gagingwell, Lidstone, and Radford. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,139.

Toponym

Enstone's toponym is derived from a standing stone called the Ent Stone, part of the ruins of a neolithic tomb just off the Charlbury Road. The site is also known as the Hoar Stone. It is a scheduled monument.

Church and chapel

Church of England

The earliest parts of the Church of England parish church of Saint Kenelm are Norman, but the building has been rebuilt in stages since the 12th century. The south aisle with its four-bay arcade was built in about 1180.The north aisle was added late in the 13th century.} Its arcade has alternating round and octagonal piers. At about the same time a new chancel arch was made in the east wall of the old chancel, and the present chancel was added east of the previous one. The two-storey south porch was added late in the 13th century. It has octopartite rib vaulting springing from head corbels.