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Melchbourne
Coordinates: 52°16′50″N 0°29′37″W / 52.28055°N 0.49353°W
Melchbourne is a small village located in the Borough of Bedford in Bedfordshire, England.
The village is located west of Swineshead and east of Yielden. Melchbourne forms part of the Melchbourne and Yielden civil parish.
Melchbourne Preceptory was located in the village. Today the village is the location of the Church of St Mary Magdalene.
Notable residents
Melchbourne (horse)
Melchbourne (foaled 1971) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and broodmare. Despite never winning a Group race, she was the top-rated filly of her generation in Britain in 1973, when she won six of her eight races, many of them by wide margins. She won once from three starts in the following year.
Background
Melchbourne was a "lengthy, shapely" bay mare with a narrow white blae bred in Suffolk by her owner Pearl Lawson Johnston. She was sired by Forlorn River, a high-class sprinter who won the July Cup, Nunthorpe Stakes and Challenge Stakes in 1967. Melchbourne's dam, False Evidence, was of no use as a racehorse, failing to win in fifteen starts on the flat and four over hurdles but was a successful broodmare, going on to produce Cry of Truth. Miss Lawson Johnston, a Master of Foxhounds and Justice of the peace, sent her filly into training with Bruce Hobbs at the Palace House stable in Newmarket, Suffolk.
Racing career
1973: two-year-old season
On her racecourse debut, Melchbourne made little impression, finishing unplaced in a maiden race at Newmarket Racecourse but then won four consecutive races against modest opposition. She recorded her first victory with a three length win in the five furlong Little John Maiden Stakes at Nottingham Racecourse and followed up by easily defeating twenty-three opponents in the Quickly Plate at Windsor. She won the Palgrave Plate at Yarmouth Racecourse by seven lengths and was then moved up in distance for the July Fillies Stakes over six furlongs at Haydock Park Racecourse. She drew away from her rivals in the last quarter mile to win "in a hack canter" by an officially recorded margin of five lengths, although Timeform reported that she won by ten.
