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Norton's Coin (16 March 1981 – 15 January 2001) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse, best known for his 100/1 win in the 1990 Cheltenham Gold Cup. He was an obscurely-bred gelding owned and trained in Wales by Sirrell Griffiths, a dairy farmer who had only two other horses in his stable. After success on the amateur Point-to-point circuit and in hunter chases Norton' Coin graduated to professional competition as a seven-year-old in 1988. In his first season under National Hunt rules he showed promise and won the Silver Trophy Chase in April at Cheltenham Racecourse. He struggled to win in the following season, but left all his previous form well behind to record his most famous over Toby Tobias and the favourite Desert Orchid in Britain's most important weight-for-age steeplechase. Norton's Coin was injured in winning the Gold Cup and won only once (a repeat win in the Silver Trophy) in his remaining eighteen races. He developed breathing problems and was retired in 1993. He spent his retirement on Griffiths' form before dying from a suspected heart attack in January 2001. ==Background== Norton's Coin was a gelding with a white blaze, described by his owner as an "ugly, plain chestnut".〔 He was the only horse of any consequence sired by Mount Cassino, a fairly useful racehorse but not a top-class performer (rated 92 by Timeform), who recorded the better of his two wins in a handicap race at Sandown Park Racecourse in 1973. Norton's Coin was the only foal produced by his dam Grove Chance, an unraced mare who was descended from Bebe Grande, the leading British two-year-old filly of 1952. Bebe Grand's other descendants have included Lure and the Eclipse Stakes winner Pieces of Eight.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Black Corrie - Family 3-o )〕 At the time of Norton's Coin's conception, both his parents were owned by Sirrell Griffiths, a dairy farmer who kept a few horses at Rwyth Farm near near the village of Nantgaredig in Carmarthenshire. He had bought the stallion and the mare for 700 guineas and £500 respectively.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The day Griffiths shook the world )〕 Griffiths sold the pregnant Grove Chance to Percy Thomas, who was officially Norton's Coin's breeder. Norton's Coin began his racing career on the amateur Point-to-point circuit and won several races for Percy Thomas. After the horse won one of his two hunter chases in 1987 Griffiths bought the Norton's Coin back for approximately £5000 in 1987 and trained him throughout the rest of his racing career.〔 In his point-to-point races and in his hunter chase win, the gelding was ridden by the leading Welsh amateur jockey Tim Jones. In late 1988, Jones was attending a dinner dance for the local point-to-point community when he was asked about the prospects of local horses by the guest speaker Peter Scudamore: Jones told Scudamore that Norton's Coin would win a Gold Cup. Griffiths was the holder of a training permit rather than a full license, meaning that he was only allowed to train horses which he (or his immediate family) also owned.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=As a Permit Holder, can I train for friends? )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Norton's Coin」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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