Tosca

WORDS like “superstar” and “celebrity” are readily bandied around nowadays. Pat Smythe truly earned those accolades, in postwar days when it was unusual for girls to trounce men at their own game.

Pat’s fame was buoyed by unprecedented newspaper fascination in showjumping, and from Pathé newsreels shown in cinemas. She met Generalissimo Franco, the Pope, Hollywood star Danny Kaye and dined with the ex-King of England, the Duke of Windsor.

Pat won more grands prix than anyone else of her generation, even though women were excluded from many in the early 1950s.

Not surprisingly, Pat’s horses became household names, too, not least the 15hh grey Tosca, whose popularity continued long after she retired to stud. Tosca’s first foal Lucia was celebrated in Illustrated magazine – the 1950s equivalent of a photoshoot in Hello!

Impetuous but ultra-careful, Tosca was often in the shadow of her stablemate Prince Hal, with Pat herself occasionally surprised