Lord Derby died in June 1908 and his son Edward took over the family's racing and breeding operations. Trained by George Lambton at the Stanley House Stables in Newmarket, Suffolk, Swynford was a difficult horse to handle and in his only start at age two ran unplaced. An injury kept him off the track until 1910 when he made his three-year-old debut in The Derby. He finished well back in the Derby after being struck in the leg by another runner. Following a third in the St. James's Palace Stakes at Ascot Racecourse, Swynford then won the first of two consecutive editions of Ascot's Hardwicke Stakes. The colt went on to win the Liverpool Summer Cup and the third leg of the British Triple Crown, the St. Leger Stakes, somewhat fortuitously since "half the racegoers in England declared... [the race] had been thrown away by Danny Meher on Lemberg"[2]
Sent back to the track at age four, Swynford won the Chippenham Plate, Princess of Wales's Stakes, Eclipse Stakes and his second straight Hardwicke Stakes. In September 1911, he suffered a serious fetlock injury during training that almost ended his life. Saved by the work of a veterinarian, Swynford was retired to stud duty for Lord Derby where he would prove to be a very successful sire and a sire of leading sires.[1]
Blandford (1919) – Three-time Leading sire in Great Britain and Ireland (1934, 1935, 1938). Sired four Epsom Derby winners including the 1935 British Triple Crown winner, Bahram
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