Francis Sartorius

Both pictures were owned by the Compton family of Minstead Manor, near Lyndhurst in the New Forest.  A 'gentleman rider' at New Market and elsewhere, Henry Compton (1719-1786) subscribed to the Racing Calendar between 1746 and 1785 and continued to compete personally until 1765. The first runner in his own colours came in 1749, and thereafter he usually had one or two horses in training each season to race at his local meetings like Blandford, Stockbridge, Salisbury and Winchester.  He was also an early member of the Jockey Club and indeed was present in 1758 when the august body passed its first order at Newmarket.  He was also responsible for the importation of the Compton Arabian stallion, which later became known as the Sedley Arabian.

Henry Compton also seems to have had close links with grandee neighbours, one of which was Lord Bolingbroke, whose racing affairs he looked after for twenty years whilst he had horses in training. When Bolingbroke ran out of money in the 1770s his horses usually raced in Compton's name, and at the earlier period of this match Compton himself is known to have sometimes ridden the horses as he was a very good amateur jockey. David Oldrey has pointed out that this picture, painted some years after the race, wrongly shows Lustre with two white socks.