Mounseer, by St. Francis out of Madamoiselle, was bred by Mr. Ford and owned by Major the Hon. Horace Pitt (b. 1814), brother of George, 4th Baron Rivers of Sudeley Castle (b. 1810). Horace was a Captain of the Royal Horse Guards and Major in the army. He married Miss Eleanor Suter in 1845. On 8th May 1850 his horse Mounseer won the Tradesman's Plate at Chester an important handicap race now known as the Chester Cup. George Dockeray rode the horse to this, his greatest victory over a field of twenty six, beating Cockermouth and Woolwich by half a length and a neck.