Fred Darling (1884-1953) was one of the foremost British thoroughbred racehorse trainers of the early 20th century, training winners of nineteen English Classic Races and being named Champion Trainer six times. The Epsom Derby, England's most prestigious race, was Darling's crowning achievement, a race in which his horses won a record equalling seven times, five of which are commemmorated by this cigarette case, their wins were as follows; Captain Cuttle 1922, Manna 1925, Coronach 1926, Cameronian 1931 and Bois Roussel 1938.

This last horse, Bois Roussel was bought in early 1938 for £8,000 by The Hon. Peter Randolph Louis Beatty (1910-1949). Beatty was a keen racehorse owner having inherited a large fortune from his mother, the only child of the Chicago department store magnate Marshall Field. Fresh from an unexpected win of the 'Prix Juigné' an event for unraced colts and geldings at the Longchamp Racecourse in Paris, Beatty entered Bois Roussel in the Epsom Derby in June 1938. With odds of 20/1 Bois Roussel's victory that year was an astonishing event, being only the second start of his career and earning his owner more prize money than he had cost to buy. Bois Roussel was Beatty's most successful horse and this personally commissioned cigarette case illustrates the esteem in which Beatty held his horse's trainer Fred Darling. Tragically Peter Beatty died ten years later, aged just 39. Having suffered from poor eyesight since birth and having learned that he was soon to become totally blind Beatty jumped to his death from a sixth floor window of the Ritz Hotel, London, on October 26th 1949.