{{Short description|Irish racehorse trainer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} [[File:Peter Purcell Gilpin, Vanity Fair, 1908-01-01.jpg|thumb|"Condition", caricature by Spy in ''Vanity Fair'' in 1908.]] '''Peter Valentine Purcell Gilpin''' (''né'' '''Purcell'''; 12 December 1858 – 9 November 1929), known as '''P. P. Gilpin''', was an Irish racehorse trainer. He was Champion Trainer in 1904 and his most notable winner was the filly Pretty Polly who won the Fillies Triple Crown in 1904. He also trained Comrade, the winner of the inaugural Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in 1920.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wright|first=Howard|title=The Encyclopedia of Flat Racing|year=1986|publisher=Robert Hale|isbn=0-7090-2639-0|pages=106–107}}</ref>

He was born in 1858 at Pau, France,<ref>{{cite news |title=Births. |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000056/18581221/009/0003 |access-date=14 October 2024 |work=Freeman's Journal |date=21 December 1858 |page=3}}</ref> the son of Capt. Peter Valentine Purcell of Halverstown, Carragh, County Kildare, and Agnes Maria Lethbridge, daughter of Sir John Lethbridge, 3rd Baronet.<ref name="burke">{{cite book |title= Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood|publisher=Burke's Peerage & Gentry |editor= Mosley, Charles |editor-link=Charles Mosley (genealogist) |edition=107 |year= 2003 |page= 2310|ref=Burke |isbn=0-9711966-2-1}}</ref> He was Roman Catholic. His father died in 1864 and his mother remarried in 1866 Henry St. John Vaughan Thomas-Le-Marchant.<ref name="burke"/><ref>{{cite book |title=Debrett's illustrated baronetage and knightage (and companionage) of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland |date=1880 |page=273 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VNsNAAAAQAAJ&dq=Agnes+Maria,+1854,+Capt.+Peter+Valentine+Purcell&pg=RA1-PA273 |access-date=14 October 2024 |language=en}}</ref>

He was educated at Prior Park College, Bath.<ref name="Watson">{{cite journal |last1=Watson |first1=Alfred Edward Thomas |title=Mr. Peter Purcell Gilpin |journal=Badminton Magazine of Sports and Pastimes |date=October 1907 |volume=25 |issue=147 |pages=355–372 |access-date=14 October 2024 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ntFj2OQ9xvQC&pg=PA355 |ref=Watson |publisher=Longmans, Green, and Company |language=en}}</ref>

In 1883, he married Amy Mary Louisa, daughter of Capt. Henry Meux-Smith.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Addison |first1=Henry Robert |last2=Oakes |first2=Charles Henry |last3=Lawson |first3=William John |last4=Sladen |first4=Douglas Brooke Wheelton |title=Who's who |date=1910 |publisher=A. & C. Black |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MPk-AQAAMAAJ&dq=Amy+Mary+Louisa+Meux+Smith&pg=PA747 |access-date=14 October 2024 |language=en}}</ref> He and his wife adopted the surname Gilpin as a condition of her inheriting the entailed Hockliffe Grange estate from her uncle Sir Richard Gilpin, 1st Baronet.<ref name="Armory">{{cite book |last1=Burke |first1=Bernard |title=The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales |date=1884 |publisher=Wm. Clowes & Sons |page=41 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XtQ2AQAAMAAJ&dq=gilpin&pg=PA7-IA41 |access-date=14 October 2024 |language=en}}</ref> In the late 1880s, they left Bedfordshire and settled in Ireland, where he began training racehorses while living at Whiteleas near Kildare.<ref name="Watson"/>

After moving to Devon, Gilpin won a fortune on bets when his horse Clarehaven won the Cesarewitch Handicap in 1900. Gilpin used the proceeds to fund the construction of a new, purpose-built yard in Newmarket, Suffolk which he named after his winner.<ref>{{cite web |last=Berry |first=John |url=https://www.ttrausnz.com.au/edition/2019-09-23/john-gosden-the-gentleman-trainer |title=John Gosden: The Gentleman Trainer |website=Thoroughbred Racing Australia |date=23 September 2019 |access-date=2024-05-01}}</ref> The name has remained with the stable since then.

He died in 1929 in Dunshaughlin, County Meath.<ref name="timesobit">{{cite news |title= Death of Mr. P. P. Gilpin |work=The Times |date=10 November 1929 |page=5 }}</ref>

==Arms== {{Infobox COA wide |escutcheon = ''Or a boar passant Sable in chief two roses Gules barbed and seeded Proper a canton Azure for difference'' |crest = ''In front of three tilting spears points upwards one in pale two in saltire Proper as many mascles interlaced fessways Or'' |motto = ''Une Foy Mesme'' ("One and the same faith")<ref>{{cite web|url=https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000529303 |title=Grants and Confirmations of Arms, Vol. H |date=1880 |page=108 |publisher=National Library of Ireland}}</ref> |notes = Granted 13 February 1884 by Sir John Bernard Burke, Ulster King of Arms.<ref name="Armory"/>}}

== References == {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilpin, Peter}} Category:1858 births Category:1929 deaths Category:People from Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques Category:People from County Kildare Category:Irish racehorse trainers Category:People educated at Prior Park College {{Ireland-horseracing-bio-stub}}