Red Terror (Spain) on 25 July, feast day of St James, patron saint of Spain. August saw a further 2,077 clerical victims. After just two months of civil war, 3400 priests, monks and nuns had been murdered. According to recent research, some of the Republican death squads were heavily staffed by members of the Soviet Union's secret police, the NKVD. According to author Donald Rayfield, "Stalin, Yezhov, and Beria distrusted Soviet participants in the Spanish war. Military advisors like Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, journalists like Koltsov were open to infection by the heresies, especially Trotsky's, prevalent among the Republic's supporters. NKVD agents sent to Spain
Patron Saint (horse) exceptionally cold and led to fears that the Cheltenham Festival would be abandoned but a break in the weather allowed the meeting to take place. Patron Saint was entered in the Gold Cup as a five-year-old meaning that he carried seven pounds less than his older rivals. With the leading chaser of the season Easter Hero absent, the 1926 Gold Cup winner Koko started the 4/5 favourite ahead of Patron Saint on 7/2 whilst the most notable of the other five runners was the 1927 Grand National winner Sprig. Ridden by Dick Rees, Patron Saint tracked Koko before being driven