1913 Epsom Derby in front of King George V's horse, Anmer. The horse struck Davison as she tried to grab the horse's reins, the injuries she received proved fatal as she died 4 days later. Davison was a militant suffragette and a member of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), she campaigned throughout her life for votes for women in the United Kingdom. The race was attended by an estimated 500,000 people, including the King and Queen. Aboyeur, ridden by Edwin Piper, took an early lead which he maintained into the straight, where he ran about three horse-widths away from the inside
Hard Ridden 2000 Guineas and won impressively by four lengths from the future Irish Derby winner, Sindon, with Paddy's Point third. The favourite for the Derby, Alcide, was withdrawn from the race after being “got at” (deliberately injured) in his stable, leaving the race looking very open. Hard Ridden, however, as the son of a sprinter, was thought unlikely to be effective over one and a half miles and started at 18/1 in a field of twenty in front of a crowd estimated at 200,000 including the Queen. Ridden by the fifty-one-year-old Charlie Smirke, Hard Ridden was held up in the early