Claude Duval legend, including claims of alchemy, gambling, and much womanising. He is reported to haunt the Holt Hotel along the A4260 (Oxford Road) in Oxfordshire, a hotel where he spent many nights when it was a small coaching inn. Recent historians have reappraised the legacy of Duval. James Sharpe in "Dick Turpin" regarded Duval as the most significant figure in the shaping of the highwayman myth. John and Philip Sugden's "The Thief of Hearts" reconstructs what is known of the historical Duval, using much fresh evidence, and shows that the traditions about the Frenchman were used by such literary luminaries as
Dick Turpin (horse) Cliffs in third, Xtension fourth and the favourite St Nicholas Abbey in sixth. Fifteen days later the colt was sent to France for the Poule d'Essai des Poulains at Longchamp finished second of the fifteen runners, beaten half a length by Lope de Vega with Buzzword, Siyouni and Poet's Voice unplaced. In the St James's Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot Dick Turpin finished runner-up in a Group 1 race for the third time in a row when he was beaten a length by Canford Cliffs with Siyouni, Beethoven and Makfi finishing behind. Richard Hughes resumed the ride when the colt