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) Foret. As a four-year-old in 2011 he added victories in the Sandown Mile, Summer Mile Stakes and Premio Vittorio di Capua before being retired to stud at the end of the year. Dick Turpin is a bay horse with a white star and snip and four white socks bred by John McEnery at the Rossenarra Stud in Kells, County Kilkenny. As a foal in November 2007 he was offered for sale at Goffs and was bought for €12,000 by Noel McDonnell. A year later he returned to the auction ring at Tattersalls and was sold to Peter Doyle Bloodstock for