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Racing Stables and Stud

Solly bought the Maiden Erlegh estate in 1903 and founded the world-renowned Maiden Erlegh Stud. He was in great competition with his brother Jack to breed winners for the big races, the latter achieving greater success with eleven Classic winners.

However, Solly won the Ascot Gold Cup in 1906 with Bachelor’s Buttons, and the 2000 Guineas, the Derby and the St. Leger with Pommern in 1915. Pommern was home-bred by Solly Joel’s famous stallion Polymelus.

 Solly Joel had success in thoroughbred horse racing and breeding. He owned Polymelus, a five-time Leading sire in Great Britain & Ireland who sired Pommern, the 1915 English Triple Crown champion. He also established a stud at New Farm, which was re-named Home Stud Farm located near his own estate. The Joel Stakes at Newmarket Racecourse is named in his honour.

Solly Joel died in 1931 and immediately his estate and possessions were sold at auction. The Home Stud Farm was sold in 1932 but continued until the 1980s.

Polymelus

Polymelus was named after one of the Trojan warriors killed by Patroclus in Homer's The Iliad. He was never considered in the same class as the classic winners of his generation. At stud it was a different story, for he became the most successful British stallion of his era. He was champion sire in Britain on five occasions. He stood his entire life as a stallion at Solly Joel's Maiden Erlegh Stud, and Home Stud Farm was situated between the dead-end part of old Beech Lane and Marefield. The farm pond* is still there. During his first season at Maiden Erlegh, Polymelus suffered an accident when he fell over and severely injured his pelvis. From then on, he required help to mount his mares. This old injury, plus years of suffering from rheumatism, led to the decision to humanely put him down at the age of 22 on March 24, 1924. He was buried at Maiden Erlegh. (Could his bones still be there or were they excavated and moved? And what happened to the Equestrian statue excluded from the estate sale in 1932? Does anyone know?)

Pommern 

(1912–1935) One of Solly’s other triumphs was Pommern was a British bred thoproughbred racehorse who won the 1915 English Triple Crown and was best racehorse of his generation.  Bred and raced by Solomon Joel, Pommern was by Polymelus, a five-time Leading sire in Great Britain & Ireland and a horse that Thoroughbred Heritage calls one the most influential British stallions of the 20th century.  His dam, Merry Agnes, was by St. Hilaire whose sire was St. Simon, one of the most successful sires in the history of British racing. Pommern was inbred twice in the third generation, having Hampton (3x3) as a great-grand-sire. Pommern was noted as being a good looking horse.

Race Record: Trained by Charles Peck, Pommern raced as a two-year-old, winning the 1914 Imperial Produce Stakes and Richmond Stakes. As a three-year-old he won the Limekiln Stakesand was third in the Craven Stakes. He suffered defeat in his preliminary run up to the Guineas, when he conceded 15 lbs to Rossendale.  Ridden by jockey Steve Donoghue, the colt won the 1915 2,000 Guineas Stakes, the Derby, and the September St. Leger Stakes to make him the eleventh horse to win the English Triple Crown. Scheduled to be retired to stud, in January 1916 owner Solly Joel announced the horse would return to the track. A winner that year of the Coronation Cup, the New York Times reported on 3 September 1916 that Joel had turned down a foreign buyer's offer of a record US$250,000 for Pommern. 

Few people today realise that on the area of Earley now called Maiden Erleigh there was not only the estate of Maiden Erleigh but under its last owner  (before being broken up and sold as housing that we see today) Solly Joel, an internationally acclaimed racing stables and stud.