Bred and owned by John Arthur Dewar and trained by Fred Darling at Beckhampton, Wiltshire, Tudor Minstrel is probably best remembered for spreadeagling the field in the 1947 2,000 Guineas. Unbeaten in four starts as a juvenile, including the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot, Tudor Minstrel made a winning reappearance at Bath en route to the Newmarket Classic, for which he started 11/8 favourite. On the Rowley Mile, Tudor Minstrel made all the running and won by eight lengths, which reportedly could have been twenty, with jockey Gordon Richards sitting up in the saddle throughout the final furlong.
All told, Tudor Minstrel won eight of his ten starts in 1946 and 1947, with his two defeats coming when tried over middle distances, in the Derby and the Eclipse Stakes. His most notable failure came in the Derby, in which he was sent off 4/7 favourite, but ruined his chance by failing to settle in the early stages and continually hanging right-handed. He eventually weakened to finish fourth, at a respectful distance, behind 40/1 outsider Pearl Diver. Back at a mile, Tudor Minstrel regained the winning thread in the St. James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, but his stamina limitations were exposed, once again, when tried over a mile-and-a-quarter in the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown; although more amenable to restraint than he had been at Epsom, he was essentially outstayed by future Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Migoli.
Awarding Tudor Minstrel a rating of 144 – which was, until 1965, the highest rating awarded to any Flat horse – Timeform added the caveat that he ‘became much too headstrong and would not give himself a chance of staying’. However, even today, his rating has only been surpassed by two horses, Sea-Bird and Frankel.