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Grey Momus (1835 – 1856) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a career that lasted from August 1837 to 1839 he competed twenty-one times and won fourteen races. Grey Momus first attracted attention as a two-year-old when he recorded two impressive victories at Goodwood in August. In the following year he won seven times from nine starts, taking two of the year's biggest races, the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket and the Gold Cup at Ascot Racecourse. Grey Momus won one competitive race and took three in 1839 before being retired. He was exported to stand as a stallion in Germany, where he had some success as a sire of winners.
Before he appeared on the racecourse, Grey Momus had been bought at Doncaster by John Bowes. The colt was sent into training with John Barham Day at Danebury near Stockbridge in Hampshire. Day also rode the grey in most of his races.
After a break of two months, Grey Momus reappeared in the Hopeful Stakes at Newmarket on 3 October for which he started 4/7 favourite despite carrying top weight. He started badly and was left with a great deal of ground to make up before finishing strongly to take second place behind the 15/1 outsider Saintfoin. At the next Newmarket meeting two weeks later he finished unplaced behind Ion when favourite for the Clearwell Stakes. At the Newmarket Houghton meeting on 30 October, Grey Momus was pitted against Colonel Peel's four-year-old filly Vulture, over five furlongs in a match which was highly anticipated. The match, which attracted keen betting interest, was made for £1000 with Grey Momus receiving 38 pounds from his older rival. At half way, Grey Momus seemed to be struggling, and looked likely to be easily beaten, but he stayed on strongly and was only half a length behind at the finish. Two days later at the same meeting Grey Momus was moved up in distance for one mile sweepstakes in which he prevailed by a neck from Paganini after a "desperate race".
By the end of December, Grey Momus, after his mixed results at Newmarket, was third favourite for the Derby behind D'Egville and a son of Cobweb who was later named Phoenix.
At Epsom on 30 May he was made 5/2 favourite for the Derby in a field of twenty-three runners, with Bentinck "declaring to win" with Grey Momus in preference to his other runner D'Egville. Grey Momus started well and disputed the lead with the previously unraced outsider Amato, before beginning to struggle in the straight. Although the grey colt "strained every nerve", he finished a well-beaten third behind Amato, with Ion taking second place. Two weeks after his defeat in the Derby, Grey Momus was sent to Ascot where he ran against older horses in the Gold Cup over a distance of two and a half miles. He started favourite at odds of 4/5 and took the race from the four-year-olds Epirus and Caravan. A year after his first appearance, Grey Momus returned to Goodwood on 31 July and won the Drawing Room Stakes from three opponents. Two days later at the same course, he won the Racing Sweepstakes over one mile from a field which included Epsom Oaks winner Industry.
After a two-month break, Grey Momus returned to run at the autumn meetings at Newmarket. On the opening day of the First October meeting he contested the Grand Duke Michael Stakes over ten furlongs and won at odds of 1/4 from Dash, with the 1000 Guineas winner Barcarolle in third. On the following day, Grey Momus was opposed by only one horse, a colt named Quo Minus in the Newmarket St. Leger and won at odds of 1/15. On his final start of the year, Grey Momus ran a £500 match at Newmarket's Houghton meeting on 2 November, and was beaten over two miles by Caravan. This defeat confirmed the belief of some observers that the successes of Grey Momus in 1838 owed more to his connections clever selection of targets rather than any exceptional ability. Others, however, felt that Grey Momus had been unsuited by the very soft ground and had not given his true running.
Grey Momus was strongly fancied to win a second Ascot Gold Cup but was forced out of the race by injury. He then finished third behind Harkaway and Caravan in the Tradesmen and Innkeepers' Cup over two and a half miles at Cheltenham on 3 July. On his final start he broke down in a race at Guildford.
Grey Momus is [[inbred|inbreeding]] 4S × 4D to the stallion Highflyer, meaning that he appears fourth generation on the sire side of his pedigree and fourth generation on the dam side of his pedigree.
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