How does this artwork elucidate its Horse history?
Whistlejacket was a chestnut stallion, with flaxen-coloured mane and tail, believed to be the original colouring of the wild Arabian breed.  He was a Thoroughbred race horse foaled in 1749 at the stud of Sir William Middleton, 3rd Baronet at Belsay Castle in Northumberland,  and named after a contemporary cold remedy containing gin and treacle.  His sire was Mogul and grandsire was the Godolphin Arabian; through his dam, he was also descended from the Byerly Turk, and various other Arabians and Turks.  He raced from 1752, winning many races in the North.  He lost to Jason in the King's Plate at Newmarket in 1755, but won the following year, when he was also narrowly beaten by Spectator for the Jockey Club Plate at Newmarket in 1756. He was sold soon after to the Marquess of Rockingham.  He famously won a four-mile race at York in August 1759 against a strong field, beating Brutus by a length, and then retired to stud, being ten years old.He was beaten only four times in his racing career, but was notoriously temperamental and difficult to manage.  He was "averagely successful at stud", and must have died before Rockingham's death in 1782, as he is not listed in records of the subsequent sale of the stud; he would have been in his thirties if alive.  He was not nearly as famous a horse as his sire and grand-sire, but is mentioned in Act IV of Oliver Goldsmith's classic comic play She Stoops to Conquer (1773) when an elopement is planned: "I have got you a pair of horses that will fly like Whistlejacket".
Thoroughbred thumb York Byerly Turk Godolphin Arabian Newmarket She Stoops to Conquer treacle elopement Belsay Castle wild foal chestnut flaxen stallion Sir William Middleton, 3rd Baronet Oliver Goldsmith mane Marquess of Rockingham