A non-Thoroughbred horse who excelled at sprint distances and carried big weights to victory in major handicap races, he has been described as Britain's "greatest handicapper and second best sprinter" of the 20th century.

[1] Irish Elegance was large,[2] powerful, exceptionally good-looking[3] chestnut with white socks on his hind legs bred by A Frogley and foaled on 7 March 1915.

His dam Sweet Clorane also produced Cloringo, a steeplechaser who won the National Hunt Chase Challenge Cup at Cheltenham in 1926.

[11] The Royal Ascot meeting on 1919 was said to mark a "revival of pre-war splendour", with a record crowd which included King George V and Queen Mary.

[15] Irish Elegance was beaten three-quarters of a length by the winner, to whom he was conceding forty-four pounds and appeared to be a rather unlucky loser, having lost ground at the start.

"[3] In their book A Century of Champions, based on a modified version of the Timeform system, John Randall and Tony Morris retrospectively rated Irish Elegance the best horse foaled anywhere in the world in 1915, ahead of The Derby winner Gainsborough.