Staveley was a bay or brown horse bred by William Fletcher at Boroughbridge,[1] and was the third of fifteen foals produced by his dam, an unnamed mare sired by Drone.
[2] Staveley's sire, Shuttle, owned by Henry Tempest Vane, was best known as the loser of a famous 1000 guinea match race at Doncaster.
[4] Staveley began his racing career in the ownership of his breeder, but as a three-year-old he was sold to Colonel Henry Mellish, a veteran of the Peninsular War, who engaged in duelling, prize-fighting and dog-fighting.
[9] Four months after his last appearance, Staveley was one of ten colts and fillies to contest the thirtieth running of the St Leger at Doncaster.
Staveley won the classic, beating Caleb Quotem, with Lord Fitzwilliam's Sir Paul in third[10] to give Mellish a second successive victory in the race following Sancho in 1804.
On the day after his St Leger, Staveley ran in an all-aged sweepstakes over four miles in which he finished last of the five runners behind William Garforth's grey mare Marcia.
Ridden by a stable lad ("a boy") Staveley started at odds of 4/1 and won "a good race"[16] from Mr Radcliffe's colt Barbarossa and the Duke of Grafton's six-year-old mare Parasol.
[17] Staveley returned in the autumn of 1806 for the First October meeting, where he started favourite for a race over the Beacon Course but finished third behind Orville (the 1802 St Leger winner) and Parasol.
In the following month he returned to the scene of his St Leger victory to contest the Doncaster Cup in which he finished third of the four runners behind Scud, a three-year-old colt owned by Lord Monson.