Goodwood
It was at Goodwood that St.
Simon ran for the first time, though in a THE TATE LIBRARY, BRIXTON, S.W. was founded at the suggestion of Mr. Blenkiron in 1870. This gentleman was a breeder of thoroughbred stock at the Middle Park Stud, and the race was named accordingly, he having subscribed £500 towards the stake.
At once it became established as the chief two-year-old event of the season. The winners have nearly always been animals of the very highest class since Albert Victor's name was inscribed at the head of the list. A fair share of the misfortunes that horseflesh is heir to has befallen winners, it is true. A horse entered here would almost invariably be nominated for the Derby and the St. Leger, so that if all went well with the winner his chance at Epsom should have been specially good; AT THE STARTING GATE. minor event called the Halnaker. There are rich stakes at Sandown, Kempton, and elsewhere which attract excellent fields, but the programmes here are somewhat mutable, and these races have not yet existed long enough to gain prestige by their association with many famous names. The most valuable two-year-old race now is the National Breeders Produce Stakes, run at Sandown the day after the Eclipse, and worth well over £4,000 to the winner, with another £1,000 for distribution; but the Portland Plate at Leicester, won by Donovan in 1888, amounted to £6,000. As to the importance of the Champagne Stakes (1823) at Doncaster there can be no question. Occasionally it falls to a moderate horse-Ayah, Solaro, and Grandison are poor examples of Champagne winners-but of late years one finds the names of Neil Gow, Lesbia, Pretty Polly, Rock Sand, Velasquez, Ladas, La Flèche, Riviera, Chittabob (one of three horses that with an advantage of 13 lb. in weights-beat Donovan), Ayrshire, Minting; and further back many others of note. There had for a long time been urgent necessity for a good two-year-old race late in the year, a contest that would attract the best horses and really show the capacity of the principal two-year-olds, and such a prize but for a long time an unfortunate fate seemed to overshadow Middle Park winners in their advance to Derby honours.
Something untoward happened year after year. St. Louis and Macheath failed to stand training, and it was not till 1885 that Melton broke the spell, and won the Derby after winning the Middle Park, though Busybody after taking the latter in 1883 had won the Oaks next year. Since then the result of the Middle Park has pointed strongly to the result of the Derby. Five horses have won both-Donovan (1888), Isinglass (1892), Ladas (1893), Galtee More (1896), Lemberg (1910); the famous Pretty Polly also won the Middle Park and the One Thousand Guineas, Oaks, and St. Leger. Gouverneur won in 1890 and ran second, the colt that beat him, Common, not having run in the Newmarket race. St.
Frusquin, who won the two-year-old race in 1895, was just beaten at Epsom.
The Middle Park Plate takes place over the Bretby Stakes Course, six furlongs, and soon after its inauguration it was felt desirable to have another and a still severer test of merit in the shape of a seven-furlong race. The Dewhurst Plate was therefore started at the Houghton Meeting in 1875, and speedily shared the success of the race which makes so interesting a feature in the Second October. The Middle Park Plate is worth between £2,000 and £3,000, the Dewhurst about £1,000 less, but the lists of winners are of nearly equal merit, and on several occasions both races have been won by the same horse-Chamant (1876), Friar's Balsam (1887), Donovan (1888), Orme (1891), St. Frusquin (1895), Bayardo (1908), and his half-brother, Lemberg (1909). Two-year-olds are not permitted by the rules of racing to run a longer distance than six furlongs before July Ist; and until September Ist they always run at weight for age, with or without penalties or allow ances, according to the nature of the race; but on September ist "Nurseries," or twoyear-old handicaps, are allowed, and restrictions as to distance are removed. At the Houghton Meeting there used to be a Feather Plate over the trying Cesarewitch course, two miles two furlongs, in which the young horses met their elders, and the race was nearly always won by a two-yearold-who was as a rule worthless afterwards. Another race at the Houghton Meeting, which always promises well and nearly always disappoints expectation, is the Free Handicap for Two-year-olds. Horses are not entered by their owners for this stake. The handicapper takes the bestknown two-year-olds and weights them according to his estimate of their capacity, thus enabling one to learn how they stand in the eyes of an impartial authority. The field, however, very seldom includes those that the lover of the Turf would chiefly desire to see in antagonism.
WEIGHT-FOR-AGE RACES.-It has been seen that practically everything depends upon the weight a horse carries. There is an old saying that weight will bring together a donkey and a Derby winner, and the extravagant assertion may be accepted as tending to show how vast a difference a horse's burden is recognised as making. Weight-for-age races are of three varieties. In the first place there is what may be called weight-for-age proper, in which animals of the same age carry the same weight, as in the Coventry Stakes at Ascot and the Champagne at Doncaster, for two-year-olds; the five "classic" races for three-year-olds, and a very few stakes which linger for older horses. Here the only variation from even weights is that mares and geldings are allowed 3 lb. In the second place there are races, like the New Stakes at Ascot and the Middle Park Plate at Newmarket, for two-year-olds; the [RACING Prince of Wales's Stakes at Ascot, for three-year-olds, where horses of the same age carry the same weight, with, however, penalties for previous successes, and, in the case of the Ascot race, maiden allowances. In the third place, there are weightfor-age races in which horses of different ages meet and are weighted according to the table already given.
Of weight-for-age races, the five "classic" events are supposed to come first, and the Derby first of these. Since this point of view was adopted, a number of valuable and important stakes have been introduced, wherein Derby winners may and do meet each other; and a special prestige has always attached to the Ascot Cup, in which there are none of the penalties and allowances that "bring horses together," and where also Derby winners and others of the highest class may be found in opposition. The five three-year-old classic races are, however, the Two Thousand Guineas, for colts and fillies, dating from 1809, and the One Thousand, for fillies only (1814), run at the Newmarket First Spring Meeting; the Derby, for colts and fillies (1780), and the Oaks (1779), for fillies only, run at the Epsom Summer; and the St. Leger, for colts and fillies (1776), run at Doncaster. It is difficult to understand why the Derby should be so generally, if not universally, regarded as the chief of these. The mile and a half Epsom course is far from one of the fairest, as a horse that has the misfortune to be badly placed when Tattenham Corner is rounded is at a great disadvantage; whereas the Doncaster course (I mile, 6 furlongs, 132 yards) is one on which there is much less chance of jostling and accidental interference; it is longer, and so affords a better test of merit; and, besides these things, the Derby winner usually runs to prove or disprove the correctness of the Epsom race, and not seldom he meets the Oaks winner, so that an interesting point as to the relative capacity of the colts and fillies of the season comes on for decision.
Horses are entered for the Derby in the middle of their yearling season-thus the entries for the Derby of 1910 closed on July 21st, 1908. The reason for these early entries has already been given if owners were allowed to wait until they had ascertained something of the real ability of their animals, many fewer subscriptions would be taken as it is, the chances are that the most promising colts and a smaller proportion of the most promising fillies are given an opportunity of obtaining what is supposed to be the highest honour the Turf RACING] affords. A few years since there was no "minor forfeit" for the Derby-that is to say, a man entered his horse, paid £50 if he ran it, and £25-half forfeit if he did not.
Now, however, if his representative turns out disappointingly, and seems to have no chance, further liability can be escaped by payment of £5 at a date in the January after entry. The subscriptions usually exceed 300-there were 375 for the Derby of 1911.
The stakes have been well over £7,000, but they have also sunk to under £4,000. The conditions now are:- The DERBY STAKES of 6,500 sovs., by subscription of 50 sovs. each, h. ft., or 5 Sovs. only if declared by the last Tuesday in March, 1908, for entire colts and fillies, foaled in Entries for these close in November, when the animals are yearlings. There are, as a rule, well over 100 for the former, fewer for the fillies' race. The stakes vary in total between £4,000 and £5,000. The conditions of the Oaks are the same as for the Derby, except that the nominator of the winner receives £400, the owners of second and third £200 and £100. Another important three-year-old race is the Newmarket Stakes of £30 each with £1,000 added. This is run at the Newmarket Second Spring Meeting, and the tendency of it is not wholly for good, as it affords a temptation to owners to start horses who have probably taken part in the Two Thousand a fortnight previously, are to go for JUMPING OFF. 1906; colts 8st., and fillies 8st. 9lb.; the nominator of the winner to receive 500 sovs. out of the race; if not sufficient surplus is obtained from subscriptions to give the second at least 400 sovs. and the third at least 200 sovs., the difference to be made up by the Race Fund; about one mile and a half.
Derby time is never very good, because of the nature of the course. The average for a considerable number of years past has been a rate of I minute 48 seconds a mile, and in a well-run race a mile ought not to take much more than I minute 40 seconds; but, as is elsewhere remarked, it is futile to pay attention to the times races occupy. The subject of Derby winners is treated later on in this article, under the side-head "Famous Horses."
Entries for the St. Leger are made as nearly as possible two years before the event, in the September of the animals' yearling existence. Subscribers pay £25 whether they run or not, and the value of the stake therefore depends entirely upon the number of subscriptions. These are usually some sixty or seventy fewer than for the Derby, and the two races rule worth not very far from the same amount. For the Two Thousand and One Thousand Guineas, £100 each, half forfeit, is the condition. are as a [Photograph by Sport & General. the Derby a fortnight later, and are thus liable to be overtaxed. For several years there was a three-year-old race at Epsom called the Grand Prize, set for the day after the Derby; but this failed for obvious causes, and has been discontinued. Horses that had run the day before were likely to be feeling the effects of their exertions, if, indeed, their owners sent them to the post; animals that seemed to have any chance for the Derby were almost certain to have been run in it; if any were specially kept for the Grand Prize it was because of their obvious inferiority, and the contest was felt to be unsatisfactory. One thing to be specially desired every year is a good field for the Ascot Cup, but the average of runners is only about five, and it is perhaps not unnatural that this should be so. Two or three horses nearly always stand out by themselves, if, indeed, one animal does not appear to do so, and as there are here no penalties or allowances (beyond the inevitable 3 lb. for mares and geldings), few owners care to submit their horses to the ordeal of a preparation for a struggle over two miles and a half, with a very faint prospect of victory. Three-year-olds carry 7 st. 7 lb., four-year-olds 9 st., five, six, and aged 9 st. 4 lb. But when worthy opponents are in opposition it is truly a great race. The Goodwood Cup is weight-forage with a difference. One horse may be penalised 21 lb., another may be allowed 14 lb., if a maiden four-year-old, 8 lb. in addition if bred in British colonies or dependencies, making 22 lb. in all, so that one four-year-old might have to give another no less a weight than 3 st. 1 lb.
About the year 1884 it occurred to the managers of Sandown Park to inaugurate a race that should be the richest in England, and ingeniously to do so in a way that would not be likely to cost them anything; for these gate-money meetings are commercial speculations, whatever they may do for the sport. A round sum of £10,000 was to be the prize, and owners were to subscribe it out of their own pockets, though if a sufficient number of entries were not obtained there might be (and often has been of late) an amount for the Club to make up. The idea will be understood by a study of the conditions, which were follows for the first Eclipse, run in as 1886:- The ECLIPSE STAKES of 10,000 sovs. nett, with 500 sovs. for the second, the third to save his stake of IIO sovs.; three-year-olds, 8st.; four, 8st. 12lb.; five and upwards, ost.; mares and geldings allowed 3lb.; winners of a stake value 500 sovs. to carry 4lb., of 1,000 sovs. 7lb. extra (handicaps not included); winners of the Derby, Oaks, St. Leger, or Grand Prix de Paris to carry Iolb. extra; about one mile and a quarter.-265 subs., 103 of whom pay 10 sovs. each, and 66 of whom pay 30 sovs. each. By subscription of to sovs. each, the only forfeit if declared by the first Tuesday in October, 1884; if left in after the first Tuesday in October, 1884, further subscription of 20 sovs.; if left in after the first Tuesday in January, 1885, further subscription of 30 sovs.; if left in after the first Tuesday in January, 1886, a further subscription of 50 sovs.
In the event of the forfeits exceeding the expenses of the stake, the surplus will be devoted either to a Consolation Stakes for the unplaced starters, or will be divided between the second and third horses, at the discretion of the Executive. a a It thus cost £110 to run-that is to say, owners were taking the liberal odds of 10,000 to IIO about their horses, with the chance of certain other recompenses or compensations. The scheme was successful, though in 1887 and 1890 there was no race.
In amount, the total of the stakes has varied, dependent as it is on the number of entries. Ayrshire's Eclipse was worth £11,160, St. Frusquin's £9,310, Bayardo's £8,870. These Ten Thousand Pounders, as they were called, were tempting races for conductors of meetings, and other places followed the lead of Sandown. The [RACING Lancashire Plate was started (1888) at Manchester, and Seabreeze, who had beaten Ayrshire in the St. Leger a fortnight previously, beat him again, and credited her owner with the curious sum of £10,222 IOS. IOd. Le Sancy, destined to become the best sire in France, was third.
A race called the Royal Stakes was run at Kempton, and added £9,500 to Ayrshire's large winnings on the year. There he had the best of Seabreeze, who was second.
The Prince of Wales's Stakes, for threeyear-olds, was also devised at Leicester, and Donovan in 1889 earned £11,000 by his victory; but the race was a mistake, as it was fixed for April, and it was felt to be doubtful policy for owners who wanted to run their horses in the classic races to have them ready so soon. Colts and fillies could not well be trained for this event and be at their best a few weeks later in the Two Thousand, a month afterwards in the Derby, and between three and four months later still in the St. Leger. The Leicester race was for a time transferred to the Summer Meeting and reduced in value; but this, together with the Royal Stakes and the Lancashire Plate, were soon abandoned, though, on the other hand, the Stewards of the Jockey Club introduced two £10,000 races at Newmarket, the Princess of Wales's Stakes, run at the First July Meeting, and the Jockey Club Stakes at the First October. The conditions of these were on the lines of the Eclipse, but only the Jockey Club Stakes is now worth £10,000, the value of the Princess of Wales's Stakes having been reduced first to £6,000, with deductions for second and third horses and nominators of the placed animals, and now the value to the winner is about £3,500. Dark Ronald secured £4,844 in 1908. Comments horses who have been seen here are made in the division of the article headed "Famous Horses." The two Newmarket Ten Thousand Pounders date from 1894. on Other more or less notable weight-for-age t-for-age races are the Alexandra Plate at Ascot, the longest race now run, the distance being 2 miles 6 furlongs 85 yards. It is always fixed for the last day, and, as the Cup has been run for on the previous afternoon, and stayers are so few, the field is invariably very small, owners of Cup horses seldom being willing to subject their animals to the ordeal of two such races, especially on the well-nigh inevitably hard ground. The Doncaster Cup (1801) must also be mentioned, and the Jockey Club Cup, over the Cesarewitch course, at the Houghton Meeting. For these, starters are always few. The Champion Stakes, also at the Hough- RACING] ton, must not be omitted, by reason of the good horses that have won it-Jannette, Rayon d'Or, Robert the Devil, Bend Or, Tristan (twice, besides a dead-heat on a third occasion), Paradox, Ormonde, Bendigo, Friar's Balsam, Amphion, Orme, La Flèche, Velasquez (twice), Sceptre, Pretty Polly, and Llangwm. The conditions of the Challenge Cup and Whip will be found set forth in the "Rules of Racing," and need not be repeated. The Whip is a trophy containing hairs from the tail of Eclipse. FAMOUS HORSES.-Some few years since a journal devoted to racing sought the by numerous votes; and in fact these nine received most suffrage. Donovan, Isinglass, Persimmon, and others had not made their names at the time when this difficult question was being discussed, or no doubt they would have had pronounced admirers.
It is absolutely impossible to form any trustworthy estimate of the relative capacity of horses of the present day and their remote predecessors. The late Sir Francis Doyle and some other lovers of the Turf, who wrote plausibly and well, have endeavoured to prove that the modern thoroughbred has deteriorated in stamina if VOLTIGEUR AND FLYING DUTCHMAN. ideas of a number of authorities as to the names of the best ten horses of the nineteenth century. Great difference of opinion prevailed, there being general agreement about only a few animals. Ormonde and St.
Simon were in all the lists, and they could not well have been omitted, seeing that neither had ever been beaten. The Flying Dutchman, Voltigeur, and West Australian were usually included. Blair Athol had supporters, notwithstanding that doubts were expressed as to whether he was really a stayer; and Gladiateur was not forgotten. Galopin was almost the first choice with band of enthusiasts who chanced to know how greatly superior he was to some amongst his contemporaries that were almost universally accepted as really good horses. Isonomy, in spite of the fact that his chief performances were in handicaps, was rated as one of the ten a not in speed, and that over the Beacon Course the horses of the present century would have had no chance against the stalwart racers of the first half of the nineteenth; but there is no real basis of justification for this argument. Horses were formerly trained to gallop the Beacon Course; they are not so trained now; and as to the pace at which they went, we have no knowledge.
In all probability they took a long while about it, but records as to time are, we may be assured, not in the least to be depended upon, considering for how many years the preposterous fiction of a mile a minute received credence. It is a perplexing business to endeavour to sift out the truth about the capacity of horses. Some writers are given to eulogising bygone days. The horses of their youth appear to them far better than any they have seen since; others, again, are constantly making fresh idols, and discover the "horse of the century" almost every other year. Prejudice, too, is a mighty factor in most comparisons. Men are interested in horses and magnify their achievements; possibly they base their calculations on some trial which was never authenticated by public running, and they implicitly believe that it was quite right when it may, in fact, have been quite wrong.
More probably still, they are prejudiced against a horse, disgusted, it may be, by the panegyrics expressed in wild and whirling words by fatuous enthusiasts, and so try to pick holes by way of proving that these enthusiasts are writing nonsense. Unbiassed and dispassionate judgment is rare, and when it is found, it may be based on inaccurate or insufficient grounds. [RACING horses of the present day. Here is a list of his contributions to the roll of classic winners. وو وو وو دو ور TWO THOUSAND GUINEAS. 1852. Lord Exeter's Stockwell, by The Baron. 1862. Mr. S. Hawke's The Marquis, by Stockwell. 1866. Mr. Sutton's Lord Lyon 1871. Mr. J. Johnstone's Bothwell 1873. Mr. W. S. Crawfurd's Gang well ;, Forward ONE THOUSAND GUINEAS. 1863. Lord Stamford's Lady Augusta 1866. Marquis of Hastings' Repulse 1867. Col. Pearson's Achievement THE DERBY. 1864. Mr. W. I'Anson's Blair Athol 1866. Mr. Sutton's Lord Lyon 1873. Mr. Merry's Doncaster.
THE OAKS.
In these articles I have sedulousiy avoided quotations, of which so many books 1865. Mr. W. Graham's Regalia on racing are so largely made up, but it is obvious that no new ideas can now be promulgated about the famous horses of long ago; and it may be very briefly stated that Marlow's observation when he first rode the Flying Dutchman (on whom he won the Derby of 1849) must surely be accepted as going far to stamp that colt a great one. "I was never on such a one as this before!" was the remark of that experienced jockey.
Voltigeur is naturally coupled with his immediate predecessor in the list of Derby winners, and it is curious to recall the fact that when this notable animal was offered for sale at auction as a yearling no one would bid 100 guineas for him. Frank Butler's inarticulate admiration when first he saw West Australian, and the circumstance that he found the colt did more than justify his appearance, tend to gain for this notable son of Melbourne a place in the very front rank. The question was not whether he was sure of the St. Leger, but by how much it would be desirable to win, Butler declaring that if he won by the length of his arm it would do, whilst Isaac Walker, who managed the colt, protested against heads and necks, and running things close generally. Blink Bonny (a daughter of Melbourne) was doubtless one of the best mares of modern times, and therefore in all probability in the history of the Turf; Pretty Polly was a wonderful animal; and Stockwell's name is almost unsurpassed in racing annals. It is usually discreet to avoid superlatives, but if it should not be said that no horse ever did such good service to the race of the English thoroughbred, it is safe to assert that none has ever done better. His sire, The Baron, won the Leger of 1845, and from him we have a direct line to some of the greatest THE ST. LEGER. 1860. Lord Ailesbury's St. Albans 1861. Mr. W. l'Anson's Caller Ou 1862. Mr. S. Hawke's The Marquis 1864. Mr. W. I'Anson's Blair Athol 1866. Mr. Sutton's Lord Lyon 1867. Col. Pearson's Achievement وو دو دو وو دو وو دو دو وو وو وو وو وو دو وو وو وو دو دو دو دو دو دو وو وو وو Six times in eight years, it will be seen, Stockwell's sons and daughters carried off the St. Leger; Doncaster's son, Bend Or, won the Derby of 1880, and became the sire of Ormonde, who won the Two Thousand, Derby, and St. Leger six years later. a we If this division of my work deals chiefly with recent times, it is because have more trustworthy data to go on, and in consequence of a belief that readers will be more interested in animals whom they have seen, or the exploits of whose progeny they have witnessed. The success of Blink Bonny in the Derby of 1857-the second of the four fillies that have won it in 130 years-reminds one that the old rivalry which used to exist between northern and southern stables, notably between Yorkshire and Newmarket, has practically disappeared. John Scott, of Whitewall, the "Wizard of the North," as he was called, was a power in the racing world of his day; and his brother William, if not too scrupulous or too sober, was doubtless a highly effective horseman. The Dawsons, too, came from the north-from farther north than Whitewall, indeed-and the great reputation of John Scott and one or two more northern trainers tended directly or indirectly to the establishment of other north country stables, as head lads and capable men who had learnt their business under masterly tuition found patrons to fill stables for them. Newmarket was really very little esteemed as RACING] a training centre some fifty years ago, odd as that may appear at present. The Dawsons came south, however; other establishments followed, and nowadays, the northern stables are regarded by STOCKWELL. sursoutherns-whatever opinions may vive in Yorkshire-as generally inferior.
Blair Athol was the culmination of northern glory, and that the chestnut made something of a sensation when he cantered to the post for the Derby on his first appearance on any racecourse there can be no doubt. The Duke of Beaufort recounts though the story has never been published-how greatly he was struck by the looks and action of the son of Stockwell; so much so, indeed, that, having had a great fancy for, and having backed, another horse in the race, he straightway went to the ring, and took care that Blair Athol's victory should not be unprofitable to him. The colt had great speed and certain amount of stamina, but, as already remarked, he was not universally accepted as a stayer. When a handicap horse called The Miner beat him at York, excuses were made, as they always are in such cases, for his defeat; but John Osborne, who rode The Miner, states that he was not at all surprised at his success. and, indeed, expected to win. Two of Blair Athol's sons won the St. Leger, but neither Craigmillar nor Silvio (the latter also won the Derby) was a good horse. a This is somewhat overshooting the mark, however, for Blair Athol's year was 1864, and there was a three-year-old in 1863 who had and has staunch admirers. He did not win the Derby either, having been just beaten in that race; for reference is made to Lord Clifden, who possibly by ill luck, but the point does not now need argumentsuccumbed at Epsom to Macaroni. There are some animals that, for reasons not very easy to trace, firmly win a place in the affections of lovers of the horse, and Lord Clifden was one of these, possibly because this idea of his bad luck in the Derby so strongly prevailed. He carried off the St.
Leger, after having been left at the post so that he had an apparently impossible distance to make up, and it was a triumph of patience and judgment on the part of his jockey, John Osborne, that he beat his eighteen opponents. Whatever may have been the relative merits of Macaroni and Lord Clifden when in training, the chestnut son of Newminster has done far better service at the stud. Macaroni is chiefly remembered by his two daughters, Spinaway and Camelia (who won the One Thousand and ran a dead-heat for the Oaks with Euguerrande), although the former, it is true, was the mother of a memorable family; but no fewer than four Leger winners were sired by Lord Clifden:
Hawthornden (1870), Wenlock (1872), Petrarch (1876), and Jannette (1878).
The blue blood of Wenlock is still in evidence, with promise of much to come, moreover. His daughter, Wedlock, dam of Best Man, was sold at auction when twelve years old for 4,600 guineas; and Petrarch was sire of The Bard, who has done excellent service at the stud in France; for though critics complained that his stock are light of bone and are prone to bad hocks, they keep on winning. Another Petrarch, Throstle, won the Leger of 1894, moreover, so that Lord Clifden must assuredly be included among famous horses.
The idea that a French-bred colt could win the Derby had been deemed impossible prior to 1865. Gladiateur had beaten a big field of twenty-nine starters in the Two Thousand, and not a little fluttered the holders of pronounced opinions on the subject of the invincibility of the English WEST AUSTRALIAN. horse; but the Two Thousand was not the Derby, and a strong conviction was felt that something or other would come to the rescue of the British reputation at Epsom.
But nothing did. The son of Monarque followed in the footsteps of West Australian, who won all three "classic" races in 1853, and there was nothing to be said beyond the expression of an unworthy doubt, started by bad losers who could not take defeat gracefully, as to whether he was really a three-year-old. The feat was to be repeated next year by Lord Lyon, and both were horses of the very first rank.
Lord Lyon's early trials were exceptionally good; indeed, his first gallop was wonderful, for on September 10th, 1864, the Saturday before Doncaster, when he was a yearling -an age at which very few horses are ever asked to gallop, and if they are at all it is usually three months later than Don- BLINK BONNY. "A caster, in December he was only beaten a head over a severe three furlongs by a really smart two-year-old named Jezebel, who was giving him no more than 7 lb.. the weight being: Jezebel, 2 years, 8 st. 10 lb., and Lyon, 1 year, 8 st. 3 lb. tremendous performance for a yearling," is Lord Suffolk's commentary in his admirable book on Racing in the Badminton Library. Afterwards he did great things in private and in public; but the "glorious uncertainty of the Turf" was exhibited in those days at the stud. Gladiateur never sired a good horse, though his name is found in the pedigrees of French winners, and Lord Lyon-unless the useful mare, Placida, be counted-is memorable only as the sire of Minting, one of those horses who would have made a mighty name for himself but for the fact of his being a contemporary of one unquestionably superior animal-Ormonde. Hermit was certainly a famous horse, though by no means of the first rank. The story of his sensational Derby victory in a snowstorm after he had broken a bloodvessel and been stopped in his work is too familiar to bear repetition; it was, indeed, [RACING less the race itself than the circumstances attending it which made the event remarkable, and this romance of the Turf arising from the private antagonisms of the Marquis of Hastings and Mr. Henry Chaplin is unsuitable for discussion in these pages. Marksman was a colt of whom the greatest things were expected, and until the Duke of Beaufort went to Danebury and found that John Day had sorely overdone the Two Thousand Guineas winner, Vauban, the prospects of the Badminton light blue and white hoops had looked rosy. Though, as a rule, what is past soon becomes archaic and uninteresting in this rapid age, the true story of Lord Hastings's racing career would always be absorbing. It has, indeed, occupied many pens, but it is all too evident that the writers have usually drawn upon their imaginations for their facts, and they differ ludicrously about their fiction. .. a In some years the fillies are greatly superior to the colts, and 1867 furnishes a case in point. Achievement, the daughter of Stockwell and own sister to Lord Lyon, the hero of the previous season, was doubtless unapproachable, and a wonderful animal to boot, for though she never ran as a four-year-old, and in her day the rich stakes of £10,000, which afterwards came into vogue, were not inaugurated, she is one of a select little company of horses that won over £20,000; and she was followed by another filly of almost equal fame, who also comes into the list of over £20,000," Formosa, a daughter of Buccaneer. She carried off the One Thousand, the Oaks, and St. Leger, and she was not beaten for the Two Thousand. In that race she ran a dead-heat with a horse of Mr. W. S. Crawfurd's named Moslem; he subsequently walked over, and she is consequently not enrolled as a winner of the first classic race of 1868; but that he was inferior to Formosa few ever doubted, and he consequently enjoys credit, which he does not really deserve, as the victor in this event. He was a sadly bad-tempered horse, and sank to the lowest depths. "He won the Derby" is the best recommendation a horse can have whilst he lives, the most effective and suggestive epitaph he can earn. The world in general accepts this as fame, in spite of all that is urged about the probably higher value of the St.
Leger as a real test of merit, disregarding the circumstances, so obvious to experts, that between Derby winners there is a vast amount of difference. Galopin, Ormonde, and Isinglass won the Derby; so did Sir Visto, Orby, and Signorinetta; and as Derby RACING] winners the outsider would very likely place them on the same mark; but though it is quite impossible accurately to gauge the respective capacity of the fields of different years, if experts do not agree that the first-named trio were 21 lb. better horses, it is only because many good judges will continue to doubt whether that difference of weight would have brought these together had they been contemporaries. Accepting this view, and having regard to the need of brevity, it is not every Derby or Leger winner whose performances can be discussed at length or even liberally summarised.
Avoiding not thrice, but thirty-times-told tales, little need be said about the Derby of 1868, which Sir Joseph Hawley won with Blue Gown. To win the Derby at all is so great an object of every owner's ambition, or of every owner with very few exceptions, that one might have supposed Sir Joseph Hawley would have been content, the more so as his success was achieved for the fourth time; but he was anxious to win with Rosicrucian, always maintaining that this was the best of his three starters, for Green Sleeves ran as well as Blue Gown.
The details of this story are given in John Porter's book, Kingsclere, and in numerous other publications, so that it need not be dwelt on here, the more so as Blue Gown's name has now dropped out of Turf history, the horse having died while crossing the Atlantic to stand in America. For the next few years the Derby and St. Leger winners were chiefly famous because they won the Derby or the St. Leger. Pretender's success in 1869 was one of the races about which the crowd differed from the judge; there was an idea that Pero Gomez had just got up, but the judge doubtless knew best, though Pero Gomez had his revenge at Doncaster. Lord Falmouth certainly managed his racing affairs with great discretion; but that luck which has been spoken of as a prevailing element doubtless aided him in his two Derbys; for Kingcraft in 1870 and Silvio in 1877 were both a great deal below the average of Derby winners.
It has already been remarked that Galopin has admirers who believe him to be as good as any horse that ever ran. A son of Vedette, he could not have been more English, but his owner, Prince Batthyany, one of the distinguished many foreigners who have found an irresistible attraction in the English Turf; and in the next year also the Derby went abroad, Mr.
A. Baltazzi having been the owner of Kisber, a son of Buccaneer, and so a close relation of Formosa. Which is the worst was THE TATE LIBRARY, BRIXTON, S.W. horse that ever won the Derby is a point upon which agreement could hardly be reached. Sefton, Sir Bevys, Merry Hampton, Signorinetta, and others would probably all be named if the question were put to the vote, and so little need be said about them under the present heading.
Probably Sir Bevys owed his victory in a great measure to the fact of Fordham having ridden him with peculiar discretion.
The weather is generally fine during the Epsom Summer Meeting, but that year the course was a quagmire on the lower side, and Fordham came wide on the right, thus running a little farther, but securing firm ground to gallop over. He was a great believer in the difference made by good LORD CLIFDEN. going, thinking the smallest advantage well worth gaining, and there was a track at Newmarket along which he always, when possible, took his horse under certain conditions of going. The Derby of 1880 is memorable for the desperately close struggle between Bend Or and Robert the Devil, and hard as I am trying to avoid the repetition of facts which will probably be known to most of my readers, it must be remarked that Robert the Devil ought certainly to have won, but that his rider looked round and was apparently paralysed by Archer's desperate rush with the Duke of Westminster's colt, notwithstanding that the famous jockey was riding with one arm at the time, not having recovered from the injuries inflicted when he was savaged by Muley Edris.
When there are two notable horses of the same age it not seldom happens that some unfortunate chance keeps them apart, as, for instance, was the case in 1884, when lovers of the Turf were exceedingly anxious to see what would happen if St. Simon and St. Gatien met over two miles. Bend Or and Robert the Devil, however, had several tussles, and each scored in turn, though in the St. Leger Robert the Devil had it all his own way, Bend Or being nowhere in the race. When they repeated their struggle over the Epsom course for the Cup neither horse was really himself.
The fact of the matter doubtless is that Bend Or had the better speed, and that Robert the Devil was the better stayer. At the distance of a mile and a quarter it is probable that the chestnut would have won, but over the Cesarewitch course the general opinion would have leant almost unanimously to his rival. 1n The French and the Hungarians had, it will be seen, carried off the Derby, and in 1881 it was to go to America by the aid of Iroquois, a son of Leamington. Iroquois was probably not a good horse, though he won the Prince of Wales' Stakes at Ascot with the full penalty, an achievement which always counts reckoning up a horse's capacity; and he did all that was asked of him in the St. Leger without difficulty. About this time the fillies were doing well. Going back a little way, it is obvious that Marie Stuart (in 1873), who won the Oaks, was better than her stable companion, Doncaster, who won the Derby, because the two fought it out in the St. Leger, one of the most exciting contests ever seen on the Town Moor, and the filly beat the colt by a short head. Next season, too, Apology was surely the best of her year, and Turf historians are fond of relating how there was a doubt about her being able to run at Doncaster, as she had shown signs of lameness, and how the clergyman who owned her insisted upon her fulfilling the engagement, which she won gallantly in the hands of John Osborne.
In 1883 there was what is called a sensational Derby, Galliard, Highland Chief, and St. Blaise, all three having staunch supporters, running a close finish, and only the judge could say for certain which had won. There was a scandal about the race into which it is not necessary to go at present. Charles Wood on St. Blaise shot round Tattenham Corner in a fashion of which Archer was very fond when he got the chance; thus St. Blaise gained some two lengths, and his resolute jockey never lost his advantage. St. Blaise, it may be added, went to America, where he did excellent service at the stud. In 1884 it is tolerably certain that Busybody must have won the Derby had she run, as there is no doubt of her superiority to Harvester, who ran a dead-heat with St. Gatien. Busybody was, indeed, a very good mare, but she showed signs of lameness after her Oaks victory, and, though sent to Ascot, was never able to run there or subsequently; [RACING she finally broke down a fortnight before the St. Leger, but has distinguished herself as the dam of Meddler, many of whose children have run and won in England, though he was early sent to America.
St. Simon, a contemporary of St. Gatien and Busybody, was not entered for the Derby. Before the death of Prince Batthyany it had been rumoured that he owned a remarkably promising colt in a son of the Derby winner, Galopin, and of a mare called St. Angela. More than one man, however, who had reason to believe in the colt's capacity, timidly let him slip when he was for sale after his master's terribly sudden death at Newmarket, and the lucky Duke of Portland bought him for 1,600 guineas, his dam being sold the same afternoon for 320 guineas. Four weeks afterwards to the day St. Simon made his first appearance on a racecourse in the Halnaker Stakes at Goodwood, ridden by Archer, and won in a canter by half-a-dozen lengths. Next afternoon he came out again for a Maiden Plate against a solitary opponent, of whom he disposed without an effort. The few engagements which had been made for him were, of course, rendered void by the death of his first owner, and his next race was in the Devonshire Nursery at Derby. Though he had now earned 8 st. 12 lb., he played with his opponents. In the Prince of Wales' Nursery at Doncaster he was top weight, 9 st., in field of twentyone, and "W won by eight lengths was the verdict the judge was not called upon to say that the eight lengths might have been eighteen if Archer had wished it.
As it happened, this was a year when the fillies seemed to be doing much better than the colts. Wild Thyme, a daughter of Lowlander and Fragrance, won the Woodcote, the New Stakes at Ascot, the Exeter Stakes at the Newmarket July, and the Lavant Stakes at Goodwood; the Hermit- Adelaide filly, known afterwards as Solitaire and then called Queen Adelaide, won the July; Superba carried off the Astley Stakes at Lewes and the Champagne at Doncaster; Busybody won the Rous Memorial at Newmarket and the Middle Park Plate; but there was a colt, who strangely enough had run for the first time in public within an hour of St. Simon's début, who was believed by his friends to be quite as good as, if not better than, the son of Galopin. This was the Duke of Westminster's Bushey, as he had been originally named, by Hampton-Preference.
He had gone to Goodwood with a great reputation, and, having won the Richmond a وو RACING] Stakes, was re-named Duke of Richmond.
A match was consequently made between the two and came off immediately before the Dewhurst Plate (in which Queen Adelaide, 8 st. 13 lb., beat Busybody, 9 st.
MACARONI. 2 lb., a neck, thus showing themselves practically the same animal). The colts ran at even weights and St. Simon won, easily, Archer, who rode him, declared; with scarcely 7 lb. in hand was the estimate of Tom Cannon, the jockey of the defeated colt. Duke of Richmond may be here dismissed with the remark that hard struggles in the Hunt Cup and Stewards' Cup next year, for both of which he was just beaten, apparently broke his heart, or at least disgusted him with racing, and he sunk to hurdle jumping. a a St. Simon was to begin as a three-yearold in the same way he had ended as a two-year-old-with a match. It had been questioned whether he could stay, and M.
Lefevre, the owner of Tristan, one of the few sons of Hermit who had exhibited capacity to win over a distance of ground, challenged the Duke of Portland to run St. Simon mile and a half, each having pacemaker to bring him along. That was if they could, for the pacemakers were reduced to helplessness very soon after the start, when St. Simon left Tristan and won at his ease by half a dozen lengths. There was nothing that dared to oppose St. Simon for the Epsom Gold Cup (an extinct race). Tristan came out again to run against St. Simon for the Ascot Cup, to see if the additional mile of that race would make a difference, but "won by twenty lengths, a bad third"- Faugh-a-Ballagh occupied the place was this time the result; at Newcastle, with odds of 100 to 9 on him, St. Simon very easily disposed of a solitary opponent, Chislehurst, and with odds of 100 to 7 on him in the Goodwood Cup he cantered away from Ossian, who had won the Leger of the year before but was not sound in his wind. That was St. Simon's last appearance on a racecourse; he retired to the stud, where his success had been enormous, his fillies having been considered specially good, until his sons St. Frusquin and Persimmon, not to mention St. Serf, showed that he could produce horses as well as mares. As for these mares, in five years his daughters won the Oaks four times.
That handsome is as handsome does is a proverb not to be disputed, but certainly St.
Simon was as different as he well could be from the "long, low, level" horse whose make and shape has been so often eulogised.
He was unusually short, and had slightlooking hind quarters. Melton's beautiful action gave him distinction, but he misses a place quite in the first rank, as other animals were too close to him; for he only beat Paradox a head in the Derby, and Paradox only beat Crafton a head in the Two Thousand