Jones
for whom the wayward creature went quite kindly, thereby making his own reputation and his jockey's. He won the Two Thousand Guineas by four lengths, the Newmarket Stakes, the Derby-starting favourite at 6 to 4-failed to give 17 lb. more than weight for sex to Merry Gal in the Princess of Wales's Stakes, but won the Eclipse and the St. Leger, being beaten, however, in the Jockey Club Stakes. The five races he had won were worth £27,985 IOS., placing His Royal Highness at the head of the list of winning owners. Diamond Jubilee stood at Sandringham for some years, and produced many winners. He was subsequently sold to go to Argentina for 30,000 guineas.
The Derby next year was carried off by a son of Diamond Jubilee's elder brother, Florizel II., Volodyovski by name, bred by a lady known as "Mr. Theobalds," and leased to Mr. W. C. Whitney, an American owner who came to race in England. There is not much to be said about Volodyovski, who was by no means a brilliant specimen of a Derby winner. It is strange that when beaten a neck in the St. Leger it should have been by another son of Florizel II., Mr. Leopold de Rothschild's Doricles.
Ard Patrick, who won the Derby of 1902, the property of Mr. J. Gubbins, who had previously taken the great race with Galtee More, was an animal of considerably higher class than his predecessor. As a two-yearold he did not appear until he ran for the Imperial Produce Stakes at Kempton Park, but had been so well tried by Sam Darling of Beckhampton that he started at even money, and won. He carried off the Clearwell Stakes, and on his third outing, as a [RACING two-year-old, was beaten a neck in the Dewhurst Plate by Game Chick. In the Two Thousand Guineas next year he was third to the famous mare Sceptre, which seemed to settle the question between the two; at Kempton he failed to give 21 lb. to a rival, and, after winning the Newmarket Stakes from Fowling Piece, was disqualified on an objection for bumping; but he won the Derby, for which Sceptre, an even-money favourite, could only get fourth: and he also won the Prince of Wales's Stakes at Ascot, though only after the disqualification of Cupbearer. It is remarkable that Mornington Cannon, who rode Ard Patrick in the Newmarket Stakes, should have been disqualified, and that he should have been disqualified again when he rode Cupbearer, this time to Ard Patrick's advantage. The colt's only other essay as a three-year-old was in the Jockey Club Stakes, for which he was third. Next year, however, he was to make a great name for himself by winning the Eclipse Stakes, after one of the most exciting struggles ever seen. issue was between him and Sceptre, the filly being greatly preferred in the market, and there are those who maintain that she ought to have won. Madden, on Patrick, rode an extraordinarily brilliant race; Sceptre's jockey did not shine, and the colt had a neck the better of a desperate finish.
The Ard Neither was favourite for the race, that position being occupied bv Rock Sand, one of the luckiest animals ever known. That he had no pretensions to rank in the first class is distinctly proved by what happened to him in this race, as by what happened subsequently in the Jockey Club Stakes, when Sceptre gave him several pounds more than weight for age and beat him in a canter; as, furthermore, by his failure in the Coronation Cup next year, when he was third to Zinfandel and Sceptre. Nevertheless, Rock Sand contrived to win all the three classic races of 1903, and altogether £45,618 in stakes. He was sold at the end of his career for 25,000 guineas. Apparently he suffered from rheumatism, and used to go down to the post in a curious way, as if unable to stretch himself out. He was admittedly a different animal when extended in a race.
Luck was probably on the side of Mr.
Leopold de Rothschild's St. Amant, or so it was staunchly held by admirers of Sir John Thursby's colt, John o' Gaunt, a son of Isinglass and La Flèche, who maintained that he was the best of his year. In the Two Thousand Guineas, ridden by Mr.
George Thursby, he was practically left RACING] at the post, nevertheless contriving to finish second to St. Amant, with thirteen behind him. It was expected that the Derby would end differently, especially as John o' Gaunt, though beaten a head in the Newmarket Stakes by Henry the First-due to the fact that Mr. Thursby, thinking he had won, allowed himself to be caught-there beat St.
Amant by four lengths, Mr. Leopold de Rothschild's colt starting a strong favourite at 9 to 4 on. But this Derby was run in a really terrific thunderstorm. St. Amant was a shifty animal; in order that his attention might not be distracted he was decked with blinkers and a hood, and the storm affected him very much less than the others. According to the evidence of Mr.
George Thursby, John o' Gaunt would not gallop; he was too greatly alarmed; nevertheless he finished second, the favourite having been the French-bred Gouvernant, another victim of the weather, who his friends likewise declared ought to have won.
St. Amant ran seven times subsequently that year without success, and it was a triumph of training when Tom Cannon, the famous jockey, formerly of Danebury, got him to the post sound and well enough to win the Jockey Club Stakes at Newmarket in 1905.
It is a curious fact that several recent Derbies seem to have fallen to other than the best horses. Lord Rosebery's Cicero won in 1905 by three parts of a length from M. Edmond Blanc's Jardy, a son of Flying Fox, Jardy suffering severely from fever at the time. It was not decided to start him till shortly before the race, in which it was obvious that he could not do himself anything like justice. Major Eustace Loder's Spearmint in 1906 was doubtless the best in a field which, for some reason or other, was strangely underrated. The three-yearolds, of whose merits as a rule an extravagant opinion is formed, were this year set down as moderate, perhaps because Spearmint was able to win after having been regarded as a second string, the three-yearold in Mr. Gilpin's stable from whom most was hoped having been the late Sir Daniel Cooper's Flair, who, after winning the One Thousand Guineas was unable to stand further preparation. Spearmint was doubtless a good animal; he beat Picton, ridden by Mr. George Thursby-whose fate it has been to be second for great races without winning them-and Picton, too, had proved himself an animal of high class. Behind them were Troutbeck, winner of the St.
Leger; Radium, winner of the Goodwood, Doncaster, and Jockey Club Cups; Beppo, winner of the Jockey Club Stakes; Sancy and Lally, who ran almost a dead heat in the Eclipse Stakes; The White Knight, winner of two Ascot Cups; Plum Tree, winner of the Goodwood Cup; Black Arrow, a horse of the highest merit when at its best; and others who were prominent in notable events. In 1907 it was generally supposed that Colonel E. W.
Baird's Wool Winder was very unlucky to be beaten for the Derby by Mr. Croker's GALTEE MORE.
Orby, and in 1908 there was a surprise which even exceeded that occasioned by Jeddah. The three-year-olds were considered to be much below the average, and several of the starters at Epsom seemed out of place in a Derby field; one of these was the Chevalier Ginistrelli's Signorinetta, a daughter of his famous mare Signorina, and there has rarely been a greater surprise on a racecourse than was experienced when she came out a hundred yards from home and rather easily won her race from the Duke of Portland's Primer. In this Derby probably Mr. Barclay Walker's Llangwm was the best horse, but Maher, who rode, had been unable to ride him in his work.
Had he been better acquainted with the colt's capacity, the result would very likely have been different-Llangwm would have won.
The Derby of 1909 will be ever memorable as having fallen to the reigning monarch. The favourite was the Americanbred Sir Martin, who fell before Tattenham Corner was rounded, seriously interfering with the chances of several others. Subsequent events showed that the best three-year-old of 1909 was undoubtedly Mr. Fairie's Bayardo, but he was a victim of this accident, and could only get fifth,