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TRULY A WONDERFUL RACE HORSE. "I was very sorry, Indeed, to read of the death of my old friend, Flying Fox, more especially as I am by no means certain that he was ever mated with mares that would have suited him best, brilliant though some of his stock proved; for instance, Ajax, Gouvernant, .Tardy, Val UOr and Adam. Slore-over. the horse was kept all too long on the same ground, as 1 have again and agaiu pointed out, and 1 do not believe lie would have died prematurely, ns he did, had be boon given a salutary change. That he was one of the very best horses the modern generation has seen I do not doubt. No one really knew how good he was. His defeat by St. Gris at Kempton Park as a two-year-old was one of the veriest Unices .imaginable. Neither the jockey nor spectators doubted that Flyiug Fox had won, and, personally, I walked across the course from the stand opposite the winning post without troubling to see the number go up. Arrived at the weighing room I was astonished to find that St. Gris was the winner. The judge was, no doubt, right, but Slornv Cannon could have won the race by a considerable margin had he dreamed that the issue was really in doubt. The only real bona fide defeat of Plying Fox was when Caiman boat him for the Sliddle Park Plato, and there was never a time outside that day when he could not have given Caiman fourteen pounds at the very least. There was a very strong wind blowing down the course against the runners, and at the period when Tod Sloan was doing whatever he liked with the English jockeys. Before that race the late Duke of Westminster told me of his doubts as to whether Flying Fox would win. It is an old story, but it bears repeatiug when there are still muddle-headed persons who do not understand the value of methods or jockeyship which Sloan introduced. I am doubtful, said the Duke, whether mine will win against this wind. You see Sloan will set right down under the lee of his horse. "The result was as prognosticated. Caiman showed hardly a trace of a jockey as he ran the six furlongs; indeed, you could not, if standing on the ground in an enclosure, see Sloan at all. Tne colt might have been riderless. On the other hand, there was Flyiug Fox dragging bis jockey full-fronted against the blast. Never was so conclusive an object-lesson as to the difference between the two styles of riding, but from what we keep hearing and reading, there still remains a mutton-headed class of irreconcil-ables, who In such matter have forgottcu nothing and learned nothing. "Flying Fox was, in truth, an extraordinary horse. His only bad race as a three-year-old was when he won the Derby, and. that was entirely due to l!ag starting, for the opportunity of making false starts was freely indulged in by the jockeys of other horses, and the queer-tempered sou of Onne, which broke away and ran a considerable distance, time after time, was badly upset. Sloreover, SI. Cannon was tiding Ills first Derby winner, and was nervous accordingly, so that neither horse nor jockey appeared to advantage. In all his other races of that year he gave a very different show. The Two Thousand Guineas was woii before the first two furlongs of the race were covered, and the same may be said of the St. Leger Flying Fox had his field fairly beaten almost before they were on their legs, and in this he resembled Ilaulon, the sculler, whose opponents could never get on any sort of terms witli him once he had gone for them and demoralized them at the outset of a race. I cannot call to mind any horse or mare which possessed the all-smashing energy of Flying Fox at the start of a race, whether the distance were short or long. We have seen many that could put similar dash into later efforts St. Frusquin, Orme, Ladas and Sceptre may be mentioned in this connection and as for Sceptre, I shall always believe that her habit of not getting herself- fairly going until a race was more than half over was due to her being worked at home with inferior companions and started in her gallops a long way behind them. 1 do not for a moment criticise this method of training. It was regularly adopted by .Matthew Dawson, and both St. Simon and Ladas had leaders incapable of winning a race of any sort. No doubt it was the best possible method of training such high-strung horses. But Flying Fox. although inbred to Galopiu and Vedette through Speculum, did not inherit the characters of that line which his measured pedigree would suggest; otherwise he would not have sired chestnut stock of Stockwell type, for Galopiu was a pure dominant for color, and so was his daughter, Angelica dam of tOrme. "No one not even John Porter knows how good Flying Fox was. and I write this because I am sure Mr. Porter would have told the late Duke of Westminster if lie had known. The duke certainly did not know, for, speaking to his late grace about some two-year-old I forget what I asked him if it promised well, and he replied, we dont as yet know much about him. This was in the paddock at Newmarket, and Flying Fox, which had just won a race which was never In doubt, was led past ns, and I said: You dont know much about that one cither? No, said the duke, thats quite -true; we dont. He has won his trials as easily as his races, and no one knows how good he is. "Of course, I reproduced the words from memory, and not from notes, but they convey the exact meaning of what was stated. It was reasonable to hope that Flying Fox would live eight or ten vears longer. His sire. Orme. aud his dam. Vampire, are both of them alive and well, and Vampire, though for once in a way barren this year, lias an excellent vearling daughter by Troutbeck. I saw Chapman, the well-known Eaton stud groom at A in tree, aud he told mc that Orme Is looking as fresh as ever he did. It is a pity that no one has ever put a Trenton mare to him, as the late duke fully intended to do when he bred Sandllakeby Trenlon, out of Sandiwuy. There are still possibilities for Orme to sire ins third Derby winner, but if this docs not come off, he has done enough for fame, as Orby must have lieen an extraordinarily good horse, all things considered, and we know for certain that Flying Fox was." "Special Commissioner" in London Sportsman.
