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ODD ITEMS ABOUT THE THOROUGHBRED. Less than a year ago a writer in a sporting contemporary mentioned, as if it were a unique phenomenon a French horse that was a "triplet." If it had been a "quadruplet" there would have been something in it, as quadruplets the Matthew, Mark. Luke and John, as they usually are called when they occur, as they do rarely, in the human family are so uncommon among horses apparently that memory fails at this moment to recall a single case. M6morv, however, can recall a case in which a horse, Wbistlejacket, sired seven foals from three mares in one year 1S93, triplets from one and twins from each of the other two; whereby, as was at the time noted and readily believed, he "established a record." That year he was sent abroad to America, savs memory, a little doubtfully, where he was sold for a good price; but whether or not he there kept up his "record" of prolific re-productiveness Is a matter of mere conjecture. Twins, as cvervbodv knows at any rate, thoroughbred twins are of next to no use on the raco course. The only twin that ever won a creat race, a "classic" or other, in this country is said to have been Nicolo, a chestnut brother of Langar, by .Selim, winner 1S23 of the Two Thousand and of the then greatly esteemed Newmarket Stakes; and there was a few years ago 1892-3. a French twin. Commandeur, that promised great thiugs for a while, but failed eventually. Let us hope, however, that some day about the date of the millennium, perhaps something may happen to take from" twin thoroughbreds their reproach of inferiority, that a colt may win the Derby and his sister the Oaks, and the twain rim a dead-heat for the St. Leger. Nothing in horse racing is impossible as Siguorinetta may lie called to bear witness. About the colors and age of horses many curious things have boon stated and proved to be wrong; as, for Instance, that "two grays invariably produc; a gray," "a bay is never say rather, very, very rarely produced from two chestnuts," and that fifty years are an unheard of, an unattainable limit of life for a horse, a question that was mooted and elicited some interesting correspondence in the Evening Standard of December, 1S93. In the same year November IS there occurred one of those strange incidents in which the history of the turf, chasing included, abounds. A horse called Baudou was supposed to have broken a leg in the Tredegar steeplechase at Ely, and was ordered for destruction; but a local Set" diagnosed dislocated shoulder, and offered to set It. While he was away in search of chloroform, it was thought better to shoot the sufferer. So a muzzle-loader was brought, but there was no caps; a breech-loader but there was no cartridges that would fit it; a policeman dispatched for others, lost them on the way back; but by this time the "vet" had arrived with the chloroform, the shoulder was replaced, the horse was stabled at a farm hard by, and soon was reported to be going on -well. Recalling the career -of the famous Lord Clive who was convinced by the failure of his pistol to go off that he was destined to greatness, but whose example is not recommended to others wishing to learn what failure is in store for him, one would expect that the horse Bandon would have be come celebrated, but it seems to have turned out otherwise. An idea appears to prevail that thoroughbred horses are more liable than others to accident, fatal or not, by lightning; and. grotesque as the idea would be if It were supposed that the fact of being thoroughbred has any special attraction for the lightning, it is not unreasonable in view of the life which is led by thoroughbreds, especially by the youngsters, collected as they are, whether indoors or out of doors, in large numbers under exactly the same meteorological and general influences. But it is certainly true that holocausts of thoroughbreds, through lightning, are noticeably numerous and appallingly wholesale, both in this country and abroad. In the summer of 18S3 a most extraordinary of the kind took place at Avermer, France, where the late Due de Castries had a large number of horses in training. "The stud groom, we are told, "had been serving out oats to the youngsters, standing by twos in each box, an iron-lined manger running from end to end of the whole building, and supplying all the boxes. When he reached the last box, having served out the oats, he was all of a sudden thrown down underneath a colt which fell, struck by lightning, atop of him, and which he discovered to be stone dead, while its companion was safe and sound. And, strange to say, it was so in every compartment, one, the one with its muzzle in the manger, had been struck dead, the other had escaped. If both had been feeding at the same time the whole twelve, instead of six, would have been killed." The Dus was regarded generally as a "lucky" owner, but it is evident that, like our "lucky" Baronet. Sir Joseph Hawley, he had his "bad days." London Sporting Times.
