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COMMENTS ON ASCOT CELEBRITIES Again have we been favored in all ways and an English horse lias proved amply good enough to de fciit the French invaders of which Basse Pointe notwithstanding adverse reports looked twice the mare she did last year All the same she is a mere pony as against last years Leger winner and Mr Pilkington is to be congratulated on having gone out for this race for from a mere material ¬ istic point of view his liorse is now worth at least 10000 guineas more than he was Prince Palatine is the first of the Glare family to compass a long distance and it is reasonable to assume that his sire Persimmon and his maternal grandsire Isinglass are acconntsible for this He stands out now as by far the best son of Persimmon and I do not think that Stedfast would have beaten him today Be that as it may the cards never for ¬ give and the policy of not running Stedfast for the Cup may not prove to be even financially good I had no doubt that Prince Palatine would beat all the old ones today but thought that Bill and Coo might do even him at the weights She is how ¬ ever not quit speedy enough This is a strange thing to ssiy of si Clip runner but it is true I know that Bill and Coo was intended to go to this front a mile amUuhalff rum liome and if stop could do that It was believed that she would win but it so happened that the first mile was run slowly in 151 which was marked as they passed the mile and a half starting place The last mile and si half was run very fast in 230 and Bill and Coo which was asked to take her place at that point could never succeed in doing so but she hung on most tenaciously to the finish and with Prince Palatine out of the way would I think have beaten Basse Pointe The full time of 427 for the Cup is good but nevertheless the race was run in twice and not at any tiling like uniform pace It is well to bear this In mind whenever we see Bill and Coo out again over a distance of ground and they go along all the way as in the Cesare witcli Combourg the other French runner is quite a nice horse a bay with three white feet showing a good deal of Bay Ronald type but it is seldom really that English horses of the best class can be beaten by foreigners though it may be admitted that our bestclass horses do not come along very frequently The great merit of Prince Palatine is that ho com bines the speed of the Glare family with the stamina of Persimmon and Isinglass Bill and Coo on the other hand is a stsiyer pure and simple as was Torpoint without the dash of speed which is so allimportant upon occasion Cherry King is si hardy useful c lt whom Young Marsh turned out in ex callent condition and he ran well for more than half the journey assisting Charles OMalley in mak ¬ ing such pace as there wsis Charley OMallcy who had shown considerable indisposition to go down to the stsirt jumped off with some alacrity and went past the stands sis if he meant business but in the Swinley Bottom they got at him and the subsequent proceedings interested him no more Bill and Coo could never get nearer the front than third but she stuck there like a leech smd if Prince Palatine hsid not strung them out for speed in the last stages she would I think have won but Basse Pointe de ¬ serves full credit for making a most gallant fight under 127 pounds a big weight for such a littlJ mare The main point to the good however is that we have now another Lcger winner who has done the right thing by winning the Ascot Cup CupThat That Tracery was sure to beat Sweeper II in th St Jamess Palace Stakes I had no sort of doubt for Tracery as I have before now stated is not im ¬ probably the best colt of the year He has bettor forehand than his sire and also a good deal more length and scope which characteristic he inherits from his dam Topiary who is a very lengthy mare not unlike her brother The Wag in this respect It was si pity to run Shogun with a 10pound pen ¬ ally against the highly tried Craganour who is a colt of extrsiordinary promise as I wrote last year when describing the Sledraere yearlings He is a low lengthy bloodlike bay built something on ths lines of Bayardo and in no way resembling Des ¬ mond He stands on the best of limbs and won his race in smashing style all the way The experience will have done Shogun no good for his forelegs and knees cannot be altogether comfortable to judge by the look of them Diadumenos is quite 1 fine stamp of colt and a credit to bis sire Orby who also hart another usefullooking runner in Glencairn a chest ¬ nut colt out of Yankee Landes ran well but he Is after Desmonds own stamp and not likely to be in the first class As to Crsiganour I have very little doubt that in him we saw the best of the year up to date for he would be backed to beat Shogun at evens after having put in such a performance in his initial effort Special Commissioner in London Sportsman
