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NEAVMARKET TRAINED HORSES AT ASCOT As well as in the handicaps we also knew thut we were beaten in the twoyearold department be ¬ fore we started out for Ascot for we were aware wo had nothing able to compete with such as The Tctrareh and Storuoway nor with Aldford in his race When I saw The Tetrarch first run here I said I should never back one to beat him until 1 saw him beaten and 1 fancy I shall have some time to wait for that contingency As I described him then lie is a twoyearold and a half and undoubt ¬ edly one of the grandest of his age we have ever seen We certainly have a few useful threeyearolds trained here such as Louvois Light Brigade and Day Comet and it was a pity that the last named ran out In the race for the Gold Vase for it leaves the question of his being better than Shogun still unsolved though for my own part I have not mucn doubt on the matter Then our champion fouryear old Tracery was knocked down by a poor demented man when leading for the Gold Cup after going ilose on two miles leaving the question of his super ¬ iority to Prince Palatine also in abeyance But in this cast 1 have still an open mind I consider that it would have been a great race between the two had Tracery not met with the mishap I admit I hacked Tracery to win the race perhaps more on sentiment because he is trained here and also because I knew he would be the longerpriced one of the pair But I was well aware that he was taking on a smasher In Prince Palatine which was always a favorite of mine from the first time I saw him when Mushroom gave him ten pounds and a beating on the July course I then wrote that he reminded me more of the great Harcaldine than any other horse 1 always think Barcaldine the greatest race horse 1 ever saw and I have seen them from Bend Or downward including St Simon and Or ¬ monde not forgetting the greatest two marcs I have seen in Pretty 1ollv and Sceptre I was pleased some little time ago to hear such a veteran and such an excellent judge of a horse as Martin lurry declare that Barcaldine was the greatest race horse he had ever seen and his experience goes back well over half a century while he was im ¬ mediately connected with some famous ones in ¬ cluding Bend Or in his time Comparisons between past and presentday horses are of course merely matters of individual opinion and my own Is that the breed of our thoroughbreds has improved rather than deteriorated luring the last two or three de ¬ cades There is of course no way of comparing the racers of twenty or thirty years sigo and those of the present day except by the time test and that unmistakably says that our thoroughbreds now are faster over all distances and Prince Palatines worlds record for the Ascot Cup distance two miles and i half last week stamps him at once a champion of champions That Tracery is little if anything behind him is my very firm opinion in fact I should say we have never had two bettor horses in the country at the same period and while we liaro such stayers in stock we need not be afraid of any French or other foreign invasion on our turf Our Own Correspondent in London Sportsman
