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SOMETHING OF FIRST DERBY WINNER. Perhaps it would be as well not to peer too far into tbe midst of antiquity, because one cannot vouch for the accuracy of some of tbe old tales that are told. There is, for instance, the tradition associated with tbe Godolphin Barb that ranks with the Darley Arabian and the Byerley Turk as one of tbe corner-stones of the thoroughbred fabric. Tbe Godolphius name is found repeated again and again in tbe extended pedigree of every animal entitled to a place in tbe General Stud Book. Yet the story goes that at one period of bis life be earned bis keep bv drawing a water cart in Paris. A Mr. Cokfr. of Norfolk, found him in tbe French capital about the year 172S. bought him and sent him to England, where he passed into the possession of the Earl of Godolphin. If wo skip seventy years we arrive at tbe date when DIonied, winner of tbe first Derby in 17S0, left England for America. He bad retired to tbe stud Pat Up Park, near Chichester, in 17S5, and in 1787 be was moved to Barton, the Suffolk home of bis owner. Sir Charles Bunbury. One of the earliest of Ids offspring did so well on the turf that his fee was raised from five guiueas to ten guineas. Apparently, however, tbe breeders of those days re seated extortion of that sort, because the subscriptions were quickly reduced to live guineas, and in 179S it had dwindled to two guineas. Nowadays we have stallions commencing their careers In the stud at a fee of 300 and 400 guineas. Well. Sir Charles Bunbury gave Dioined up as a hopeless proposition, and sold him to an American for fifty guineas As prices ruled iu those days, this cannot have seemed a bad deal, for the horse was then twenty-one years old. A few years upo we saw tbe Derby winner, Sainfoin, sold" by auction at Newmarket for 700 guineas, a s ! j iu j 1 t. c j s i s t j j , , and be was then only nineteen years old and the sire of Kock Sand, winner of tbe Two Thousand, Derbv and St. Leger. Tbe purchase of Diomed was, fact, a bold transaction, and one fraught witli tremendous consequences. When lie reached America be was resold to a Virginian for a thousand guineas, lived until he was thirty-one years of age. and exercised an enormous intlucnce on bloodstock in tbe land of bis adoption. His son. Sir Arciiy, begat Timoleon, the sire of Boston and tbe graiulsire of Lexington, about whom American horsemen are never tired of talking. Wo are told that when Dioined died there was almost as much mourning in Virginia as there was over tbe death of Washington. The event was regarded as a national catastrophe. If in these days you were to offer to a foreigner a Derby winner twenty-one years old he would lift up his noble nose In scorn, and ask you to talk business. Despised though be was in this country, Dioined left his impress on the Stud Book, for his daughter, Young Giantess, produced Eleanor the first lilly to win the Derbv. whose son Muley was tbe sire of Slarpessa, dam "of Pocahontas, tbe mother of Stockwell. Exchange.
