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i I ■ " J . ■ • i I j , i , I , t i 1 I , . EPSOM DERBYS OF A HUNDRED YEARS. Incidents Attending the Running of the Most Famous Race of The World. Third Article Sonic curious circumstances occurred in 1845. when Mr. Gri.twiekes Merry Monarch, scarcely named In the quotations, scored a lluky win thiougn several af the most prominent ei.mpetitors coming to grief before or in the race. The two favorites. Alarm and Tin- Libel, savaged each other at the |x st. the former unseating his jockey, breaking ■way, and falling over the chains, the other beSBg als.. injured. Ihen Frank Butler on Pain came down in the lace, and threw "tit two of John Days, one of which, however. Old England, managed to scramble home third, the chapter of accidents ending in the victory ,f the despised outsider. The race of MM is noticeable for its being the first in which time was taken, the record being 2:.V . and the performers Mr. Gullvs Pvrrhus the First and Sam Day. who were followed home by the subsequent St. Leger hero. Sir Tatton Sykes, the second Derby runner-up that afterwards earned such distinction, his predecessor in the same honors having been Lord Westminsters Launcelot — like Sir Tatton Sykes. another Whitehall crack. In this year. too. the owner of the Derby winner. Mr. Gully, landed the double event at Epsom, as he also won the Oaks with Mendicant, afterwards so well known in connection with Sir Joseph Hawleys stud, and as the dam of Headsman, etc.. Sain Day rode both winners — a rare slice of luck for a jockey up to that date, though in the next two years Sim Tem-plemau eclipsed it by riding in two successive years lioth Derby and Oaks winners, viz., Cossack and Miami in 1S47. and Surplice and Cymba in MM« all 1st different owners. Rife with memories is this last Derby, for the winner another of Touchstones sonsi was bred by Lord George Uentinck, who. with all his long devotion to and princely patronage of the spor*. had never succeeded in winning a Derby, with such as him. of course, an object of particular ambition, and who now had tin- chagrin to see the coup effected with one of his own horses by a young nobleman. I. rd tlifden. quite in his turf novitiate — his second season, in fact. Fortune has dealt many hard knocks, as we all know, to one and another of it votaries of the turf, but few so replete with bitterness as this experience of one of the finest sportsmen of the age. who. h never, was spared a still unkindcr cut. since before Surplice had added the St. Leger to his laurels the earth had closed over his brilliant but unfortunate first master. In Surplices year an alteration was made in the Derby course, the starting post being moved higher up. reducing the long, toilsome ascent of thre ■■-■■•rtcrs of a mile bef . re Tattenhani Corner, au.l as "Tlie- Druid" remarks "It is somewhat remarkable that Tenipleinan should have won the last Derby and Oaks on Cossack and Miami over it. an-1 opened the new era with another double benefit on Surplice and Cymba." With the mention that this year the race for the first time btained over 200 subscribers, mid that Surplice was the first horse since Champion in 1S00 that succeeded in breaking the spell af ill luck that had attended the Derby winners at Doncaster in securing the double event, we come next to his two rivals in the same distinction — Lord Eglintons Flying Dutchman, the hero of MM, and Lord Zetlands Voltigeur, his successor. than which few public horses were better known to tlio past generation of sportsmen. They sjioke with pride of "The Dutchmans year." ami the tremendous finish between Hay Middletons striding son and the light-footed Hotspur, win., skimming like a swallow over the heavy ground, held the bearer of the Montgomerie tartan jacket almost to the last few strides, when Marlow. with the rarest patience and judgement, snatched the race on the post by a half length, and almost remarkably illustrated his own favorite saying, that "a race is never won till youre past the post." It was a tight fit. indeed, as .Marlow himself said when all was over. The second was a half-bred, which had the previous week at Bath run P.vr-rhus to a half length, and over which Davis, a leviatliian Imokniaker. stood to win a huge sum. This was the most valuable Derby run for up to that time, the stakes amounting to $.1,875. A memorable and ixipular tr.uinph was that of the Zetland "spots" and Voltigeur in 1890, scarcely expected though it was at least by South-Country sportsmen, for the starter at 16 to 1. and a few-days before the race stood at ISOs, what time the confidence of iiis stable and partisans was mi-Ix.iiiiced. and the spirit with which he was snp-portod by the tenantry and household of Aske something quite stilinulating to read of. Scarcely in the palmiest days of Whitehall and The Wbizard did Yorkshire send so popular a champion to Epsom, and rarely was triumph more complete or more enthusiastically received as that of the gallant black, whose subsequent rivaly with his immediate predecessors in Epsom and Doncaster honors stand out to this day landmarks, so to speak, of turf history, but belong only collaterally to that of the race before us. A worthy saeceSEor to the Aske hero, though tin-credited Mfce him with dual sportsman in the South as I-iord Zetland in the north, was in MM winner Sir Joseph Hawleys Teddingtoli, on which Job Marson. like Templemaii before liini. and Frank Butler in the two following years, achieved a second successive victory, a feat previously accomplished only by Hill Scott once and twice by Robinson. The feature of Teddingtons year was the largest field that up to date had faced the starter for the race, the number ..".i having been only once exceeded when in Caractacus Derby thirty-four went to the |« st. and only approached by Cossacks field, which numbered thirty-two. A genuine surprise was witnessed on the Downs at E|ksoiu in 1K52. when the stnrdv little Daniel ORoiirke scudded home through the wet and slush a 51 to 1 chance, securing for the Streatlam squire his third Petal, ssal foreshadowing the fame of iiis successor, the mighty West Australian, first bearer of the triple glories of Newmarket, Epsoin and Doncaster. ami the last hero of the famous "black and gold" in the classic rac s. Cu his last appearance ii|khi bis native soil, a passing word may be bestowed. This was in the sale ring at Grimston, where he and his predecessor in St. Leger honors. Stockwell. were s ild. and when spirited speculation went on among his local admirers as to which would fetch the most money. this distinction being achieved by tin- future "emperor of the stud, while, sorer mortification still for the worshipper of "the West." ho not only realized a thousand or so less than his rival, but was secured by a foreign purchaser. Yorkshire was grievously exercised in Its mind when the idol was led away with the Count de Mornys string; but. looking at this day into the stud books at home and abroad, the country at large -and even Yorkshire, we should thitiK. would admit it — has reason to be devoutly thankful with the result of that days saie. which preserve,! to our own soil the flower of our own stud. Passing onward*, we find little of permanent interest attaching to Andovers Derby of 1X54. save that the winner was a fine-topped horse and a goo.l g er. but was li-ht in his back ribs, and developed a tendency to roaring. He was the second wiim -r owned by the famous amateur "pug." Mr. Gully, who again threw in for a double event, having this vear won the Two Thousand Guineas with The Hermit which here finished third. King Tom was the horse which split the pair, and but for falling lame a week or sn before the race might probably have won. As it was. he was undoubtedly a better horse than either, as his stud services amply attest. A far more notable and interesting performer was the 1*55 winner. Wild Dayrell. whose ante cedents were almost unique for a Derby candidate. He was betas by a private gentleman at a quiet country house, irained by a private trainer and stud gnom. partly in his owners park and partly in I equally secluded grounds on Lord Cravens estate I at Ashdown. and. until a few months before the Derby, ha. I scarcely measured speed with a leal I race horse. More than this, he had actually be ti i sold as a yearling by his breeder, Mr Popham. who had never run a horse at any meeting and had I no aml.iti. f tempting fortune on the turf. His purchaser. Lord II. Lennox. apaa trying .him. becasse disenchanted f him and sent him up to ! Tattersalls where his breeder and late owner fortuitously bought him back for half the sum we had sold* l.iiu for and not a word about "conrin genchs." if,, was then put into training at his I owners [dace, but for all the privacy attending it. the colt could not be kept in obscurity, nor his ; merits remain hidden from Ma world: and when i seen at Bpaasa. his -rand looks and commanding : size and sU. stance, added to his private reputation, made him start a better favorite than the Two Thousand Guineas winner. Lord of the Isles. wine i. lik- his predecessor, had t • put up with third : 1 place. The winner finished so full of the desire to run as to gallop right into the paddock hedge * before he could be pulled up. and this, coupl *l with the hard state of the ground, may have k I 1 to his breakdown at Doncaster in the race fc.r the Cup. and his retirement from the turf without r achieving anv additional distinction. At the stud 1 he was fairly aseM and left two excellent rep- . rcaeatatrrcs in The itai.e ami wild Oats, To lie continued, i
