Epsom Derbys of a Hundred Years: Incidents Attending the Running of the Most Famous Race of the World, Daily Racing Form, 1915-12-12

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EPSOM BERBYS OF A HUNDRED YEARS. Incidents Attending the Running of the Most t Famous Race of the World. Fourth Article. ,.T1"*.,w""er in lsr,c- Ellington, had. like Wild I Payroll. some curious antocedants, for although a 1 Champagne winner and a fair two year-old performer, lie was turned out of training during the winter, • and used as a hack bv Admiral Harcourts coachman, while in the Derby his success was mainly due to the sodden stale of the ground, over which 1 his largo flat feet carried him home triumphantly, • hut in the longest time yet recorded in the Derby, • and. curiously enough, exactly tile time occupied l y r Mincepie in the Oaks of thesame year. A famous I jockey, T. Aldcroft. some time later identified with 1 the colors of the eccentric Earl of Glasgow, had hi* ! first and only successful mount on Ellington, whose I attendants home were Yellow Jack and Caunobie, lioth fair performers, albeit the former of this pair had an unfortunate propensity of running second. Ellington was a failure afterwards, and when retired to the stud sired nothing of note. A novel and interesting incident distinguished the I race of 1S57. when, atier a lapse of more than i half a century, the Blue Kiband once more decorated a champion of the weaker sex. and Itlink • Bonny recalled the Eleanor feat of 1S01 in accomplishing the double event of the Derby and Oaks, those, with the exception of Signorinetta in ltKiS, . lieing the only instances on record of the achievement. ■ A rare surprise, indeed, was the Oerby triumph of Blink lionny. which had looked and run so indifferently in the One Thousand that the majority of race-goers lost all heart iu her Derby prospects, and long odds were offered against her up to a i few days before the event. It is almost a marvel how the daughter of Mel-Ixmrne and Queen Mary came to be persevered I with for her Epsom engagement. She had suffered I fearfully all the winter with her teeth, and for months subsisted only on grass or bran mashes, . but slnirtly after her appearance at Newmarket she I began to look up ami take her corn, and work being J slipp -il into her. she was made as lit as could be in the time. Her trainers anxieties on her account t ceased not until the numlters went up, owing to his having Itecn unable to make out her colors in the race, and mistaking some others for his own. It t was a desperate snuggle, less than a length covering ■ the first four. Black Tummy being beaten a neck, with Ada mas third, a short head away, and I Strailmauer a neck further off. In connection with i Black Tommy, almost any odds could have been obtained; - iu fact, 2K to lwas laid before the start. • and it is said that one layer had booked to his • owner. Mr. Drinkald. iu the spring the extraordinary liet of ,t:20.K» » to a suit of clothes. As a matter f of course. Blink Bennys Derby success made her f first favorite for the Oaks, which she landed easily. • but went down in the St. I eger before her old conqueror in the One Thousand. Impedieuse. At • the stud she produced Blair Athol, which won the I Derby in 1S04. A double success for Sir Joseph Hawleys cherry jacket and "Tiny" Wells with Beadsman and Mus-jid is the record for 1S5K and 1S51I. preceded in the i tirst year by a Two Thousand with Fitz-Rolaud. • The last named, like Uosicrucian just ten years s laiter. was the baronets chosen champion for the I Derby until tried with Beadsman, which being set to give the Guineas winner six iiounds did so with the utmost ease and at once opened the eyes of the ; stable to his Derby prospects, though his two-yea.-«ld - i»erfonnanccs had been so ] oor and his looks in commonplace that at one time he was nearly being : put out of training, and a Blue Kiband all but thrown away, events proving that his stable companion - would not have been equal to the task against such animals as Toxopbilite and The Hadji. The next year Musjid had a rare private trial, . in which he accomplished something so good that t Wells and everyone connected with the stable felt sanguine that another Derby would come their way. He Iwat a fair band, but did nothing more to boast : of. Musjid. however, deserves notice as having lieen i the tirst to distinguish his sire. Xewminster, and to i credit him with a Derby five years before his great stud rival. Stock well. Quite as popular a victory as in the two previous i years was the success of Thormanby iu 1*00, th-: l hrst to credit Mr. Merry with the prize, for whicn Ixird of the Isles made so sitroug a bid in Will 1 Dayrells year. Thormanbys Derby is remarkable ■ for the victory of a colt that had done exceptionally bard work as a two-year-old, and yet remained as ; sound in wind and limb as on the day he was i foaled. He won nine races in his first season, including the Irendergast and Criterion Stakes, and W at a splendid band here, comprising the Two i Thousand Guineas winner. The Wizard, with whiih John Scott was uncommonly confident: Horror. •* . useful son of Wild Dayrell; Dangu. a French Derby runner up: besides Buccaneer. Nutbourne, Wallace. Man-at-Arms, Loiterer. Uestes and the American Empire, all subsequently good winners or useful and famous sires. Thormanby did nothing else this season, being unplaced in the St. Leger to the Chester Cup aud Metroi oiitan winner. St. Albans, which had been withdrawn from the Derby and upon which he decisively turned the tables next year i:i the Ascot Cup. Mr. Merry had a rare bargain when he got him for ,750 the same week that Sunbeam had credited him with the St. Leger. and won by him some seventy or eighty thousand pounds in bets alone over the Derby. With French and American representatives running in the race the Derby this year assumed for perhaps the first time on record an international character, but although the starters nuni-ln-rcd the same as the previous year the subscribers were fewer, reducing the stake below the value of Musjid s Derby, which was the richest ever known up to that date, the subscriliers being 2trt and the starters :W, against 224 subscribers and the same strength of the field in Thormanbys year. Hitherto the most valuable had bL-en The Flying Dutchmans. Tlie Kussley stable, then presided over by Matt Dawson, again supplied the favorite iu 1861 with the unlucky Dundee, which, although completely breaking down iu the race, yet managed to beat tlie Two Thousand winner, Diophautus, and finished second to Kettledrum, which here reversed the Newmarket form with Diophautus. Tniversal disappointment was felt for the breakdown of the Kussley champion, which was really a splendid animal, a resolute goer and of the soundest wind — his weak point being his upper fore joints — yet. even with these defects, his trainer quaintly said of hii.i that he "could have won on three legs, but had only two to finish with." He never stood another preparation, but. after lying in cold water bandages, he passed into the hands of Mr. Blenkiron. and both Middle Bark and Cobham records, as well as the stud book, attest his fame and value as a sire. Of his Epsoui conqueror. Kettledrum, though a high bred, but common-looking horse, and a good performer both before and after, it nr..st be said that Fortune favored him in the Derby when the fatal descent from the corner decided the fate of the Kussley bay. He was an immense favorite with his owner." Colonel Towneley, and like Wild Dayrell. was trained privately in his own paddocks, and ridden by his own stable lad in the fast time of 2:4:J. A noteworthy occasion was the Derby of 1SG2. as well by the strength of the field as by the sensational victory of the outsider and handicap horse. Caractacus. "The term just used, however, is not to be applied in any sense of reproach to the winner, which was really a high-class horse, lieing sired by Kingston, an exceptionally stout and well-descended stallion. His handicap doings are nothing to his discredit, but are chiefly due to the circumstance of his real merit having been undiscoveri d. and his party not at first flying at such high game as the Derby. It was anything but handicap company that he encountered at Epsom, for In-hind him were The Marquis the "Guineas." and afterwards the I eger winner, and one of the most petted champions ever sent from Whitehall, whom John Scott thought almost invincible*. Buckstnne another of the Kussley gems of the tirst water i. besides Argonaut. Alve-diston. Knowsley. Nottingham. Exchequer, etc. on this occasion the field was the largest that ever started for the race, tlie number being thirty-four and the subscribers 2X1. The weights were also revised, colts carrying 122 pounds and fillies 117 I ounds. being three pounds more than had been carried in the race since 1M 7. Like more than one other sensational hero. Carac-taeus fame was quite ephemeral, but his successors tor several vears on the roll have a far more established and imperishable reputation. First of these in 1MC1 is Mr. Naylors sterling son of SsuUMlt, Macaroni, the next in order to the Streatlaui champion West Australian, to accomplish the double event of the Two Thousand and Derby, though not. Fke him triply crowned. In almost incessant rain, and ankle-deeo mud. a depression pervaded the whole pro-edings. Still, it was not without its brighter dde MI"1 Peasanter memories, for it was the occasion of the first visit of the Prince f -fche r-iccPwas one that will live forever, for its famous finish between T. Chaloner on the winner and Fordham on Lord Clifden. ending absolutely in the last stride in the bead defeat of George and the Sussex crack, the |Hrp.iUr J»ykey iM-lievlng at the motiont. ■** f"r ,,,,:s i,,t,,r- "", "• ll:" rc.iljv v...n The victory was « great lor N.-w m irkei. which siuec Orlando, nineteen years ago, had not trained a Derby winner, ami whose last dual hero had been Bay Middhtoii in is.,.. Hie stakes, too. were exceptionally rich, reaching t. OW pounds. the highest figure vet obtained, tlie subscribers being I I 255 with thirtv-one ■tarter*. A long delay ensued | before the field was despatched on their journey, t there lieing no fewer than thirty-four false starts. . Among the unplaced lot was The Kanger, which i won the Grand 1rix de Iaris a few days later in l the year of its institution, with Lord Cliideit finishing - no nearer than fifth. To be continued.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1910s/drf1915121201/drf1915121201_3_1
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Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800