view raw text
1 , , , , [ | . i I i I I I 1 I • ! : 1 I | • i 1 i ■ ■ j i i t - I r • t i • a i i l r EPSOM DERBYS OF A HUNDRED YEARS. i i Incidents Attending the Running of the Most i Famous Race of the World. Fifth Article. j It was Yorkshires day in 1864, and right proud , were the "Tykes," and, indeed, every true admirer , of a good horse, with the triumph of Blair Athul. , which brought back to his followers the memory , of the deeds of his dam. Blink Bonny, while with , others he revived recollections of Muudig. Middle-ton and some more, for the Derby was the winners maiden essay on the turf, and, with the St. Leger, his principal successes. He only ran during one season, and suffered but ■ two defeats, both fluky. for in the Grand Prize [ of Paris he was out of sorts after the passage, and in the Yorkshire Stakes The Miner could not have won on his merits, for Blair Athol lost him in the St. Leger. His early retirement was due to his j pros|iective value as a sire, and he was accordingly : put soon to the stud, where, although some time before making his mark, he sired a Derby winner. two St. Leger. one Two Thousand, and two One j Thousand winners. Short as his turf career was. it was certainly brilliant, as the quality of his Derby and St. Leger fields attests, there being behind him the Guineas winner. Lord Glasgows favorite. General Peel; an Ascot Cup winner in the same year, and a great pride of Russley. Scottish Chief; a Champagne and three cups hero in Ely. and other good performers. The dentition trouble which affected Blink Bonny appears to have been transmitted to her son, as in that spring Blair Athol was unable to take his food properly and caused some uneasiness to his con-, nections, while later he frequently suffered from lameness, the cause of which was most baffling. The solution of this is best told from an extract in the "Life of John Osborne": "In the spring of 1S04 Mr. James Colpitts visited his old friend, William I Anson, at Malton, and while in a barbers shop overheard the lad who looked after Blair Athol openly avow No Blair Athol will win the Derby. Then the fellow went on to declare that he frequently kicked the poor brute in a delicate part aud thereby caused the lameness which had so baffled every one. On hearing this "Old William was driven almost to distraction. The culprit was brought before him, confessed his guilt, was thrashe-.l almost within an inch of his life and then driv-n headlong from the stables." Perhaps the most memorable in the whole of last century was the next anniversary, in 1865. when for the first time on record the national prize fell to a competitor bred and reared ou foreign soil, although essentia llj home-trained, but owned by a foreign patron. Count de Lagrange. Reference is made to Gladiateur. and we need not dwell long u|hhi the incidents of his race, the chief of which are the favoritism of the winner and the style in which he romped home before his opponents, though exception may be taken to the fields quality. There were no Cup horses behind the Frenchman and scarcely a good handicap horse. The pair that finished next to him were mere platers and of the rest some were showy and speedy, as Breadalban". Broomielaw. Longdown and Arehimides, and others uncertain or mediocre while the winuer himself was the hero of the Guineas and Leger, as well as of the Ascot Cup next year. That he was immeasurable with everything lie met. here or abroad, goes without saying, and in ranking him among the first class of Derby champions and as tlie first rival of West Australian we give him no more than his meed. An attempt was to win the Cambridgeshire with him as a iinade three-year-old with 138 pounds on his back, but he was unplaced. Before passing on to the next Derby it is worthy of mention that of those which have won the "triple crown" Gladiateur stands alone with the Grand Prix de Paris to his credit. The following year, I860, was tlie well-known , Stoekwell vear, when the three placed horses. Lord Lyon. Savernake and Rustic, were all the produce ! of the famous St. Leger winner of 1852. and all of South-country stables — tlie winner hailing from 1 Ilsley. the others from Fyfleld and Danebury respectively. The victory was highly popular, the winner. which had previously won the Two 1 Thousand." being quite a public horse, and so firm 1 a favorite as to start at 6 to 5 on in a large field, of which several had a strong following, among them lieing Vespasian, Stratliconan, Pint us and I 1 Abergeldie. The race was productive of a thrilling finish, and only in the last stride did Lord Lyon j get his head in front of Savernake. The pair met again in the St. Leger. with a similar result, but r excuses exist for Savernake on this occasion, as lie was shut in at the distance, and just failed to catch i Lord Lyon, which was tiring at the finish. The Derby of this year was the richest known up to that time, there being 274 subscribers and its value lieiug 7.;i50 pounds. Of the living turfites present on the occasion , none will forget the attendant discomforts and sensations of Hermits remarkable year in 1867. Tlie fixture was early May 221. though late enough for r some signs of summer to be apparent: but. instead, winter was not merely "lingering in the lap of j spring, as the poet has it, but as a racing man i would more truthfully, if less elegantly, say, was i making his own running, while spring was nowhere, . A bitter, squally wind swept over the downs, ac-« companied by a fall of snow, but the fitful gleams of sunshine that soon melted it rendered the ground j sloppy and disagreeable. Still, with all these discomforts, those present who remembered Blooms-burys year, when the Derby day was a week c earlier, and the snow lay two inches thick in the town, found the present state of things preferable i by contrast. So much for the meteorological circumstances of t the occasion, whose more sensational feature was the unexpected and electrifying victory of the de- - posed favorite in a race that this time was oue of f tlie most disastrous to favorites known for years, . There was the Middle Park Plate winner. The p Bake, which broke a blood vessel during his exer-1 else gallops a few days before the race, and was ■ driven out to 50 to 1. but came again to 9s at tlie start: Plaudit, which came with a great public i- and private reputation from the North, but went t lame. and. after lieing at all sorts of prices, was s scratched ou the morning of the race: Van Am-burgh. "the liest horse in England." on his owners — — - Continued on second page. i , • , , . • 1 EPSOM DERBYS OF A HUNDRED YEARS. Continued from first page. authority: and DEstournel. a handsome "rogue" both market shuttlecocks ; and finally Hermit, the lxst two -year-old performer engaged, but alleged to be suffering freni a complication of disorders that led to his retirement in the quotations to the M and MI to 1 division, at which remunerative figures not a few who had backed him at shortening prices during ihe winter cheerfully — at the time — hedged their ey : but M language can describe the dismay with which in the result they received and paid over. The faint-hearted ones could not have read their "Sperting Life." wherein, long before. Hermit bad Iwen descrilicd as the beau ideal of n racer, and of a conformation as precisely suited to the Derby course as if he had been es|iecially made for it. Hut from the system of training pursued with him, nearly all down-hill work, it would seem that there was some weak point in him which uphill exercise would be likely to aggravate. In the race he was carefully nursed to the Corner, and then the descent. total to the stilty Vauban. and so many others baton and since, just served the powerful son of Newininster. and left him only Marksman — vain hope of seven times unlucky Russley — to challenge at the distance, and. with a neck victory in the last few strides, to secure for the rose jacket of Mr. 11. Chaplin its first Blue Riband on the third time or asking, with the stake of 7.000 pounds and the fortune of KIO.COu pounds in wagers. This, it must be remembered, was an era of sensational turf speculation, and even a larger sum than that just named was rejtorted to have been laid In one hand upon the race by a certain noble duke, or at least offered, but the transaction was not completed, yet the Marquis of Hastings actually laid 100.000 pounds against Hermit. So ended a Derby which, with the general public, has perhaps the least agreeable reminiscence of any of its celebrations. It is satisfactory to note that tlie experiences con- netted with Hermits Derby were entirely reversed on the next occasion, iu IMS. The favorite cherry jacket of Sir Joseph Hawley tame to the rescue of backers and Blue Gown, the horse of the people, landed the peoples money and raised his unselfish owner to the pinnacle of popularity. Sir Joseph started three and declared lo win with his own especial favorite, the handsome Rosicrucian. having so little opinion of Blue Gown that he would have withdrawn uiin from the race but for carrying M much public money, and allowed Wells — who was anxious to win with him and atone for his error in not declaring overweight for the Champagne Stakes — t-r lide him and to ride him out. His generous owners share in the triumph was little beyond the stakes and the satisfaction of winning his fourth Derby with a horse of his own breeding, to which the hero presently added the Ascot Cup and the distinction of being the oniy Derby winner which secured that trophy iu the same year, though ltrigantine. which won the Oaks next year, also achieved the feat. The race is otherwise remarkable for the market favoritism and disgrace of the poor Marquis of Hastings Lady Elizabeth, upon which her unfortunate owner, broken in health, in spirits, and In fortune, was building the most extravagant hopes of retrieving his lost position with the Ring and Turt society. But it was not to be. as none who are familiar with this event need be told, and these are memories upon which few will care to moralise. The phantom favorite, for she was really no fancy of the public, and was only kept at the head of the quotations by market finesse, so that the Ring might to some extent recoup themselves for her owners defalcations — never again figured conspicuously iu any race, while over the career or her once prosperous, but now ruined and broken-hearted, master Be grave closed before the end of that last diastrous season. The catastrophe that finally overwhelmed him was not occasioned by his operations on the Turf. If he suffered huge losses by speculation on his horses he made, large gains, and had he confined his attention solely in this direction he would probably have lieen spared financial embarrassment. But he squandered his wealth iu other directions, and died at the early age of twenty-six. Blue Gown, it may be mentioned, was racing tor two more years with vairying fortune before retiring to the stud, where he met with no success, and was eventually sold to go to America, hut died on the voyage out. To be continued.
