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TWO CHAMPION ENGLISH FILLIES. Some time ago even before she went amiss with a slight attack of coughing it was generally thought that Molly Desmond was the best two-year-old trained at Newmarket. This is possibly correct, and may also still be the case when all of Mr. Hultons horses have arrived here, but it is quite certain that she has been singularly unlucky up to the present. On the occasion of her first appearance in public she ran a little green, and this resulted in Athdara making a dead-heat with her a performance which he is scarcely likely to be able to repeat. She appeared to have a mere exercise canter in the Uhevcley Park Stakes, but animals full of excitable Galopin blood take a good deal out of themselves in a race, no matter how easily they may win it. and it was a great mistake to have run her only forty-eight hours prior to the decision of the far more valuable and important Middle Park Plate, in which North Star managed to wear her down and beat her by a head after a tremendous struggle. Her bad luck was more noticeable than over in the Criterion Stakes last Tuesday. The start was a scrambling one, in which Molly Desmond and Margarethal lost several lengths, the result being that "Molly" had to give Gay Crusader eight pounds, his sex allowance, and a useful start. This last proved fatal, as she could never quite reach him. A dead-heat and a couple of head defeats within the space of a few weeks is by no means beneficial to a highly strung filly, and it is not certain that the winters rest will enable her to forget such punishing finishes. The tip direct for the Cambridgeshire was given when Diadem scored easily in Lord DAbernons colors in the race immediately preceding the big handicap. This beautiful filly is now quite herself again, and after the performance of Dansellon in the Houghton Stakes no surprise need be felt that she failed to give him six pounds nnd her sex allowance in the Hopeful Stakes. It will be remembered that, like nearly all the Stanley House horses, she had been coughing shortly before sustaining her only defeat. There can be no doubt that the form of our two-year-olds is in a hopeless tangle, and much ink will be used during the coming winter in attempts to unravel it. London Sportsman of November 7.
