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SOME MIGHTHAVEBEENS OF DERBY Mischances Which Deprived Great Horses of i Opportunity to Win Blue Riband of the Turf No raring man can deny that the significance of that fatal sentence What might have been o remorseless in its intensity has influenced the destiny of many barkers of horses as it has been the destruction of other people whose lives have boen warped by accomplished facts the work of others Consequently the Derby as the most popu ¬ lar raee in the world must claim more victims of circumstances over which they possessed no con ¬ trol than any other event of the kind as such in ¬ stances are referred to below will prove So far as modern times are concerned the two most unfor ¬ tunate horses which have been included in a Derby entry have been St Simon and Orme whose prospects were ruined by their having liecn struck out at times when their successes appeared excep ¬ tionally bright and this view was endorsed by their subsequent performances performancesThe The withdrawn of St Simon was entirely at ¬ tributed to the existence of the rule to which large numbers of racing men object which enacts that entries or rights of entry under them be ¬ come void on the death of a subscrilXT and owing to the law being as it is the sudden decease of that excellent and most popular sportsman Count Batthynnv unquestionably deprived the best o horses of the honors of being included In the L of Derby winners winnersThe The loss to the turf however proved to bo a benefit to the Duke of Portland who purchased St Simon and won the Ascot Cup with him in the same year This was the year in wliich St Oatien and Harvester ran their dead heat but after the numbers went up as St Gatiens owner was threatened by having an objection to defend on the ground of his horses pedigree being incom ¬ plete this wis however withdrawal while the unsoundness of Harvesters legs would probably have caused him to break down in the runoff had not Mr Hammond been a sportsman which accounts for the division divisionEight Eight years after the withdrawal of St Simon the Duke of Westminsters Onne experienced a similar fate as thp son of Rend Or was struck out of the Derby owing to his suffering from a mysterious illness which completely baffled the skill of his trainer and veterinary attendant to get him to the post All sorts of rumors regarding the nature of the sudden attack were to be heard on all sides but the most generally accepted view was that it was due to mercurial poison though whether the doso was the result of accident or de ¬ sign no one seemed able to decide I believe how ¬ ever that the stable entertained the conviction that somebody had got at the horse but the inquiry that was held failed to enlighten the public at all and consequently the cause of Ormes misfortune must lie added to the category of unsolved mysteries mysteriesPECULIAR PECULIAR CASE OF BEND OR ORIt It is a strange coincidence that the success of Ormes sire Rend Or was also the subject of an inquiry and ti this day I believe that many people entertain the opinion that the son of Don caster Rouge Rose never won the Derby of 1880 This is due to the statements which got nlmiit to the effect that there had been some mistake in changing two of the yearlings which were sent up from Eaton to Kingsclere and hence that the colt called Bend Or was in reality Taileaster Of course no one believed for an instant that the Duke of Westminster and John Porter would have been parties to nny fraud of the kind suggested es ¬ pecially as ISend Or was by far the betterbred colt of the piir I5ut the story of a stable hoy got to l e believed by some people who imagined that there had been an honest mistake though the inquiry by the Jockey Club into tin matter entirely vindi ¬ cated the claim of Bend Or to be the son of Don caster Rouge Rose RoseOne One thing is quite certain however and this is that Bend Or was a fortunate horse to win theT Derby The race was won by Rossiter which was on Robert the Devil turning round to take a look at Archer of all men in the world just as the son of Bertram had made the result a certainty but the Tinman who was riding liKe a demon snatched the verdict by a head Poor Rossiter He not only missed riding a Derby winner but a St Leger as well for Tom Cannon was in the saddle when Robert the Devil got his own back with Bend Or at Doncaster DoncasterIn In the opinion of many good judges of racing Archer was a pound Iwtter jockey at Epsom than any of the heavyweight riders of his time and at all events those who saw the finish between Melton and Paradox in 1885 inclined to the belief that the man and not the horse was entitled to the credit of the victory It was just a case of one of Archers heads as Paradox had been in front for a considerable way whereas Melton had not occupied a good place I heard afterwards that Archer who had ridden the horse upon several occasions knew that Paradox disliked making the running and consequently he waited behind with Lord Hastings horse horseIt It became evident a few lengths from homo how ¬ ever that Melton was not attending to business as closely as his jockey desired and heiicc the neces ¬ sity occurred for his memory being refreshed by a series of ribbenders the memory of which lingers in the minds of all who witnessed the per ¬ formance In short many of those who saw the race backers of Melton included were convinced that if the jockeys had been changed Paradox would assuredly have won and hence the result of the Derby was included in the category of what might have been in 1885 1885BLUE BLUE GOWN A LUCKY WINNER WINNERMany Many old nicegoers who were unfortunate in their investments considered that Blue Gown was lucky in winning the Derby of 1808 owing to th absence of The Earl whose withdrawal caused a great deal of comment at the time Some people moreover thought that a dangerous opponent to Sir Joseph Hawleys liorsu had practically been reduced to a nonenity by the appalling loss of form shown by Lady Elizabeth since her two yearold days and certainly although Lord Hast ¬ ings filly ran in the Derby it was pretty evident that the effects of her exertions in 1807 had told their tale taleSir Sir Joseph Hawley however experienced a piece of bad luck when Pero Gomez just got nipped by Pretender in 1809 The verdict was in my humble opinion one of Judge Clarks few mistakes and I am sure that ninetenths of those who saw the race at the winning post would confirm the opinion Wells often told me afterwards that he was sure that lie won but perhaps John Osborne may entertain a different recollection of the nice At all events the setto between the old Pusher on Pretender and the Bruslier on Pero Gomez was one of those sights one can look back upon as an exciting episode of the race course but it is only fair to Wells to add that he once told me that lift was not really well enough to ride on the day If he had been himself Sir Joseph Hawley would have repeated his successes of 1858 and 1859 in wliich years lie won the Derby with Wells In the saddle on both occasions occasionsI I believe that Sloan has repeatedly told his friends that Flying Fox would not have won the Derby of 1899 had not the Frenchbred Holo ¬ causts fell at the bond and broken his leg It was pretty certain however that the Duke of Westminsters horse was providing his opponents with something to take on Some folks also argued that Meddler would have been close in Isinglass year had he not been scratched owing to the death of Mr Abington Of course it cannot le denied that such horses as Holocauste and Meddler pro ¬ vide instances of tilings which might have hap ¬ pened but granted that Flying Fox and Isinglass were lucky in having had such opponents cleared out of their path the consensus of opinion was that the best horse won beyond a doubt doubtWhen When Flair carried off the One Thousand Guineas in 19lWi the Idea gained ground that as colts which ran in the Two Thousand Guineas were such a mod ¬ erate band Sir Daniel Coopers smart filly was likely to win the Derby Flair however went amiss and had to l o struck out but the stable was fortunate in unearthing another representative in Spearmint which as we all know was fully equal to the occasion but had Flair kept well the result might have lieen different Special Contributor iii London Sporting Life
