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VENERATIONS GREAT STUD RECORD Five of tho Children of Pretty Pollys HalfSister High Priced PricedVeneration Veneration II the dam of Craganour which died at Sir Tat ton Sykes Sledmere Stud last July is another striking illustration of the mare who is a failure on the race course proving a famous brood ¬ mare Five of her foals were sold at public auc ¬ tion and they realized an average of 20250 Glorvina which came tho year after Craganour 15720 The Sybarite which is now in Australia 31200 Xnssovian 17680 Reverence 15700 and Homage 20800 The deatli of this great mare was commented on by Rapier in the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News and he contrasted her achievements on the race course and Jit the stud with her halfsister Pretty Polly perhaps the greatest mare of all time in the matter of stakes won in the history of the English turf This is what lie writes Breeding and racing hre quaint affairs As everyone knows Admiration was a mare of small aciount She was however sufficiently well bred her owner Major Eustace Loder was a rich man who could afford experiments and so she was given a chance when her days of active service were over In the year 1899 she went to Laveno the re ¬ sult iHing the filly who was called Veneration II and whose death lias just been reported a grevions loss As a race horse tliis animal could not even lay claim to the poor distinction of being moderate She certainly did win a race in it she beat by a head Coroebus which throughout his career never won anything at all As si threeyearold Venera ¬ tion II was out on three occasions without any sort of success Her last attempt was in Ji poor little 500 plate at Leicester and it may be inci ¬ dental to remark that Coroebus had ten tries as a threeyearold without once getting home In 1000 Admiration went to Galliuule the result wis Pretty Polly one of the most brilliant mires in racing history I am not going to talk about the style in which she ran away from her field on the occa ¬ sion of her first appearance at Sandown conveying the general impression that it was not a race that she must have got off by herself and that the others had not followed her As a twoyearold Pretty Polly won all the nine races for which she started as n threeyearold she won all the seven as a fouryearold she won all the four for which she went to the post in England for her single defeat in the Prix de Conseil Municipal must of course not be forgotten whatever excuses there may have been for it As a fiveyearold she won twice be ¬ fore experiencing her one English defeat in the Ascot Cup in which she lost by i length to Bache ¬ lors Button There are those who are by no means satisfied that she ought not to have won but we will not resume this argument argumentHere Here then we have a contrast between the two halfsisters Veneration II squeezing home by a head for one minor event Pretty Polly win ¬ ning 67510 as a twoyearold 92200 us a three yearold 17100 as a fouryearold 9675 as a fiveyenrold a total of 189985 including her Ascot second But observe what happens Venera ¬ tion II goes to the paddocks and to begin with it may be admitted does little of note She produces sin animal called Wild Veneration for which Mr Nelke gives 3722 The creature never wins any ¬ thing though she comes down to taking part in a 500 plate winner to be sold for 250 Veneration II breeds nothing of any value for the next three years next misses to Desmond and her owner might well have been disposed to get rid of her But then comes Craganour for which Bower Isnmy gives 10540 Glorvina for which Lord Derby gives 15700 a yearling by Symington for which is paid 31200 followed by Nassovian for which John Sanford of America gives 17680 All these animals with the exception of the one about which ve have refused to talk showed that they were cheap and meantime Pretty Polly with her in ¬ comparable record of no fewer than two and twenty consecutive victories in three and twenty attempts wellnigh incumiiarublc at any rate I am sure that it is a record becomes the dam of a band of merely moderate animals Truly this sort of tiling makes the question of breeding complicated
