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IRISH ELEGANCE A WONDERFUL HORSE HORSEMade Made All the Sunning in the Royal Hunt Cup Under a Record Hight Weight The recent Ascot meeting was replete with good racing but the bright particular feature of the four days was the amazing and recordbreaking performance of Irish Elegance in winning the Royal Hunt Cup This race is run over an extremely difficult and trying course of seveneighths of a mile and 160 yards Before the war it was always fought out by big fields of the fastest horses in England and was the medium of enormous betting transactions This year it returned to its best traditions and was contested by the great field of twenty six starters Irish Elegance despite his huge impost of 137 pounds shared in favoritism with King Georges colt Jutland which carried 103 pounds and was ridden by the premier jockey S Donoghue the two going to the post at 7 to 1 against each To show the outlines of English bet ¬ ting on such a race the following is given givenBetting Betting at the Start 7 to 1 against Irish IrishElegance 25 to 1 Main Royal Elegance 33 to 1 Quadrille 7 to 1 Jutland 33 to 1 Royal Bucks S to 1 Grand Fleet 33 to 1 African Star 100 to 8 Arion 50 to 1 Knight of Blyth 100 to 8 King John s 0 to 1 Lady Farmer 100 to 7 Roideur HO to 1 Patlander 100 to 7 Carados 10 to 1 Dorelus 100 to C Paper Money no to 1 Old Gold 20 to 1 Dansellon 50 to 1 Mintleaf 20 to 1 ZInovia HO to 1 Elsinore 20 to 1 Strolling Saint no to 1 Church History 20 to 1 Gipsy Lad CO to 1 Biwa 25 to 1 Not Much One of the most wonderful things about Irish Elegances performance was that he was sent right out to make the running and successfully resisting challenge after challenge held his advantage to the end and won by a length and a half from Arion 111 pounds with Dansellon 124 pounds four lengths farther back To understand the unprecedented character of his victory in respect to weight car ¬ ried it is only necessary to point out that the high ¬ est weights carried to victory in the Hunt Cup previously were 133 pounds by Collingwood In 1849 129 pounds by Peter in 1881and 127 pountfcrby Long Set In 1913 The Irish Elegance feat will long be rated as a superlative mark In English turf his ¬ tory Of it Kettledrum said in the Manchester Sporting Chronicle ChronicleThe The winners was a great performance ranking at all events during comparatively recent times with Bayardos Gold Cup and being well at the head of all handicap exploits I can remember Admit ¬ tedly he is as strong as a castle and although carrying close upon 140 pounds his action on the way to the post compared with any for effortless movement movementBut But the parade was a longdrawnout business and then there was a delay at the post due chiefly to the fractiousnesa of Carados which refused to line up and was eventually left leftAll All this was adding something to his task yet he was soon clear and set a much faster pace than any of his opponents could cope with in the first half mile At this point having got Jutland well beaten he needed riding with the hands only to pull out that little extra at the end to make as ¬ surance doubly sure sureHe He is a great horse indeed better I confess than I had thought him to be at this distance and even if it be allowed that Carados put himself out of court while Zinovia sweating and wasted by comparison witli what she was on Jubilee after ¬ noon was only looking a part of the fine mare we know her to be one cannot but admire this glorious chestnut which in point of speed will bear mention with anything I have known for more than a quarter of a century
