view raw text
THEORIES CONCERNING THE PANTHER i The Colts Remarkable Change of form Ascribed to a Variety of Causes CausesThe The demoralization of The Panther continues and Mr Richards cabled me after the Irish Derby that the colt run ungenerously What to make of it all I know not Of one thing I am certain and it is that my opinion of The Panther as he was is quite unaltered Had he failed in a close race or anything of that kind it would have been dif ¬ ferent but he had fallen like Lucifer and his last state bears no comparison with his first The colt himself cannot tell us his troubles and the theories are many and various but no one will dispute that when he won the Two Thousand Guineas he ran home a resolute sober honest winner Whether he won easily or not may be open to argument I think he did He was not knocked about in any way and he was not in the least distressed after the race which for him can have left nothing but a pleasant memory memoryFrom From that time on we get all sorts of ideas some that he was then fit and further serious training would get on top of him as the saying is others that he was being bandboxed and not galloped half seriously enough Certainly however according to training reports he did as many long gallops as any Derby horse if not more and that too with a good stayer like Leandros LeandrosThe The Panther never gave the idea until after the Two Thousand Guineas that he had much interest in exercise gallops but a change came over him then and it was noted that he took hold freely in bis work which was thought a good sign It is well to be wise after an event but it is just pos ¬ sible this may have been a sign to go slow with him Mathew Dawson used to trairibis freegoing with rank bad ones incapable of winning a race and this plan answered admirably in such cases I used to see La das gallop with Chad morning after morning and Chad was not good enough to start for a race still less to win one St Simons habitual companion Iambic was of similar class though he was once matched with and of course beat an Arab There is a great deal of Ladas character about The Panther and it is conceivable that a companion such as Leandros made him take too mucii out of his vital energies in training gal ¬ lops but it seems ungracious to suggest such tilings when all concerned were doing their utmost to de ¬ serve and achieve success successA A BREEDERS THEORY THEORYIt It remains clear and undeniable that something has happened to convert a brilliant horse into a spiritless shirker I remember Adieu winning two races at a Newmarket Spring Meeting when quite untrained and afterwards going from bad to worse when Sam Pickering thought to make better of him There are such horses and Th6 Panther may be one of them but on the other hand such an hypothesis would not in any way account for his extraordinary behavior at Epsom before the Derby when he acted like a mad horse and was beaten before he started startedIt It may be suggested that he does not stay more than a mile but both Cooper and Donoghue agreed that he never meant racing over any distance in his last two races A further suggestion is made by our old friend Mr W Maxfield a most knowl edgable authority on pedigrees and he says saysI I hold the same high opinion of The Panther as you do only I could see danger in that surfeit of Laugar blood which has caused his undoing He has the Langar blood in ever quarter of his pedi ¬ gree He has not less than nine dashes Langar and Sultan are the worst channels of the Walton blood because there is no Prunella there as there is in Middleton Cobweb and Partisan There is danger in too much Walton through any channel channelThat That is the opinion of a mtin who is no mere theorist and I am far from saying that there may not be something in it but we should all remember that in process of time the distinct qualities of this or that blood become at any rate less dis ¬ tinct and now for example there is nothing to be alarmed about in seeing the name of Hermit two or three times in a pedigree whereas there most certainly was in earlier days when he appeared closer up Whatever is wrong with The Panther he is in good hands and I suppose it will be merely a question of letting him go easy and forget his troubles if he can Then start him for a little race if possible which he must win and the Leger is even now not past hoping for with him though it may seem a forlorn hope The Special Commis ¬ sioner in London Sportsman
