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MANIACS Of TURF AND STUI Richmond in America and Eclipsi and St Simon in England All Were Vicious and Practicall PracticallBeyond Beyond Control All Grew GrewWorse Worse With Age BY SALVATOR SALVATORPerhaps Perhaps the most vicious stallion that ever came within my observation was imported Richmond a son of Bold Dayrell Miss Harriott by Kettledrum He was brought over in the early eighties by the then famous Plunger Walton of Philadelphia whose exploits in the betting ring at that period were of a sensational description They ended as such exploits not uncommonly do in complete disaster Richmond which was contemporary on the turf here with an Americanbred horse of the same name a son of Virgil owned and raced witli success by the Dwyer Brothers was capable of fine performances but his disposition proved a handicap to his turf career After his retire ¬ ment from training he became the property of the late Captain S S Brown of Pittsburgh and was one of the sires in his stud along with Trou ¬ badour Stuyvcsant and others Stallions are vari ¬ able in their deportment in and out of training Some of them which are fractious during their racing days quiet down when removed from the excitements cf the turf Again others when put to the stud become difficult to get along with and develop temperamental traits that they had not hitherto been suspected of possessing possessingIn In the case of Richmond instead of getting bet ¬ ter after his retirement he got worse and his condition finally resembled that of an equine maniac No stranger was allowed to inspect him without the most elaborate precautions for safety and then one look was enough The expres ¬ sion of the horse was that of a wild beast rather than a domestic animal There was a ferocious glare in his eyes that carried its own warning and he seemed always ready to do something diabolical at a moments notice or without it I was told at this time that he was often chained in his stall veritably like a lion or tiger and that it was un ¬ safe for anybody to enter it without a pitchfork or a club and somebody else at hand to help out in case he was attacked attackedOften Often horses work themselves into such a con ¬ dition because of the ignorant and injudicious man ¬ ner in which they are cared for and handled But this was not so with Richmond and his case was made the more interesting from the fact that his two American stud companions Troubadour and Stuyvesant the former the Suburban winner of 1880 and conqueror of Miss Woodford and The Bard the latter the first horse to run a mile in 140 in a race in America were both extremely quiet and pleasant In fact so good tempered was Troubadour that one of the stable boys used to ride him into town to Hie postoffice for the farms mail and on other errands errandsECLIPSE ECLIPSE AND ST SIMON TOUGH NUTS NUTSThere There are two factors hereditary factors which probably help to account for the uncertain temper of the modern British thoroughbred The first is his excessive inbreeding to Eclipse That immor ¬ tal progenitor as is well known was anything but a lamb Had lie not been handled with the ut ¬ most discretion in his youth it is said that instead of being unbeaten he would probably have never won a race and throughout his life he discovered a tendency to rule the roost at all times and seasons This same tendency as was natural was ii part of his legacy to his descendants along with the unequaled Capacity as performers performersThe The second factor is a much more modern one At the present time the breed is simply saturated with the blood of St Simon and here again is or was a progenitor of a similar type St Simon was like Eclipse an unbeaten race horse and most of his races he won by such wide margins that it was as truly a case of St Simon first and the rest nowhere as ever it had been of Eclipse Yet the fact is that one reason why St Simon always won off by himself was his uncbntrollability He simply took the race us it were under his own management and proceeded to run away with his jockey it amounted to that thatSt St Simons excessively high nervous organism remained one of liis principal characteristics to the day of his death lie was keyed away up in K and to the highest pitch And so his descend ¬ ants have been and are as is familiar and notorl uus to all turfmen and breeders Tins St Simon strain produces all too often fractious peevish nervous irritable and difficultlycontrolled race horses which are apt as he was to train light Diamond Jubilee was by no means an exception lu the family
