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SOME PEN PICTURES OF EPSOM WEEK Strange Collapse of Abbots Trace Hard Raced Hammerkop Now a Famous Matron Not only has Spion Kop won the Derby and thor ¬ oughly fixed the Carbine line but the Herods through The Tetrarch are equally on the ascendant mid the debacle of Tetrateina is due entirely to his dam Sarchedon on the other hand ran a right good race throughout and was in my judgment asked to lie up with the leaders too much The accident to Abbots Trace is ascribed to the swerv ¬ ing of Sarchedon but I have never seen a horse go down as if shot from a mere bump as Abbots Trace did like a shot rabbit Mr John Coleman M It C V S who was quickly in attendance told me today that he thought the sun had af ¬ fected the colt and this with the strong running he had made had brought alwut a knockout with the least assistance Certainly the colt fell as if dead and lay as such for fully five minutes after the race Horses who fall simply from being knocked over scramble up at once This was a quite different affair Probably Abbots Trace crossed his legs badly on the slightest jostle but there can be little doubt that lie had run himself blind at that tiine The only wonder to most people who saw him was that he did not fall dead I certainly never saw such a fall with the horse lying abso ¬ lutely motionless for so long after it itSarchedon Sarchedon may have swerved from distress after the abnormal pace but I do not for a moment belle that he ran ungenerously Iick of oxy ¬ gen will always cause swerving until tile lungs can be recharged lladinm swerved for that reason when beaten by Torpoint for the Alexandra Plate but there was no gamer horse So too Kock Dove ran short of oxygen while finishing for the Cesare witch and swerved nearly into Tattersalls ring but she got her wind again just in time and went on to win easily I do not row believe that Sarche ¬ don did anything really wrong in the Derby only in such a fastrun race too much use was made of him ajul it would have been better perhaps toiidCjliim for speed speedGREAT GREAT RACE MARES AS STUD MATRONS MATRONSIt It is to be hoped that after this Derby we shall hear less of the failure of great race mares as matrons Hammerkop is the dam of the winner Keystone II of the second and Electra of the third Of these Hammerkop had no foal at all until she was ten years old and she was seventeen when she produced Spion Kop She had a hard life in her racing career and is one of the few animals Which won the Alexandra Plate at Ascot twice She twoyearold placed in the Oaks was a winner as a and won a Cesarewitch and also a Great lorkslure Handicap Winning or not she was always there ¬ abouts in longdistance races and she shared with Pretty Polly the arduous task of working with Spearmint in his Derby preparation According to all preconceived ideas it was long odds against Hammerkop making a success at the stud but she has followed the example of such distinguished Alice Hawthorn campaigners as Beeswing and though for a season or two after her first retire ¬ ment she failed to breed and was put in training again but was found to have lost her form Key ¬ to be a stud thought stone II was for some years and Archaic she with Keysoe faUme but now Archaic is to run sta ds out as a lendid success for the Grand Prix and if all goes well with him lie will most probably win it as the French orses are not at all likely to be equal to ours this vear for the lack of forage during the iat more serious in France than in this country was Prix within two or three Kunni g for the Grand weeks 1r the Derby is not the best possible Prepara ¬ but I dare say Lord Derby Derbyrld tion for the St Lcger rld prefer the rand Prix to the Doncaster classic and it is quite certain that his victor would be well received in France The second to the Derby has ere now pioved equal to winning tie Grand Prix Paradox did it but he certainly ought to have won the Derby Minting was not second for the Derby but doubtless would have been had he not given it a miss in Ormondes year Prix readily enough though and he won he Grand mile tfas almost certainly Ins best course courseIn seldom if eter there was In those davs however distance race and Or ¬ in long any a true puce monde would have been more than a nrloiiB be ¬ last Wednesday hail lie gone no hind Spion Kop fister than he did when he won his Derby Even Tetratena would have been well on the premises Vn the old days when they sometimes took over hree minutes to run the Derby and for many years 243 consti constited Blair Athols and Kettledrums time ted the record Anything over 240 is now r gut ly regarded as bad but the jockeys and not the Torses were to blame for the ridiculous times of the bad old days I still expect to see Sarchedon dis ¬ tinguish himself but neither he nor anything else over a long distance of will ever beat Spion Kop the latter keeps well Che ground so long as Derby winner came under suspicion last year but solely because he had not quite speed enough for sharper opponents and the always questionable ex ¬ pedient of running him in blinkers was adopted In blinkers be won easily at Kempton the other dar but he did not go so kindly in them in his trial and so they were discarded for the Derby when if ever a horse is likely to be upset by the crowds and uproar Spion Kop however was like Gallic and cared for none of these things nor did any Derby winner ever run home in more busi ¬ nesslike and remorseless fashion fashionLORD LORD LONSDALES FLYING FILLY FILLYToday Today Main Royal has beaten Flotta and others for the first race but I was occupied meanwhile in looking at a horse motor car which arrived with one of Tabors runners and is the most perfect thing of its kind I have yet seen It carries two horses and the special value consists in its bring reversible on a pivot so that horses can be both led in and led out instead of being backed one way or the other I believe that a number of such cars or vans would do fine business if centralized at Newmarket or other big training places Chicken Broth one of Mrs Cradocks breeding and dis ¬ figured only by a twisted fore leg won the second race and then came the Acorn Stakes for which Volcanic was thought to be good but I heard in the paddock that Cinderella was more than twentyone pounds better than Bayonne which is a tall order indeed but the style in which Lord Lnnsdales gray daughter of The Tetrarch Dola bella won verified the niost extravagant expecta ¬ tions and the victory was extraordinarily popular though the winner was allowed to start at 100 to 8 Mr Lionel Uobinsons Nutcracker by Chaucer Lord IJoseberys Sally Luun by Swynford Prne pleased me the best of the other runners Grecian Beauty a backward chestnut daughter of Dia dumenos Emmeline may be worth a note and Lady Shimmer is a fine filly though too big and unfurnished for the Epsom fiveeighths Mr Caza let ran a widequartered bay or brown filly by Cicero Bcllanda She lias a silver shot tailroot and her name is Cyrobelle W Allison in London Sporstman
