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MOODS OF AN EPSOM DERBY WINN F N Tagalic was a peculiar animal, however, never running twice alike. If she had things all her own way, as she had in the One Thousand Guineas nod Derby, she won easily, but if she was close pressed, as she was in the Oaks, for which odds of 2 to i were laid on her, she declined to make an effort, and did not even run into a place. Tracery, running for the first time, was third in her Derby, but .in the Leger she never saw the way he went, and she was unplaced. So, too, in the Eclipse Stakes, won by Prince Palatine, with Stedfast second and Lycaon third. Tagalie was one of the "also ran," though ridden by her Derby jockey, J. Reiff. When Tagalie was beaten by Cylgad for the Newmarket Stakes she was well placed at the Bushes, but her jockey, Leslie Hewitt, sat still as an image, and never seriously called on her to go on and win. She was beaten two lengths, and people said "What a dreadful jockey!" It appeared so to them, but Hewitt explained to me afterward that he felt the mare, so to speak, fainting under him as soon as Cylgad tackled her, and he knew that his only chance was to sit and suffer in the hope that she would take heart of grace and make an effort of herown free will. Had he put any pressure on her he was certain that she would have turned up at once, and have failed to even get a place. Her subsequent career proved that Hewitts diagnosis of her case was quite correct. He himself had won the One Thousand Guineas on her easily, so he had experience of her in both phases of her racing temperament. Unjustly, as it turned out, heir defeat by Cylgad ruined Hewitts reputation as a jockey in this country. What Cylgads performance in that race really amounted to must always be- a matter of doubt. It is unquestionable, however, that of late years he has done well at the stud, and his son, Tanglers, is in a high class indeed. W. Allison In London Sportsman.
