view raw text
SOME NATIONAL ROMANCES * Shaun Spadah Not Likely Favorite for This Years Race. • How Poethlyn the Great Was Bred and Progressed — Rubios Peculiar Preparation. •— — LONDON. England. January 24. — Shaun Spadah. winner of last years Grand National Sleeplecbase. though doing well for Poale at Lewes, will hardly be the lOLU favorite. He has ten pounds more to carry in the March race and hasnt started this year. .Shaun Spadah has not yet been hacked with any emphasis in the future books, though a public favorite. The record is rather against successive winners of the Grand National, which has been run for sixty -eight times. Only four horses have won twice. Abd-el-Kader and The Colonel have been the only successive years winners. The Lamb in LStiS and 1871, and Manifesto iu 1897 and tlM, each won two Nationals. There was much romance about The Lamb, which when a three-year-old was sold for £§•*, He was offered to a sportsman named Studd. who. however, refused to entertain the idea of buying because, in his opinion. Tin-Lamb was not strong enough "to carry a pair of Units." What Mr. Studd said in 1871 when hi* own horse. Despatch, finished second in the Grand National to The Lamb, we are not told. There are interesting stories related about most Grand National winners and it would bs well worth the while of somebody to collect and present them in book form. A thoroughly readable volume about the Grand National has yet to be written. The author will, one imagines, dwell joyfully on the early history of Mrs. Peels Poethlyn. the Welsh word for brandy, which won the substitute Grand National, run at Gatwick in 1918. and then, the following year, placed the seal on his fame by winning the first post-war National at Liverpool. POETHLYNS PECULIAR PROGRESSION. In IBM Major Hugh Peel bought a mare named Fine Champagne for L.".. Three .veins later she was mated with the stallion Rydal Head, by St. Frusiii|iiin — Bydal. by Bend Or. The foal resulting „ from this alliance was to use the majors own words, "A weak wretch, which had for sometime to be held up to suck, and whose legs were for a long time crooked." Both mare and foal were sold as worthless. Major Peel received *:;.1 for the foal. The buyer within two days had parted with the youngster at a small profit to a hotel keeper at Shrewsbury, who had the animal trained as a two-old, but lo no good purpose. In the autumn of that year Major Peel was told by his trainer, Gos-well, that there was a nice horse for sale at Shrewsbury and the major, his wife and Goswell motored over to inspect the animal. They were shown a big. overgrown two-year-old. which proved, of course, to lie the developed foal that had been sold in disgust for !| .*5."i. However, both Major and Mrs. Peel toook a fancy to him and bought him for BSSk, The horse was taken to Major Peels farm, turned out in a paddock, and christened Poethlyn. Voluptuary, winner of the Grand National in 1881. belonged in early life lo Lord Bosebery. who raced him on the flat. In 1883 he was sold to Mr. E. P. Wilson and shortly afterward won a hurdle race. Iu a second hurdle race he was beaten and then won the Grand National, although he had never previously raced over fences. In bis old age Voluptuary appeared on the stage of Drury Lane theater, London, in a play called "The Prodigal Daughter." SOME OTHER NATIONAL ROMANCES. Jealousy, the heroine of 1.S01. was ridden by Joe Kendall, a jockey who hud carried off a French Derby, a double that has in later history be"n completed by Percy Woodland, the rider of Drumcree liKKi. A flat race jockey not ipiite so fortunate in bis attempt at Liverpool was Bob Sly. Iu Free Traders UBS National he was second on Minerva — -beaten three-quarters of a length; later iu that campaign, when riding Melissa in the Epsom Oaks be was beaten in a sensational finish by Mincepie, which won on the post by a neck. The oldest horse to win the blue ribbon of the steeplechases was Why No? 1894. successful when thirteen years old. The youngest were Regal. Aus-lerlitz 1S77. and Empress 1NS0. all five-year-olds. The oldest animal that ever ran at Aintree was Liberator. He was seventeen years old when he started for Old Joes 1SS0 race. Only two-four-year-olds have ever been saddled. Hie first was Beal Jam in Emblems ilSC3l journey; the other, by name Terrier, started in Voluptuarys 1SS4 year. Chandler 1S-1S defeated three previous winners — Matthew. Pioneer and Jerry — also a much-fancied candidate named Eagle, the mount of Johnny Brom, a champion middleweight boxer. Hal Court ran second three times behind Alci-biade ISC, Salamander 18Ci and The Colonel. He was the most unfortunate horse at Aintree and ran in seven races. Frigate also started for seven Nationals and was second tv.i ■•. but she won in ISSS. Other horses that have run in seven different years are Gamecock 1877 and Liberator 1879, but they lioth won in their turn. The records of the famous Steeplechase are full of romance. Chandler had been picked up for S12.1 when drawing a grocers gig. Miss Mowbray, having been returned as useless for racing, was then sold for $."500, but she was returned as unsound, loiter Miss Mowbray was Moid to a Mr. Mason for a few pounds and. after winning three steeplechases with her. she was sent to Malton to be trained by John Bcntt. During the winter she was ridden by Harry Iimpaugh with Lord Middlelons hounds, finally winning the National lSSSf in a field of twenty-four. Miss Mowbray ran second to Peler Simple the following year. Two years later she broke her neck at Bechers I.rook. Abd-el-Kader. the first dual winner, was bred from a mare that had drawn the Shrewsbury coach. Later Voluptuary, the winner in 1S84. was destined to finish a romau-tle career as a stage horse. As a three-year-obl he ran unplaced in Bend Ors City and Suburban. * The 1908 winner. Kubio, was tired in America and sold with Mr. Haggins horses at Newmarket fi r CIS. Before winning the Liverpool lie had been broken for hunting, but fell lame and. like Chandler, was driven in a travelers gig. A year or so -« before that Bubio bad been used as the motive power of a hotel bus iu a small town iu the Gloucestershire hunting country.
