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SAVAGES OF THE TURF a. l Man-eating Horses that Savaged Certain Persons They Disliked. * ♦ i Diamond Jubilee One of the Worst — Horse Lunacy Sometimes Ran in Families. ! ♦— — 1 I Special coram tssiniipr Allison of the Ixindon Sports- | 111:111. who i« now in Soulli .meric:i. discusses sav- , n«i Kncli*" horses ot the past ami their peculiarities in the following interesting letter: 1 have more than once written about Vatican, the first really savage horse I ever saw, and certainlv the worst, ami I Iuiyp always calleil I attention to the fact that nowadays there are : few horses who cannot be handled by a capable man. The reason, no doubt, is that they are | treated from their youth up more kindly and , sensibly than In the old. rough times. Still. just as there are dangerous lunatics among men. ■ it is reasonable to suppose that brain troubles affect certain horses, no matter how they are treated. Diamond Jubilee was certainly such a , horse, and no one who saw his performance at ! the start for his first two-year-old race on tin-July Side is likely to forget it. He was to all intents and purposes mad. and reared so that J Jack Watts took hold of the neck strap to steady himself. This unfortunately broke, and away weut poor Watts over the colts tail. Diamond Jubilee then came galloping toward the m.iikK between the rails and the Ditch. but was caught and taken back, when, being remounted, he did. in fact, start, but refused absolutely to gallop, and finished tailed off. It was decided to add him io the list, and this 1 would have lieen done, but there were physical difficulties which the late George Harrow, at any rate, did not see his way to cope with. It was George Barrow who passed Gallinule sound, so that, indirectly and directly, lie may Im said to have been the maker of two great stallions. The rest of Diamond Jubilees story is familiar enough: how he went down on the ground at morning work, and. having lolled M. Cannon off. was proceeding to savage him but for timely assistance. This led up to the loiiiing of Herbert Jones, who has never looked back since. and the Two Thousand Guineas Derby, and the St. Legcr victories ; but never while in England was Diamond Jubilee tractable or safe for an ordinary man to handle. It seemed very strange when later on. in the Argentine, he settled down into a placid, amiable beast, so far as could be judged from hasty inspection. I hac se n jiim mys-lf in that eaaatrj several time-., and so have many oilier visitors I from Kngland. and all came away impressed with the change that had come over him. We know, however, that homicidal maniacs ;ire often gifted with charming manners and extreme cunning. It may have been sl with Diamond Jubilee in thi-later stage of his brain I •velopinent. At any rate. I barn from a sure source that he is by no Mm to be trusted now. and an occasional brain wave renders him dangerous if his man is not always ou the alert. SOME EftUINE FAMILY FAILINGS. Collar was much like this, but he had been knocked about in South Africa, where, I have been told, he killed one or two men. He was very nasty and "snappy" when he first reached Kngland. but he settled down in a few months, much as Diamond Jubilee did. but he had his dark fits, and at snch times he would spend a night kicking the walls of his box all around, uud sometimes as high as five feet up. It was for this reason that his box had to be padded. He was never really to be trusted, and twice inflicted nasty bites on his man. "David." who now does Cic-ro. At ordinary times, however, foliar might have passed muster as one of the most peaceful Ix-asts alive, and certainly after the injury to his hind joint, which ultimately after five year: — led to his death, he did become a reformed character, seeming to realize at last that men wished him well and were doing things to alleviate his pain. In -firmiti--s of temper met as I have mentioned in the cases of Diamond J-iiiilee and Collar run in families. Marsyas was a bit of a savage, as I know. for he was at the Cohham Stud in it early days. Then when his son Joorge Frederick, came to stand there, too. the young horse proved worse than the old one. and was positively dangerous. There was some inherent evil suirit in Daicaldine. though I/oeffler could handle hiin. No ordinary man could deal with him in tie- usual fashion. Han aldi ie« best son. Morion, was also a savage beast which bit one mans thumb off. and on being taken to Ireland repeated tie- operation 0:1 another n:an. whose left arm he also "chawed" so badly that it had to l e amputated. Uidas ami Orme got some sort of brain trouble a few years after they wPiit to the stud, and snch cases are not to be ascribed to external eaaaaa, Maek as bad or foolish treatment, but it is certain that in earlier days "savages" were in the majority of cases made, not born. Vatican even had his eyes put out so as to render him le-s capable of doing damage. Mad horses there will always be. just as ther- are mad mt 11. but It is seldom now that we see or hear of a horse whose Baraga temper can be ascribed to bail treatment. Some, no doubt, have been spoiled by over-kindness. There is no greater mistake than to make much of young colts, as Indie-often do. giving them sugar, and so forth. They hoon become tricky mid cheeky. It is for this reji son that a oll r. med by hand is rarel. of equable temper or any good for racing.
