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STORY OF CAPTAIN CUTTLE SDERB Y K ; J BY B. E. OOTJ8SBLI*. t TiONDON, England, June 2. — The Derby 1 w;u- of a. record character In at least two ] roapocta. Captain Cottle won in a canter in i the record time of 2:34%, which is one-fifth MOOnd faster than tlie time of Spfon Kop, 1 which crmnnhiil the previous best two years 1 ago. i The second record is one which will take 1 a phenomenal amount of beating. It is held • by Lord Aator, whom colors for the third time In four years have been carried into secoud place in the Derby — Buchan, In 1919; Craig an Eran, in 1921, and Tamar, in 1922. I Two of them are sons of Sunstar and all 1 three descend from that wonderful mure Sceptre. Taniar. of course, is a half-brother to Buchan. Truly this popular owner is t entitled to the worlds sympathy in just : i atest turf prize of the world. i Further Lord Aator owned Blink, which I finished secoud to Gainsborough in the war- 1 time Derby, run at Newmarket in 191S. 1 Lord Woolavington has had so many heart- hieahlm. experiences in c.;nnection with the Derby for close upon quarter of a century that when at the long last triumph came bis way, all the vanquished joined in the avalanche of congratulations which have al- * most ovei wbetaned the none-too-robust-look- ing owner c f Captain Cuttle. Indeed, I I thought thai, in one of the greatest moments » f his life1 — leading back the Derby winner — it wa_s almost too much for his strength. Lord Woolavington has had a long and plucky struggle against illness for many yeais. COMQsV4.TULA.nOVB FOR OWNER. Within a few minutes of Captain Cuttles brilliant victory his owner was receiving the personal congratulations of the King and Uueen of England. He was not winning out ! of his turn. He must have spent several fortunes to secure a Derby horse, but bad luck persistently dogged him. Now he has gained the highest honors and the richest Derby on record with a colt of his own breeding, and, moreover, an English-bred colt i whose parents were also foaled in England. We all wondered what had happened when i Captain Cuttle was not in his allotted position in the parade before the race. When i Donoghue eventually came out of the paddock lie appeared to give the colt a sharp canter, as though endeavoring to catch up with those borate which had not yet turned and gone lo the start. Hors and rider received S tremendous popular welcome. The crowd to a man were on Donoghue. In the canter past the stand Captain Cuttle did not stretch himself; his action was short and scratchy, as though the hard ground affected him. Like myself, nearly all the occupants of the press stand marked him down as one with no chance. Indeed, at the very moment 1 heard a bookmaker yell as a result of what he had witnessed, "One hundred to 30 Captain Cuttle docs not get a place !" After the race an explanation was forthcoming. It appears Donoghue mounted and after a few strides was on the ground again. Peeling the coifs legs, he discovered that the "plate" on the off fore had spread. A blacksmiths services were requisitioned and the trouble rectified. Donoghue readily confessed that he experienced a real unhappy moment when the horse cantered so short past the stands. Anyway, he had no further cause for anxiety. UK-El HO FRACTIOUS AT THE POST. The story of the race is soon told. There was a little trouble at the pest, caused chiefly by Re-echo; which was most unruly for a long time, stubbornly refusing to go near the gate. He had not seen a race course for nearly nine months. It would take much b ss than the enormous crowd assembled at the starting barrier to disturb a Nell Cow ; this was one of the main reasons why 1 have always opposed him. lie-echo finally was away in the twenty-ninth position, having lost more than six lengths. St. Louis was also not on his best behavior. The start, on the whole, was a good one, having regard to the size of the held, only two of the thirty runners having a bad chance. Jacquot at once took the lead. Captain Cuttle lay just behind him, with Scamp alongside, the former always going easily. The instant the field came round Tattenham Corner Captain Cuttles great blaze face was easily discernible. In the straight Donoghue let him go and in a flash the race was practically over ; Captain Cuttle went on to win in brilliant style by four lengths. It was a one-horse race. The winner showed his opponents how to do it. Donoghue could have gone to the front at any time he wished, and from that point of view it was axi uninteresting race. All the same i it was a popular victory. The shouts of acclamation which greeted Captain Cuttle and Donoghue must have been infinitely louder than the sevenfold shout which we are told brought down the walls of Jericho. The mounted police had literally to cut a lane through the cheering, surging mob to i enable Lord Woolavington to lead his Derby winner back to the unsaddling inclosure. TAilARS SHARP IMPROVEMENT. Tamar, which was one of the best looking and best trained horses in the race, was a i vastly different colt from the one which so , spoiled his reputation at the Newmarket : Craven meeting. Taylor had worked wonders with him. In the early part of the , race he had not the speed to keep with the I leaders. After a mile he greatly improved I his position, but in the last furlong he could I . make no impression on the leader and was beaten by a better horse. There was a grand struggle for third position between five horses. I noticed Craig-angower soon after the start was about j- fifth ; in the straight he was bunched in close on the rails. Although he met with , a little interference his rider admitted that I it was insufficient to make any difference to the result. In the last eighth he put t In some great strides and easily obtained 1 third position on his merits. The judge officially placed St. Louis fourth. My impression, confirmed by many other spectators s and also by a photograph, was that Simon l Pure a 33 to 1 chance, which had been a i "sneaking" fancy of many people beat the i favorite by a head, with Scamp alongside i and Villars just behind. Then came Re-echo, , Pondoland and Bucks Hussar — the rest of f the field did not count. Half an hour before the race Pondoland 1 was again favorite, but finally St. Louis s passed him in the betting. Pondolands original - trouble was a cracked heel ; the dressing Irritated him, with the result that he kicked i t 1 ] i 1 1 i 1 • I 1 t i I 1 1 * I ! i i i i i i , : , I I I . j- , I t 1 s l i i i , f 1 s - i the affected place and caused his leg to fill. In the paddock. I noticed that his off bind leg was still slightly filled. All one can say is that he ran badly. St. Louis utterly failed to come down the hill, and this, coupled with the hard ground, beat him. His owner philosophically remarked after the race, "Well, we cannot expect everything." Bucks Hussar, curiously enough, failed to reveal the qualities in Which he was considered to excel. Yiilais, Simon Pure and Bcamp all ran well. Perhaps, therefore, Captain Cuttle had not a great deal to beat. It was the style in which he accomplished his task that impressed the onlookers. Before the Two Thousand Guineas I owned to a more than wholesome respect for the claims of Captain Cuttle. At Newmarket he ran like a non-stayer and was beaten at six and a half furlongs. Five minutes after the race he was still "blowing" hard in the paddock, and his trainer appeared mystified. He has now revealed that Captain Cuttle before the Two Thousand Guineas had not been at work for a week, with a bit of a j "leg." The horse, of course, was not phyat-cally fit when he ran in the Two Thousand Guineas. It was only ten days before the Derby that Darling was truly satisfied Captain Cuttle would stay the course, and it was only four days before the Derby that Lord Woolavington knew he could have the services of Donoghue if he wished. Captain Cuttle and Craigangower were two of the most handsome horse3 in the field. The winner is a better looking animal than his site, Hurry On. He is, I think, one of the biggest horses which have won the Derby, being a strongly made, well grown chestnut colt, with a big blaze face, white on both fore coronets and white on the near hind leg almost to the hock. He is Inclined to be lop-cared. HURRY O.VS STUB PROSPECTS. Darling considers that Captain Cuttle is not as £ood as Hurry On, and doubts if he ever will be. Frankly I must confess that I have hitherto regarded with disfavor the stud prospects of Hurry On. He was a big ungainly colt which could not be trained as a two-year-old. I have not seen the horse! 1 since he went to the stud, but understand i that he has fined down and improved eon-j I siderably. On his breeding also Hurry On i did not make a strong appeal. We shall now have to lay aside all our prejudices. Hurry On sired Captain Cuttle in his first stud season. The Derby winner descends in tail male from West Australian, through Barcaldine, Marco and Marcovil. This is the Matchem line. Again and again it has been in danger of becoming extinct in England. Now Hurry On and Captain Cuttle seem about to put it on a surer foundation. In the Daily Racing Form of April 20ih I told the story of the breeding of Captain Cuttle on the dams side. He is the ninth i foal and eighth winner from Bellavista, I I which was fifteen years old when Captain j i Cuttle was foaled. A daughter of Cyllene, I she was bought by Lord Woolavington from j James Russel in the December sales ofj I 1915 for ,750. She has a two-year-old by Sunatar, and a yearling — brother to the Derby winner. Last December Lord Woolavington j sent three or four mares to the I Newmarket sales. Bellavista was one of them. Seventeen years old and apparently i I barren, she made only 50. In al! proba-bility I the late owner of the mare is now sorry he parted with her ; but the fact that she was drafted rather points to the view that at the time no great idea was entertained that any superlative merit was possessed by Captain Cuttle. ANOTHER GOOD BELLAVISTA FOAL. Bellavistas other produce includes William I the Beau, a high-class horse in India, where he won about ?o3,000. Emotion, the dam of Bellavista was bought by James Russel as a yearling for 50. She proved a gold mine for him. One of the best two-year-old fillies of her season, she won five races and over 1,000. Bellavista herself won the Rous Memorial Stakes at Goodwood and a couple of other races. The third dam was Emita. She was owned by Donald Eraser — breeder of Son-in-Law and Brown Prince. As a foal he sold her to J. B. Joel, and Emita was one of his first brood mares. Altogether the produce of Emita won about ,000. Her dam. Burgundy, was a sister to Gay Hermit, which was a big winner in England and one of the greatest sires ever known in Argentina where his offspring won over 75,000. The fifth dam was Doll Tear-sheet ; she bred Merry Hampton, which won the Derby in 1S87 ; he also ran second in the St. Leger. Merry Hampton was an awful: ;| failure at the stud. Another Derby winner I of this family was St. Blaise, and Candlemas! ] also comes of the same line. It was a most puzzling Derby to sum up. One felt sure that the bard ground would 1 prove the undoing of St. Louis. If the , ground were soft, then Pondolands chance vanished. Thus we were left with Captain , Cuttle. It is apparent that we made a t great mistake in disregarding him. TAMAR IN DISTRESS AT FINISH. Tamar was the most distressed of the leading horses at the finish of the Derby. He almost justified his one-time position as the early spring Derby favorite. Half an hour before the race Lord Astor remarked I to a friend. "Twice when my horses have been favorites I lost ; now that he is not ► favorite I am hoping to be more lucky !" Craigangower I fancied from the time of r the Grand National meeting as a fine looking, well bred colt, likeiy to make a classic : horse. On Derby day he met two better than himself. He was never busier than near the winning post, and he finished most t resolutely. The "going" at Epsom was like a turnpike ; road, and not a few of the competitors in 1 the Derby I think will take a long time to recover from their exertions. It was the hottest Derby day for many ■ years. The sun baked and blistered the J densely packed occupants of the stand who » had no shade. The white heat excitement t of the greatest crowd on record was only r equaled by the scorching, broiling heat of f the day. Donoghue has equaled the achievement of f D. Malier and F. Archer in riding the Derby winner in successive years, and it is reported I that he was to receive a fee of more than i 0,000 if his mount was successful. Dono-r ghue also rode two Derby winners in the i war time at Newmarket.
