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KING ALFONSOS CHAMPION Ruban Which Won Great Spanish Stake in 1922 Is Finely Bred English Tnrf Writer Discusses Chances of ofSpanish Spanish Crack In Ascot Gold Cup for forWhich Which lie Is Entered This Year Since Ruban owned by King Alfonso XIII of Spain won the great 500000 peseta stake at San Sebastian last year from a band of horses of international scope and Quality Qualitythere there has been much interest in his breeding and performances This year he is entered in the Ascot Gold Cup and William Allison Special Commissioner of the London Sportsman discussed him in a recent article as follows The King of Spains crack horse Ruban Rubanmust must be something extra for Franklin was sent out there and the form may be meas ured through him Ruban now five years old is entered for the Ascot Cup and we know that he is out by himself in Spain against all comers I have been sufficiently curious to look up his pedigree which I now give in tabulated form f Yattendon YattendonGd Gd Flaneur First Iady IadyfPiscator fPiscator Ka l IJcatrice IJcatriceCallistrate 1 Penelope SCMlstni Callistrate Se SeI n I Presta PrestaWink iSa iSaWlkfleld Wink fWinkfieli Wlkfleld g f f fields a Pride LAIimony T ScT CambyseCallistrate Cambyse Callistrate sMny CUlonelIe CUlonelIer Queen Silvio SilvioMay r Pole May Merry pay It would be hard to find a better staying pedigree than this especially as Callistrate one of the best staying descendants of Dol ¬ lar comes twice and well balanced in the third remove The sire Philippe II was one of the best of his year in Prance and was got by the Australianbred Patron winner of the Melbourne Cup and son of Grand Flaneur which also won that race raceAnother Another Dollar cross comes through Pris ¬ tina third dam of Philippe II We know that Winkfields Pride the maternal grand sire of Ruban stayed well he could hardly do otherwise with Barcaldine Isonomy and Musket close up Lower down we reach Callistrate again and then Silvio which won the Jockey Club Cup from Verneuil and lower still Knight of the Garter winner of the Chester Cup CupPATUOX PATUOX WAS DISCARDED DISCARDEDAs As an illustration of the strange vicissi ¬ tudes of breeding I may here mention in connection with the above pedigree that many years ago after we had sold Carnage to go to Germany I persuaded the late W R AVilson to send me Patron from Australia on joint account Patron was a big fine horse but with by no means ideal forelegs and after a year or two when Mr Wilson died he had to be offered for sale by order of the executors executorsMeiman Meiman had brought the Grand Flaneur line into fame at that time and Patron was bought by Major James Platt for I think 23000 Major Platt had an extraordinarily good stud of mares but Patron did him no good and finally he discarded him without reserve at Newmarket and he was bought for 300 to go to France where he got Phi ¬ lippe II a right good horse and the sire of Ruban RubanThere There are more unlikely things than that Ruban may win the Ascot Cup Mr de Neu ¬ ter who manages the stable knows well what international form is and he would not be likely to advise this entry without good reason reasonPatron Patron the grandsire of Ruban not only Avon the Melbourne Cup as a fouryearold carrying 127 pounds but also won the Caul field Guineas as a threeyearold He was a direct descendant in the male line from Whisker brother to Whalebone and it seems to have been generally agreed that Whisker was the better of the brothers Nevcrthe less except through King Tom Whisker did not make good as a stallion here but the Australian Sir Hercules gave him a lift just as St Mirin did Hermit in South America AmericaHORSES HORSES WERE CONFUSED CONFUSEDIt It is idle to attempt explanations of these phenomena We can only see what we see and judge by results The science of one generation is the scorn of the next but for any old Australian breeder the name of Yat tenJon son of Sir Hercules sire of Grand Flaneur is a landmark in all his calcula ¬ tions tionsTime Time was when the great victories of Grand Flaneur in Australia which were even in those days cabled over here used to be mistaken for supposed triumphs of Harry IJniggs old horse of that name which was 1 only a sprinter at best and never went to 1 Australia The Australian Grand Flaneur it should be borne in mind was never beaten and won not only the Melbourne Coup am 1 Victoria Derby but the Champion threemile race as well wellThere There is good reason on the above prem ¬ ises to look respectfully at Ruban as a pos ¬ sible Cup horse apart from his winning record He combines closely the stoutesi breeding ever known for several generations i past and I cannot rid myself of the idea that Ruban if landed here fit and well and wiiy should he not be for he can come by land to Boulogne will threaten danger to our best for the Ascot Cup Time tries triesCUP CUP POSSIBILITIES POSSIBILITIESI I ought perhaps to have added that in addition to his other wellprovrd claims to i be a great stayer Patron had twj close up Fisherman crosses on his dams side All 1 this iocs not necessarily make Ruban n gr at I horse in England though he is undoubtedly so in Spain but there is a lot ot possibility uboul it when we are contemplating the pedi ¬ gree of a prospective Cup horse and as already stated Mr De Neuter knows his job so will that if this invasion were to he made at Ascot no prudent backer would let Ruban run loose looseMore More than that it would be absurd to say at the present juncture If horses and other living things are better for change of envi ¬ ronment in themselves and their predecessors as I believe is the fact not one has had a better chance than Ruban which is by the Frenchbred Philippe II son of Australian bred Patron which stood several seasons in England EnglandHis His dam is by the Irishbred Winhelds Pride which was trained in England and exported to France FranceHis His second dam May Queen was by Silvio imported to France from England and curi ¬ ously enough though he made no success in his first stud season in England he went to the head of the list in France as the result of his first season there Beyond the fact that I know Silvio to have been a good horse and a beautiful horse and a well bred horse I can offer no explanation for this change which came over him as between England and France Something of the kind must hav occurred to Patron when sent to the latter country
