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GILPINS PECULIAR LUCK ♦ English Trainer Has Never Been Able to Win Cambridgeshire. ■ ♦ Bnt Has Sent Winners to the Post for AH Other Important English Stake Events During His Long Career. ♦ The English trainer. P. P. O.ilpin. has saddled Hie winners of every important classic in England at one time or another during his long career with the single exception of the Cambridgeshire. Time and again he has had the most likely candidate in his barn, but always something happened to prevent his winning. His account of his bad luck in attempting to win this race he recounts in the following article from the London Weekly Dispatch : Lucky though I have been in the Cesare-witch. I have had amazing ill-fortune with the other great autumn event, the Cambridgeshire. For though I have won the Cesare witch three times. I really ought to have won the Cambridgeshire on different occasions with any average good luck. My first big attack on the Cambridgeshire was when I was still with my regiment in Ireland. My brother officer and old friend. Wengic Jones, had bought a horse called Shinglass, a good-looking or.e indeed, out of Joe Frenchs stable, which was entered in the Cambridgeshire. For this he was very favorably weighted, and trained by Garrett Moore at the Curragh. We all had visions of a golden harvest. 1 began by backing him at 6C to 1. and continued week by week, as he progressed in his preparation, to invest on him at liberal odds, until I soon stood to win several thousands, while Wengie was on to win a fortune. With the courage of youth our confidence was unbounded, and any idea of defeat never occurred to us. Fagan, who was a very good middleweight jockey, was engaged to ride. COFLD NOT ATTEVD MEETING. I could not go to the meeting, for on this occasion military duties could not be put aside. As orderly officer I awaited in the barracks at Newbridge the telegram that was to decide whether I was a man or a mouse. It duly arrived, saying that though the horse had run well it was beaten. Wrell. it could not be helped, and we had to make the best of it. Undaunted, I carefully studied the calendar and. having next day received the account of the race, came to the conclusion that Shinglass would win the Amaster Welter and Maritones and Ker-messe two other races the same day. I therefore wired Lewison. who was then with Mr. Moore, to back all three for me ; Shinglass to win. £1.000. and to put £50 on Maritornes and £100 on Kermesse. The former was a very good dark grey or blue roan two year-old filly belonging to the Duke of St. Albans, and the latter a flying filly of lx rd Itoseberys. Both won, one at 5 to 1 and the other at 2 to 1 on. About an hour after I had sent the tele-giam 1 began to have qualms as to whether Ix-wison would receive the wire, and thought it would be wiser to send another wire, and thus not have all my eggs in one basket. I therefore sent a wire to Fred Gardner, an Irish bookmaker who had been identified with the Cambridgeshire commission and whom I knew was at the meeting, asking him to back Shinglass to win me a thousand. WIRE SOT RECEIVED. Readers can judge with what feelings I received his telegram saying that the horse had won comfortably and that he had taken mo 1.000 to 80. Some hours afterwards I received another from Lewison expressing his regret that he had not received my wire till after the races. So it was as well that I had enlisted the services of the professional as well as those of the amateur. What would have happened to us all had the big coup come off and the horse won the Cambridgeshire I have often wondered. Most certanly a large portion of our hemisphere would have been set on fire. Alls veil that ends well, and what might have been a bad week was safely weathered. It was all tremendous fun and gave us no end to think about. Indeed for weeks I dreamed nearly every night that Shinglass had won the Cambridgeshire. But I was no good as a dreamer— I had once dreamed that Marshal Scott won the Derby, backed it, and it was last. My prospects of winning the Cambridgeshire as a trainer seemed rosy about 1900. W. C. Whitney, the American millionaire, had begun to train with me. and I had bought him several yearlings and two or three other horses, but before they had time to do anything worth while he unexpectedly went into i partnership with Lord William Beresford, , and the horses were transferred to Heath I House at Newmarket, much to my regret. WATKRSHEDS DEAD HEAT. One of the animals that thus escaped me , was a horse named Watershed, which I i selected and bought as a yearling for Mr. Whitney in 1899 for, I think. ,300. The , next year, as a two-year-old. Watershed provided the "coincidence mongers" with good conversation when he ran a dead-heat with , Mackintosh for the Halnaker stakes at Goodwood during a torrential downpour of rain. Two-year-olds do not run off dead-heaUs, and I the stakes were divided. Watershed left my stable with about twenty . other animaK some quite useful, and 1 went to Huggins quarters to win, among j other races, the Cambridgeshire of 1901. I [ always liked this colt and was confident that t same day, sooner or later, he would prove himself a useful horse. The day befoie the ; Cambridgeshire I learned that he was well, , and took ,000 to 00 about him to win, , and a proportionate amount to a similar r stake for a place. A GOOD WAC.ER. When watershed was moving down to the ? post the next day I was so impressed by his j healthy appearance and his perfect action i that I took ,500 to 5 more about him, , and consequently, though I felt sorry that t the winner had not come from -ny stable, I I was pleased to see him win, which he did by / a neck. Somehow there is always a 1 ttle additional 1 satisfaction when you find a winner at a i good price, not at all a frequent occurrence. . In 1900 I bought Mr. Whitney a good J yearling filly at Doncaste- for ,550. She b was by Ayrshire — Abeyiace. subsequently named Ballantnuy and won the Cambridge- - i , I , i , , I . 1 j [ t ; , , r ? j i , t I I / 1 a i . J b - shire for Mr. Wrhitney in 1902. She also was I trained by Huggins. Had Mr. Whitney also taken my advice j about another animal — Irish Ivy — he would have put up the astonishing performance of winning three Cambridgeshires in four years, which would have been a record, indeed. It was early in 1S99 that Mr. Wrhitney had come , to England from America. Soon afterward j he asked me if there was any animal that 1 1 could recommend him to purchase. I immediately replied: "Yes, you should I try to buy Irish Ivy, a three-year-okd Irish I filly owned by Captain Peel, and now in Ireland." . Mr. Whitney asked me what Irish Ivy was likely to cost and I told him she was purchasable the previous winter for something like 0,000, but now I understood that Car -tain Peel was asking 0,000 for her. When , she was going for 0,000 I had recommended . Mr. Neumann to buy her, -but he had 1 declined. Mr. Whitney now asked me what Irish Ivy was likely to do if he bought her and I re- plied that she would win the Irish Oaks, the I Grand Prize at Leopardstown, the Park Hill Stakes at Doncaster and either the [ Duke of York Stakes at Kempton or the ; Cambridgeshire. I added : "If you dont run I her in the Irish races I believe she will win l both the Duke of York Stakes and the . Cambridgeshire." It was a bold prohpecy , to make, but as will be seen was amply justified. AVHITNEY MUCH IMPRESSED. Mr. Whitney was greatly impressed, asked i me to go to Ireland and see if I could buy Irish Ivy, but I stipulated that I should see him again before I crossed. I wrote to • Captain Peel and made an appointment to see his mare at the Curragh, stating that if f she were all right I proposed to buy her. . Then on the day I left Newmarket I sent a wire to Mr. Whitney saying that I was 5 coming up to London and would call upon t him, but when I saw him he told me he had 1 changed his mind and did not think he would 1 buy Irish Ivy. I suppose that some kind j , friend had given him a little "good advice" in the meantime. He asked me to dine with 1 him that night to talk over things, but I said 1 I was sorry I could not do so as I was going j over to Ireland. "What are you going to do there?" he , asked, and I replied that I was going to look after seme business over there and, incident- ally, see Irish Ivy win the Irish Oaks and 1 back her to do so. Needless to say, Irish Ivy ran away with ! the Irish Oaks and then proceeded to carry out the rest of the program I had mapped out for her to Mr. Whitney. She won the ft Grand Prize at Leopardstown. the Park Hill 1 Stakes at Doncaster and the Cambridgeshire e Her victory in the Cambridgeshire with y Kempton Cannon in the saddle was obtained , comparatively easily, though her starting I price was 20 to 1,
