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I I I I , I I FINE PAIR OF RACE MARES Sceptre Rated High By Gilpin, But Pretty Polly Even Better. Former Beaten Many Times, but Latter Only Failed to Win on Two Occasions When She Finished Second Throngh Bad Luck. P. P. Gilpin, the English trainer, compares Sceptre and Pretty Polly, two of the greatest race mares of modern English racing, in the following article, which is reprinted from the London Weekly Dispatch: Of the many great horses that have passed through my stables there are two which stand out above all others of their generation the Derby winner Spearmint and the mare which would assuredly have won the Derby of her year had she been entered for it. Pretty Polly. Hundreds of columns have been written about Pretty Polly, and hundreds more would have been published had I accepted the numerous requests of editors to write for their journals the life story of one of the most wonderful mares in living memory. Though nearly twenty years have passed since Pretty Polly was astonishing the turf with her flying performances, her name is still fresh and still a household word. Sceptre, the famous mare which preceded Pretty Polly by a couple of years and which was just passing her zenith when Pretty Polly made her debut, has sometimes been likened to the wonderful mare that I trained. I have even heard Sceptre favorably compared with Pretty Polly, but those who did so spoke without reference to the book. Otherwise they would have seen that Pretty Polly possesses by far the finer record. PRETTY POLLY BEATEN TWICE. Pretty Polly is sometimes referred to as "the unbeaten race horse," a description which the book shows to be slight inaccurate. She was placed second, once in France and once in England, whereas Sceptre lost many races. Though Pretty Polly was twice returned second, that placing was due to bad luck and not to any fault of Pretty Pollys. If those two races had been run again in ordinary circumstances I think that Pretty Polly would not have merely won, but won, as she won nearly all her races, by lengths. Pretty Polly was unbeaten as a two-year-I old, running in nine races in her first sea-; son on the turf. Sceptre, on the other hand, won two out of three races as a two-year- Continuctl on twelfth page. FINE PAIR OF RACE MARES Continued from first page. old. As a three-year-old Pretty Polly ran seven races in England without knowing defeat. Sceptre also was a grand mare as a three-year-old, winning six out of eleven races. As a four-year-old Pretty Polly ran four times and won all four races; Sceptres record for her corresponding year Avas five wins out of seven races. During her fifth year Pretty Polly ran only three times and was beaten once, in the Gold Cup at Ascot. Sceptres record as a five-year-old was not so good; she lost each of her three races. It would have been difficult to find two animals so little alike as these two grand mares, Sceptre and Pretty Polly. Sceptre, which for two years preceding Pretty Pollys advent, had been regarded as the Queen of the Turf, was of the great, lengthy, raking, greyhound type Pretty Polly was of more compact mould and covered less ground. Sceptre was a bay. Pretty Polly was a dark chestnut. Pretty Polly was a well-named filly by Gallinule Admiration. Sceptre was by Persimmon Ornajnent. Sceptre was at the end of her three-year-old career when Pretty Polly appeared on the scene as a two-year-old in 1903. Unquestionably Sceptre was a mare that shed luster on the turf and was, I always thought, a little unlucky in being beaten in the Eclipse by Ard Patrick. She was bred by the late Duke of Westminster and, as a yearling, bought by Mr. Sievier for ten thousand guineas and trained by him. I was present at the sale at Newmarket when, after the death of the late duke, many of his race horses came under the hammer. I had a good look at Sceptre as she appeared in the sale ring and was greatly struck by her appearance, as I think no one who had an eye for a horse could fail to be. Ten thousand guineas is a high price for a young one that has yet to prove her mettle, and expensive yearlings have an unpleasant habit of going hopelessly wrong. BOTH MA TIES A LITE. Both Sceptre and Pretty Polly are still alive. The former came into prominence recently when she was advertised as having been sold to go abroad and Pretty Polly is still at the stud in Ireland. Unquestionably both Sceptre and Pretty Polly towered over all other mares in living memory. They were two of the best horses that ever trod the turf. But at the stud they have not done as well as was hoped. Sceptre has produced nothing of outstanding merit, ccr-ainly nothing that will at all compare with hersel f. Pretty Polly has done better, but has only produced two horses of any merit. Of her progeny Molly Desmond was certainly her best. She was a smart two-year-old and in my opinion should not have been beaten that season. The other was Clackmannan, the winner of three races. Molly Desmond has already shown herself a good brood mare by producing Spike Island, winner of the Irish Two Thousand Guineas and the Irish Derby. Molly Desmond was a yearling at the same time as that remarkably good mare Diadem, Avhich has just gone to the stud after winning many important sprint races for Lord i DAbernon, to be beaten in her last year by Major McCalmonts Tetratema. Though Diadem was a tremendously good mare she did not really go more than a mile, and so cannot be compared with Sceptre and Pretty Polly beyond that distance, for these two wore really good over long distances, cer tainly up to a mile and a half, the length ot the Derby course. In winning the Jockey Club Cup Pretty Polly Avon over two and a quarter miles. I Avas present the day that Diadem made her debut and was told by her trainer, the lion. George Lambton, and by Lord DAbernon, her owner, how she had been galloped Avhich made her out to be the probable Avinncr. I backed her, as did many of Mr. Lambtons friends. Diadem, jumping off Avhen the tapes Avent up, Avas neArer headed and Avon easily. She had been coughing not long before and I am afraid her trainer Avas afraid to back her in consequence. , f : ! ! ; ; i i - 1 1 - l .
