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A Tainted Two Thousand BY SALVATOR. J i , j J I ] • [ ; 1 i ■ i : l • I i It is certainly getting monotonous — this eternal resurgence of the "American stain" in pur sang circles. Every season it appears to grow worse and worse. Last year was a terrible one in respect of its ravages. Verdict, Mumtaz Mahal, Rose Prince, and the rest in England ; Epinard in both England and France; Carnation, Clavieres, Mirebeau, Roi Pausole, et al, in France ; Cima de Cone-gliano, Giovanna Dupre, et al, in Italy ; Bitalli in Australia — everywhere the offenders, unmindful of their iniquity, kept "doing it, doing it, doing it." That is to say, kept winning classic and near-classic races over the best products of pur sang. And now, with the "first crack out of the box" in the English classics of 1924, like the tell-tale trace on Lady Macbeths high-bred hand, the murder outs ! The Two Thousand winner, Diophon, which defeats in game style, nineteen of the best and most purely bred three-year-olds that Great Britain can muster, is a son of Grand Parade, he a son of Orby and he a son of the much-ly stained American mare Rhoda B., by Hanover, whose ancestral quarterings are blemished by bends-sinister sufficient to cause any blazoner of the equine heralds college a la Weatherby to cry aloud for angels and ministers of grace to defend the palladium of the breed ! TWO BEST JT7VEWILES. There was no doubt that the two best two-year-olds in England last season were Mumtaz Mahal and Diophon, both owned by the Aga Khan and both American-stained. When the filly was so unexpectedly beaten the last time out by Arcade, while it was doubtful j if the result was a true bill, it encouraged the belief among those with the "will to believe" that she would not train on and her chances for the three-year-old classics could be discounted. But this still left Dio-[ phon to be considered. His certificate was also disfigured by a defeat — in the Hopeful Stakes by Woodend, to which he was giving fuorteen pounds and Which beat him by a short head. Again the American stain j but the manner of his defeat left it impossible for any ponderable critic to count him out of it for 1924. The returns from his first outing indicate that he possesses true classic form. But, of course, they do not guarantee that he will win the Derby. All too many Two Thousand winners have failed in that end?avo- more than one colt whose name will live in history. The game finish that Diophon mad" in the Two Thousand will, however, color the assumption that he is as able to go that add!- j tional half mile as anything that he will have to meet at Epsom. Whenever any of the descendants of Orby does something brilliant — something that they appear to have acquired the habit of — my mind always goes bacc to the Derby that he won, that of 1907, at odds of 100 to 9. Never in the history of the "blue ribbon of the turf" was its outcome received with such freezing disapproval and bitterness of contempt. For once Admiral Rous famous dictum thafAll men are equal, on the turf and under it," .went for naught. Royalty was present, and from times im- memorial it had been the established custom for royalty to shake the hand of the winners owner and felicitate him on his triumph — the all-supreme one that the world of sport can offer. But royalty simply turned its back upon this particular owner and refused even to recognize his existence. The whilom boss of Tammany Hall "led back" his colt in stony silence through a crowd of i lowering faces which looked upon his victory as one of these flagrant event which can only be stoically endured upon their occurrence and thereafter lived down as quickly and as completely as possible. SNEERED AT ORBY. Times revenges, however, have a fashion of disregarding human arrangements. The prophets and the pundits who self-electedly measure out greatness at Newmarket, pro- i claimed that the victory of Orby "meant nothing." A recent removal has buried my scrap-books full fathom five, or I could regale the reader of these comments with a choice bouquet of sneers and condemnations of the 1 , son of Rhoda B. And today his blood is one ■ of the most sought-after strains in Great ; Britain, and season after season its roster of classic winners grows and grows! Last season alone no less than eight of its representatives won important stake events in 1 England and Ireland. If Diophon is up to winning the Derby he will complete a chain l of sire Orby, 1907, son Grand Parade. , 1919, and grandson that have accomplished that feat. Mr. Coussell will, I presume, duly present the salient features of the race for the Two Thousand, wilh the pertinent facts about the winner and his ancestry, and I will not in 1 any way attempt to forestall him, except to , say that Diophon is one of the first crop of , the produce of Grand Parade, whoso success J as a sire has been immediate. It is another indication that the Bend Or line is keeping ; right on and is due for another season of preeminence.
