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HYPERION— AN IDOL FALLS j By SALVATOR While the Epsom Derby is rightfully considered "the worlds greatest race" and is the overshadowing event of the English flat racing season, to many sportsmen no other race of the year on the other side equals in interest that for the Ascot Gold Cup. It is really the feature of the annual meeting at "Royal Ascot, which marks the peak of the season and is foremost as a combined sporting and social event among all those on the racing calendar. There are four days of sport at Ascot and every race run during the meeting is a stake of rich value, every day having not merely one but several which are of semi-classic character. Of them all, however, the Gold Cup is the outstanding fixture. Founded in 1808 and contested annually ever since with the exception of the two World War years of 1915 and 1916, it has in the course of time come to be accepted as the supreme test of Englands all-aged performers over a distance of ground — it is a contest of two and one-half miles. Especially it is the ambition of the owner of a Derby winner to the next season add the Ascot Gold Cup to the "Blue Ribband of the Turf" and then retire his hero to the stud in triumph. The glamor attached to victory in both these races is simply immense — the prestige attached to the winning of the "triple crown" 2,000 Guineas, Derby and St. Leger, great as it is, being in some ways less. The first horse that ever accomplished this feat was that phenomenon of almost 100 years ago, The Flying Dutchman, one of the grandest performers ever seen. In 1849 he won the Derby and in 1850 the Ascot Cup. He was then owned by Lord Eglinton, but later on was exported to France, where lie founded through his son, Dollar, one of the principal male lines of the French stud book — Epinard, the international celebrity, also the renowned Ksar and many other modern stars of the Gallic turf come from this line, while collaterally it is equally prominent. Also, before he left England, The Flying Dutchman begot there a daughter, Flying Duchess, which produced the great progenitor, Galopin. sire of the unequaled St. Simon, whose blood is everywhere today in the worlds breeding fabric. The next horse to achieve this "double" was one as celebrated as The Dutchman — no less an one than West Australian. "The West," as he was familiarly called as a three-year-old in 1854 was the first colt to win the "triple crown," and as four-year-old he took the Ascot Cup, the two placed horses being Kingston and Rataplan, both titans of the turf and later eminent sires. Like The Dutchman, West Australian was also Bold to go to France, but before leaving England he got two sons whose fame will never die. One of them was brought to the U. S. A. as a suckling beside his dam and proved to be imported Australian, the founder in this country of the line which has culminated in Fair Play and that horses sons, Man o War, Chance Play, Chatterton, My Play and the rest of that glittering galaxy. The other was called Solon. Like Australian, he was not wanted in England and went to Ireland, where he got the unbeaten Barcaldine, another founder whose line is one of the leaders of the present day in both Europe and America. The third Derby and Ascot Cup winner was another extraordinary horse — Thorman-by. He took the Derby in 1860 and the Cup in 1861. After retiring to the stud Thor-manby became one of Englands leading sires and is today distinguished as the sire of Atlantic, another horse sent to France, where he founded the line today so prominent «n both sides of the Atlantic through his direct descendants Le Sancy, Roi Herode, The Tetrarch, Tetratema, etc., etc. With three such instances as this to start off with, it is no wonder that breeders began to have an almost superstitious regard for horses able to accomplish the Epsom-Ascot "double." Since their day the following animals have followed in their foosteps: » GLADIATEUR— Derby 1865, Ascot Cup 1866; BLUE GOWN— Derby and Ascot Cup, both in 1868 as a three-year-old, being the first horse to perform that feat; CRE- MORNE— Derby 1872, Ascot Cup 1873; DONCASTER— Derby 1873, Ascot Cup 1875-as a five-year-old; ST. GATIEN— Derby 1884, in a dead heat with Harvester, stakes divided, Ascot Cup 1383; ISINGLASS -Derby 1893, Ascot Cup 1895— as a five-year-old; PERSIMMON — Derby 1896, Ascot Cup 1897; BAYARDO— Derby 1909, Ascot Cup 1910; GAY CRUSADER and GAINSEOROUGH, both of which won both the Derby and the Cup as three-year-olds, in 1917 and 1918. Since 1918 England has not produced a horse capable of winning both these stakes, of which the Derby seals three-year-old and the Cup aged supremacy on the British turf. That is a period of no less than sixteen years and to many has indicated that in recent times the English thoroughbred is not holding his own in point of class. But this year all England confidently expected that another hero of the coveted "double" would be crowned. Hyperion, the unbeaten three-year-old of 1933, when he won both the Derby and the St. Leger, was to esfcay for it. He had a wonderful tradition behind him in addition to his proved class — for he is by Gainsborough, which horse won both Derby and Cup as a three-year-old in 1918, being the last winner of both races; while Gainsborough, in turn, is by Bayardo, winner of the Derby of 1909, and the Gold Cup in 1910 when four. Bayardo stood in turf history as the only horse that had won both events and then sired a horse to win them both — a unique record, truly glorious. Previous to this years Ascot Gold Cup race, which was run on June 20, Hyperion, which had been pointed especially for it, had started in two minor stakes and won them both. He therefore went to the post a tremendous favorite, the odds being less than even money against him — 8 to 11. The report published in Daily Racing Form the next day told of his crushing defeat — he was well placed at the turn for home but when asked to "come on" in the stietch, faltered and finished third, ten or a dozen lengths behind the leader, Felicitation, a long shot that at post time was hardly conceded any kind of a chance. So fell with a resounding crash a colt that has been regarded as one of the greatest thoroughbreds seen in England during the present century. He apparently had no excuse. His preparation had been most satisfactory, he went to the post in what was considered top form, he was the son and grandson of two horses that had both won the Cup before him; his dam was by Chaucer, whose sire, St. Simon, had won it; his grandam was by Minoru, whose sire, Cyllene, had also won it. Almost nobody believed that anything else in the it.ee had the ghost of a show to beat him. And he finished a bad third, ten or a dozen lengths up the course! The uncertainties of horse racing and horse breeding were perhaps never before ! so strikingly exemplified. It was one of those | things that would not have been considered — , possible until it had taken place. I To increase the perplexity that such a re-[ suit presents, take the case of the winner. Felicitation, which triumphed so impres-! sively, had never before won a race of any , real account! His form at two was fair, but ; the biggest event placed to his credit, the i Middle Park Plate, was given to him only j after the actual winner, Manitoba, had been ! disqualified. Last year, at three, he did not win a single race! Hyperion left him far up the stretch in the Derby and in the St. Leger was only cantering to beat him. At ! the end of that season he was placed ninth only in the annual three-year-old Freeftal dicap. But, in the language of the sB j Look at him now! »H Felicitation is by the dead Colorado, H the Bend Or line— a line that the breedingH sharps have been denouncing for an alleged deficiency of stamina for over fifty years. That theory received a pretty severe setback when the great Invershin, an inbred | Bend Or. won the Ascot Gold Cup twice in j succession in 1928 and 1929. Now Felicitation has again given it a punch on the solar I plexus.
