but Style in Which St. Races, Tristan by a Series of Admirable
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568 THE BADMINTON MAGAZINE the case ; but it was the style in which St. Simon did his work that provoked justifiable enthusiasm. Before the days of Ten Thousand pounds races, Tristan by a series of admirable performances accumulated in stakes just over po,ooo, which at.the time meant a number of solid victories. To have won the Hardwicke Stakes three years running is really a memorable achievement. On the last occasion he beat Harvester (Archer up), and beat him in a canter, a fortnight after the three-year- old had dead-heated with St. Gatien for the Derby ; but on the previous day, in the Gold Cup, St. Simon had beaten Tristan in the easiest of canters by twenty lengths; indeed, if Wood had cared to make an exhibition of his horse, it is impossible to say by what distance he could not have won. Duke of Richmond, moreover, until his heart was broken by his desperate races in the Hunt Cup, the Wokingham Stakes, and the Stewards’ Cup at Goodwood, in all three of which he was second, was, I am convinced, a much better horse than is gene rally supposed ; and that his friends thought him a really good one was proved by their anxiety to make a match with St. Simon. Between the latter and Ormonde opinions will always differ, and he is a rash man who endeavours to form one. It is a pity that the fame of Isinglass is diminished by his one defeat in the Lancashire Plate at Manchester, and I am rather surprised to find Mr. Dixon stating that Captain Machell, who managed the horse for Mr. (now Colonel) McCalmont, advised the Duchess of Montrose to back Raeburn, who was in receipt of io lb. If this were so the Captain ought to have had a good race, as 9 to 2 was laid against Raeburn, slight odds on Isinglass, with La Fleche separating the two in the market. I always understood, as I have believed on the very best authority, that Isinglass was greatly fancied, with La Fleche regarded as the danger, and that the defeat of Isinglass was solely attribut able to his invincible dislike to make his own running. I suppose ‘the horse of the century' ought not to have any of these dislikes to going in front, to ascents or descents, or to the state of the ground. A man was telling me not long since about a horse in which he had always had a great belief, and which I gathered would have proved a wonderful animal if only all the conditions had suited him. So far as I could make out this animal wanted a left-handed course, just a little on the soft side, with a slight rise at the beginning, level going in the middle of the race, and a little down hill to finish on. Never being able to secure these conditions the animal never won a race ; but, if.