THE LUCK OF IT.

Writing of the viptory o£ Spearmint m the English Dei by, "Rapier," m tho "Sporting and Dramatic News," gives another instance of the sheer luck feat controls the lottery of horse buying. He says :— There were, indeed, some highly promising lots tha<; Thursday afternoon, yearlings that were expeoted to make big prices and.- did. so. There was a very food-looking son of Ayrshire and Lady Alwync, for whom Mr Henning gave 2,200 guineas ; a son of Gallinulo and Scandal— Gal's Gossiptempted Mr Freeman to .pay 1,250 guineas ; Lord . Wesfcbury stuck to Wiseton (Florizel It.— Bonnie Morn) till ho got him for 1,050 guineas, and the very next lot was the son of Carbine and Maid of the Mint, whom Major Eustace Loder secured for 300 guineas. No one thought much of him, for some cracks were coming immediately afterwards, and three of the next four lots were the brown filly by' St. Simon— Tragedy, 2,100 guineas ; brown filly by. Persimmon— Wedlock, 1,000 'guineas ; and brown filly by. Gallinule— Tiercq, 3,600 guineas. The "cracks" m question have turned ou<; practically worthless for racing, and the 300-guinea yearling has won the Derby ■! Second best of the lot sold ifasA expensive afternoon was the son of Royal Hampton and Altessc, Tilis Eminence, for whom Lord Howard dc Walden gave 370 guineas. MajoE Eustace Loder put Spearmint into tho Derby, cheap as he was, because ho enters liberally— he did not tell me lib is,- but I suspect— he thought ifi would perhaps be- well to have an outsider m" the race to shepherd and make running for his highly promising colt, Admirable Crichton. Says the "Akaroa Mail" : "Mr Robert Fleming, of Port Levy, lost a valuable bull the other day m a most peculiar way.- His son, Mr Wynn Fleming, went into the paddock carrying a hammer, intending to loosen the wires and 1 let the beast into, an adjoining paddock, when the bull charged him. Mr Wynn, being an active and fearless young man, threw *^he hammer and slipped aside. The hammer struck the . beast on the forehead and he dropped. On examination, he was found to be quite dead." And yet the writer has himself fired two bullets from a snider carbine slap into the "tuft" of a mad bullock, without killing him. The second dropped him, but before the knife could be used he was up and charging worse than ever ; and it took - a third shot to bring him down. All three bullets entered the same hole m the middle-, of •us lofty brow, too.