GRATITUDE AND HER OWNER.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 9988, 18 March 1898, Page 2

GRATITUDE AND HER OWNER.

How Gratitude just lost the Cesarewitah and a latge sum of backing money for her owner, who afterwards became one of Canterbury's wealthiest landed proprietors and racing men, has often been told in n. more or less romantic way. Mr A. E. [T. Watson (formerly for many years sportiug editor of the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News) is the latest to tell the story, which he does in " Eacing and Chasing" just published by Messrs Longmans and Co. London Sporting Times, xa referring to the publication, says :—Much of the work is drawn from imagination, but based, we believe, in many instances on facts. Though so generally reliable, Mr Watson sometimes trips when he has to deal with faots, and this is notably the case in his highly-wrought account of the race'for the Cesarewitch of 1864, and what it meant for the owner of the defeated candidate. This is the most spirited bit of writing in the whole book, and the termination of the incident is most dramatically told. We append it :—

" There was onoe a man who went to Australia to seek his fortune, and who, after long and arduous struggles and privations, sncceeded in his endeavour. He oame back to England, where • things did not go well with him, and at length it oame to the point that all his future depended on a mare he had in the Cesarewitch. He backed her for all the money that was left him. If she won, well and good; he would settle down to the life he loved—that of a country gentleman with plenty to spend when he made those little excursions to town which are so agreeable a break to the rural existence. If she were beaten he would have just enough lefu to pay his passage back to Australia, there to begin all his toil again. One can imagine his sentiments as, the day of the race which meant so very much to him having at length arrived, he watched the horses come into sight, come nearer and nearer, as he saw one after the other drop away beaten, the mare that carried all his hopes going strong and well, comfortably holding her own. 'Gratitude wins!' impnlsive members of the crowd begin to shout. ' Come on Gratitude !' and it seems that she is winning easily. All the rest are beaten except one that struggles on gallantly, and though Gratitude appears to be going the stronger of the two, her victory is not absolutely assured; at least, her jockey sees that a final effort is necessary. Under pressure sEe shoots ahead when a few strides from the post, and 'Gratitude's won! , is shouted with increasing confidence. But the rider of the other is an artist; he has reserved something for the one final rush, and for that something he now calls. So they flash past the post, and voluble spectators interested in the result declare that Gratitude or the other has won, according as their hopes are fathers to their belief. No one except the judge can say for certain. So deceptive are the angles on this wide coarse that from points of view, even near the post, horses that are well behind eeem well in front. On the judge's board all eyes are eagerly—many feverishly—fastened. Will it be No. 7, Gratitude; or has the other's rush succeeded —will it be No. 13? After five seconds, that seem to be fifteen minutes, the number, is put on the frame and hoisted.

"It is ' 13.' Gratitude is beaten. ' Almost a dead heat; the other just got up in the last stride,' is the report of the judge, inflexible Rhadamanthus; and so, for Gratitude's owner, good-bye to England, home, and beauty. That he should cave patted the mare's neck when he sorrowfully met her in the birdcage after the race says very much for the goodness of his heart. She had done her best for him, and now must pass into other hands, instead of leading the life of ease be had pictured for her—happy summers beneath the pleasant shade of leafy branches in the spacious p&ddock that would have been her home." '

We have heard the same .story of the "ruin" of Mr Robinson told before (continues the Sporting Time*), bat whether Mr Watson originated it or copied it we do not know. The pioiore is aaob i pretty one, the owner

playing his last stake, patting his mare a neck, and leaving old England for ever to spend the remainder of hie days in r cugger s hut, that we feel almost sorry at having to shatter it, bat shatter it we must. Mr Rouinbod, who was a large sheep farmer, so fur i torn being ruined by the defeat of Gratitude, made a bold bid for the Derby of the following year, his horse, Kltham, running third to Gladiatenr and Christmas Carol, and with the same horse he won the Queen's Vase at Ascot, after running a dead heat with Breeze. Hβ was, too, a very large winner when Gratitude carried off the Koyal Hunt Cup at Ascot, and this a year after the defeat t&at is said to have pulverised him; and that he was present with his eternal cigar slump we know, as we saw and spoke to him. In the same year Gratitude again ran second for the Cesarewitch; but this time the! owner did not lose anything on har, and all that Jame3 Waugh, who trained her, backed her for 200 to 10 for a plaoe. As for himself, we should doubt very muoh that the defeat of Gratitude meant a "digger's hut and a hard portion," as Mr Watson states, because in the first place ho was nos a digger. That he died a few years ago, not in a digger's hat, but as the Honourable W. Kobinson, member of the Legislature of NewZealand, we know.