MISTAKEN IDENTITY

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 128, 1 June 1935, Page 23

MISTAKEN IDENTITY

Almost every stable now shelters a yearling or two, and part of the week's curriculum are the visitations from proud owners, who bring their friends to pass an opinion on the youngsters. This applies more particularly to owners who have never before had a horse, and in such circumstances a great deal of tact is sometimes necessary by those most concerned.

A neat story is going the round (says a Sydney writer), and, to give full credit, it is being propelled by the owner himself, who takes a delight in telling it against himself. He purchased a youngster; it was a bay, and it went to a stable at Randwick where there was another yearling, a chestnut. Arriving unexpectedly one morning with three or four friends, the owner inquired of a stable lad the quarters of the yearlings, and was directed to boxes, there to find a chestnut and a bay in adjoining stalls. "There he is," said the owner, stretching a very careful hand towards the bay's head. The horse met the advance hajf-way. "Look how he has settled down; as contented as could be. Isn't he a quiet one for a colt? He'll make a fortune for me— perhaps," and the owner proceeded to extol the points of the animal. Then the stable lad passed by. The owner in his exuberance must rope him into the admiration party. "My fellow going well?" he asked proudly. "Oh, yes, sir; settling down real well. There he is over there." The party had been examining, an 11-year-old who has run almost as many races as he has hairs in his tail.