SPORTING NOTES.

Evening Star, Issue 9542, 13 November 1894, Page 2

SPORTING NOTES.

[From Our Special Correspondent.] London, September 21. throstle's victory. Be the owner of a successful outsider rich as Croesus and straight as the proverbial die he yet shall not escape calumny. Ever since Leger Day the "dead sharp" in town and village all over England has been admiring Lord Alington's supposed coup with Throstle. Even at the clubs, where men should know better, there is a tendency to hint it was " doosed well managed, don't yer know." As a matter of straightforward fact, the most surprised persons on the course when Throstle headed Ladas were John Porter and his employers. After the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood they fancied the filly for a time, and a small Leger commission in her favor was worked at an average of 100 to 6. Then she was tried with Matchbox (the colt giving away 141b), and beaten all to pieces. This seemed too bad to be true, so another test gallop was fixed up. At the second time of asking Throstle bolted. No sane owner could trust her after this, especially as on Leger Day her coat was rough and stating, and her temper and internal arrangements upset. John Porter begged permission for his second string to be walked straight from the paddock to the post, so the filly took no part in the preliminary canter. Morny Cannon says she was sulky, and declined to go in the early part of the race. When, however, Common's sister did take hold of her bit she flew over the ground, and her tussle with Ladas was magnificent. The Kingsclere folks stood an immense stake on Matchbox, even John Porter having £SO (the outside sum he ever bets) on the crack. Lord Alington accepted 1,000 to 20 Throstle simply in order to persuade Peach to lay him a bit more Matchbox. Baron Hirsch's colt was, in fact, far and away first favorite for money. "Full against Matchbox" one heard on every side, whereas Ladas seemed easy, " evens " being offered in the big ring against the Derby winner. The fact of Moray Cannon being up on Throstle knocked the bottom out of most- of the books in the big and the silver rings. Cannon had splendid luck on Tuesday, riding four winners in succession, and thousands of small punters consequently stood his mounts on Wednesday. It must not, however, be thought that these geutry got 50 to 1. Your small "bookie" never lays such prices, but the 15's and 20's to 1 he noted several times over were quite enough to spoil for him what should have been a good race. In TattersaH'B the owner of Maundy Money (whom Throstle beat in the Nassau Stakes) backed Lord Alington's filly to win £5,000, and Robert Peck stood her 1, 2. Neither of these gentlemen, however, knew about the home trials, or they would have kept their money in their pockets. The race was, in one sense, not unlike Hermit's Derby, when, you may remember, Marksman devoted so rauoh attention to beating Vauban that his mount had nothing left wherewith to challenge the outsider who bore down in the last hundred yards. This seemed to be Ladas's case. As on previous occasions he fairly bested Matchbox, but he had no staying power left to stall off the despised Throstle. John Corlett suggests that if Loates had ridden Ladas as Archer did Galliard in his Guineas struggle with Goldfield, or Melton in his magnificent Derby finish with Paradox, the result of the Leger might have been different. He says: " Possibly if Ladas had, been ridden in any other way in the St. Leger he would have been beaten further than he was, and we merely give expression to an idea, rather than as suggesting that there was anything wanting in the horsemanship of LoateSj when we say that if he had been ridden as Archer rode Melton in the Derby, and as Ford ham was wont to finish on a speedy horse that eould be nicely placed, he might have won. With Fordham nothing would have been seen of Ladas until the hurricane rush at the finish. One of the things for which Ladas will be most remembered is the extraordinary manner in which after waiting he joins the leaders. You direct your glasses o» him and see him a long way behind. You then look to see what 80in« of the others are doing, and then turn to Ladas again ; but where is .he, where has he got to ? Surely that cannot be him at the head of the field ? Only an instant ago he was last. It is Ladas, however, all the sirne. What surprised us most at Doncaster was, after running a waiting race, -to see him come out with the lead halfway between the intake turn and the stand, at which point he seemed to have well won. Bob Basham, who rode Knight of St. George when he won the St. Leger, and who had a good experience of Doncaßter, once told us that there was no other course on which a jockey could afford to wait so long. How Aroher beat Paradox for the Derby with Melton we will attempt to convey as nearly as we can reoaljecfc in bis own words. Said he ; ' You know I had been on the back of , Paradox, and knew what a beggar he was to ( stop when he found himself in frcnt. When, , after passing Tattenham Corner, I aaw the I ] others dripping away from him, I knewh what a tangle Fred Webb would soon be in. <

It was jMt m I expected when he mi left with the lead, and I determined not to go near him, aa I knew that directly I raced alongside him, on he would go again; and beat roe, as he wonld run longer than mine would. I left him there until we were nearly at the winning-post, when I gave Melton two of the sharpest cuts with the whip I ever gave a horse, and at that moment we were on the winning post Directly Paradox saw Melton with his head in front, on he came again, and in another stride he had done me, but we were then past the winning post, and I had won by a head.' We think it is just possible that if Ladas had not attempted to come to the front until he was within a fcfew lengths of home that he would have won. Looking at the pace he would have been travelling, however, and if under the circumstances he had been beaten, it would have been on every tongue ' a chucked away race! If Loates had come earlier he could not have lost, he was going as fast again at the finish as the winner !' and so forth." OTHER EACES AT DONCASTER. Of the fifteen runners for the popular northern scurry called the Portland Plate, of 725 sovs, on Thursday, Captain Machell's Erin (4 yrs, 7.10), Mr Vyner's Cunctator (3 yrs, 7.5), and the Duke of Wetminster's Grey leg (3 yrs, 8.11) were, with Mr Desmonds Sweet Auburn (3 yrs, 7.12), most fancied. The latter was never formidable, but Cunctator led the van to the distance. Here he was beaten, and Erin, looking all over the winner, came on, pursued by Grey Leg. Opposite the big ring odds were freely betted on Captain Machell's colt. Morny Cannon, the invincible, would not, however, be denied; he rode like a young demon, and getting Grey Leg's head in front of Erin in the last few strides won by a neck, Mr Manton's Mecca (3 yrs, 7.7) close up, third. Betting: Bto 1 Grey Leg, 100 to 14 Erin, and 10 to 1 Mecca. That the Leger form as regarded Ladas and Matchbox was not far wrong Friday showed us, as in the Park Hut Stakes the Oaks winner Amiable, who finished half a length behind Baron Hirsch's £15,000 purchase on Wednesday, easily gave 51b and a good beating to Sarana, Lady Normanton, Spingray, aud Alice Lisle. The Doncaster Cup proved the good thing it looked for Sir R. W. Griffiths's Sweet Duchess (by Hagioscope—Grand Duchess), who beat Portland, Self-sacrifice, and five others without an effort. All the Hagioscopes are splendid stayers, and you might with advantage import some of his progeny, which as yet do not fetch fancy prices. . TIIE SALES. Though the prices at the Doncaster yearling sales were respectable they were in no sense remarkable, 2,000gs being the highest figure reached. At this rate Captain Machell bought a very handsome brown coit by Rosebery out of Empress Maud, and Mr Wallace Johnstone secured the highlybred black coit by Galopin out of Mimi. Sir J. B. Maple gave l,6oogsfor a brown colt by Saraband—The Bat, and Charles Wood 1,800 for a nice filly by Kendal—Chrysalis. M. Lebaudy bid up to l,Boogs for Curfew Chime (by Hagioscope—Mosque), and Earlthorpe(byßendOr—Jersey Lily) was cheap to I'Anson at 1,400g5. Probably, however, the best bargains of the week will prove to bcthe black filly by Barcaldine out of Elizabeth, for which J. Cannon gave 800gs ; and Rhodope, by Common out of the speedy Rosy Morn, which Mr Hamar Bass bought for 600 only. THE LATE ALEC TAYLOR. Old Alec Taylor, who succumbed to a long illness at Man ton last week, was one of the ancient school of trainers, and opposed to all modern innovations. He had very independent ideas, and if his clients didn't like them they ceased to be his clients. That redoubtable old lady, the Duchess of Montrose, held Alec Taylor in great respect. He was, unlike most of her servants, not the least afraid of her, and when she scolded he returned her home truths quite as good as she gave. For many years after Mr Stirling Crawfurd's death the Duchess periodically removed her horsca from Manton and sent them back again there. For his old patron's sake Alec Taylor stood the tempers and whimsies of his relict. When, however, Her Grace bestowed 'ier venerable hand on her present spouse there was a permanent breach. "I am used," Alec is reported to have said, "to your Grace's peculiarities, but I canna stand being ordered about by a young whippersnapper as might be my grandson !" The Duchess being several years older than Alee, this was, as servants say, " a nasty one.'' Alec Taylor's first Derby winner was Teddington, who he trained for Sir Joseph Hawley, and that same year (1851) he carried off the One Thousand with Aphrodite, the Ascot Stakes with Vatican, the Great Yorkshire with Confessor, and the Doncaster Cap with The Ban. Though it was not till Sefton followed up an unexpected City and Suburban victory by landing the Derby itself in 1878 that Alec Taylor repeated the Teddington coup, he was on several occa sions very near securing the blue riband. In 1866 Savernake was only beaten a head by Lord Lyon, and in 1872 the Fyfield outsider Brother to Flurry (subsequently named Pall Mall) was within an ace of overturning a tremendous pot in Cremorne. Besides the Derby, Alec Taylor won the Oaks for Mr Crawfurd with Thebais, and the Leger with Craig Millar. Thebais subsequently rau second for the City and Suburban, and won the Liverpool Cup under 9st 41b. She had the Cambridgeshire of 1882 at her mercy, but the Duchess scratched her, and thereby hangs a tale too long to tell here. Alec Taylor always played a strong hand in the autumn handicaps, but he was not lucky. Perhaps tfce worst stroke which ever befell the stable occurred in 1886. Thes, with not merely Cesarewitch but the Cambridgeshire at their mercy, they missed both. Carlton (3 yrs, 6.13) was—as not, merely his trial but his subsequent career showed—a dead certainty for the Cambridgeshire, and how he came to run third only puzz'es people to this day. The cob, too, ougK to have won the Cesarewitch, but the Cst boy riding tired to nothing, and when Stone Chink bore down with a wet Hail he could not set his horse going again.