THE DERBY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15649, 1 July 1914, Page 5

THE DERBY.

VICTORY OP FRENCH-BRED COLT. "A MADDENED FAVOURITE." London papers to hand by yesterday's mail bring fail details of the nice for tho English Derby at Epsom on May 28. From tho Daily Telegraph wo extract the following:— The King and Queen and everybody saw an astonishing Derby. It was a race that seemed to leave a mighty crowd of people cold. It was a silent Derby; anything approaching unbounded enthusiasm was entirely and completely absent, there was just one little, half-shy cheer when Mr. H. B. Duryea's Durbar 11. finished first, three lengths in front of the neat and natty Hapsburg, with Mr. H. J. King's Peter tho Hermit, who, by the way, was not among (lie probables, third. It was not the sorry lailure of Kenriymore, the favoiujito, that t.Uuidi the people ; no one would begrudge such a fine sportsman a, Mr. Duryea his succor; rather was it because they found themselves in a foreign Derby atmosphere There was some subtle, indefinable influence at work that made them strangely phlegmatic. They were a tense, apprehensive, and not a joyous people. The possibility of trouble by the suffia- , gettes robbed them of a sense of freedom. Happily there was no repitition of the | lamentable occurrence of a year ago. | though just before the Derby was run a ! young woman, whose name is said to be j Ada Rice, fired a pistol at a policeman I when she, with others, was requested to I leave the course. She was promptly seized and led away, fortunately without I a scene or commotion, and on'y th so I who wero on the spot had the faintest ■ notion of whit had happened. Still, the day long one could not free oneself from ; the possibility of trouble. Wild woman ! became an obsession, and left people, accustomed to make ,i rollicking holiday of the Derby, suilcn. It was a Derby crowd, one might say with only the least exaggeration, that was in a temper—a j crowd that would have been happy, but I couldn't.

Because of its colour, its vastness, and I because of ea:h,and every class of people |it embraced, the scene long before tlin j Derby was :-un was a magnificent one. | Only at Epsom and only on Derby Day ; could tho lik" of it have been. Each and I every stand was packed ; on the hill op- ' posit* the Royal box there seemed to have I sprung up a little world that was shut : off from fo many other little worl Is. | And at Tottenham Corner there appeared l*' be wort neopie than ever before. ! When tie Derby candidates entered I the paddock Sir John Thursby's coir, Kennymor?— strikingly magnificen' horse—came in for most attention, aw though them was some fear regarding hir temper, he was never in any danger of being deposed from the position of i favourite. Tho field of 30 saddled up to contest the blue ribinC was the largest since Hermit's year in 1667. When Unhorses filed on to the course in one lor,: line, with His Majesty's Brakespear at the he.id, the spectacle was a truly imposing one. THE RACE. i THE DERBY STAKES of 6500s<w, for I three-year-olds: nominator of winner, i receives 500sovs, second <10Qsovs, and ! third 200sovs. About one mile and a half. Mr. H. B. Duryea's Durbar 11., by Rabelais— (M. Macgec) ... 1 Sir E. Cassel'a Hapshurg, by Desmond I —Altcsse (C. Foy) 2 I Mr. H. J. King's Peter the Hermit, by St. Petersburg—Carlin (R. Watson) 3 Lord Derby's Dan Russell 4 Lord St. Davidsia My Prince 5 j His Majesty's Brakespear 6 'Mr. J. B. Joel's Black Jester 7 I Lord Carnarvon's Magyar 8 'Mr. E. Tanner's Carancho 9 [ Mr. L. Neumann's Lanius 10 I Sir J. Thursby's Kennymoro li [ Duke of Portland's Anglesey 0 Sir Abe Bailey's Ambassador ... ... 0 | Mr. H. P. Nicalls's Best Boy 0 ! Colonel Hall Walker's Carrickforgua... 0 \ Mr. W. N. McMillan'*; Corval 0 Mr. J. W. Larnach's Conquoror ... 0 Mr. W. Clark's Om-v.geous 0 Mr. A. Aumont's Cu'judon -•■ ••■ 0 Mr. Halm's Desmonds Song 0 Mr. K. Jones's Evansdale 0 Mr. George Edwardes's Flying Orb ... 0 Mr. J. Buchanan's Marten '0 Mr. W. Brodrick-Cloete's Orebi ... 0 Mr. Russel's Polycrates , 0 Mr. F. Marsham-Townshend's Polygamist 0 Mr. L. de Rothschild's St. Gutlilac ... 0 Colonel E. W. Baird's Shopherd King 0 Mr. Tatem's Southerndown ... ... 0 Mr. Hulton's Woodwild ... 0

There was a tiresome delay at the post. The starter, Mr.' Willoughby, had to deal with a situation such as * his predecessors in office* never had knowledge of. Hero were $0 overwrought thoroughbreds being squeezed into a narrow lane, and as temper and fright among them are infections, it was not long before some of them had lai.hed themselves into a hopeless state of hi 7. If the starter had waited for them ' ail to draw up in a solid, unbroken line, he and the 30 would have been there yet. The longer he waited the worse the situation became.' For a time Kennymore war. fairly sober. Then the favourite began to break out. Ho started by making little rushes backwards and to swing aid pivot on his hind legs. Time after time O'Neill brought him back to the bad position ho had drawn on the outside. Fifteen minutes passed, and by that time lie was thoroughly roused. He shied and jumped away from the dense crowds lining the rails on either side of the course hereabouts. The long ordeal of the mobbing: in the paddock, the solemn parade, and the slow progress across the thicklypoplated ravine to the start had begun to tell, and Boon he had given way altogether, and stood out as a maddened favourite. When Mr. Willoughby hac performed the formality of his office by pulling the lover and releasing the horse ■ tvhat a spectacle was there! Instead of leaving in the ideal way each as well served as the other, they began their struggle like horses finishing an irregular cavalry • charge. Nj need was there to look twice for th« ! wc-urite. Kennymore's colours were conspicuous in the rear. The horse had swung round as' the tapes (lew upwards, and had therefore been left. " The favourite's left!" "What a r.orld of dreadful meaning was conveyed by the shouted words, and what, a pang smote upon all who, in the interests of sport, cpart from any ether consideration, wanted to sco him' have a frir chance to justify himself. Tragedy there was enough in Ihat. But that was- not all. The King's Colt, Brakespear, was also left. He had not begun to move when those " first away were a hundred yards in front Polycra'tes, Black Jester,' Flying Orb,' Durbar n., and others all tearing along. At the mile post Brakespear had only one horse behind him. In front of him were 28, and from that point the horse had to be threaded in and out amongst hopeless animals that had no pretensions to be where they were, except that they were eligible through the mero fact of entry. When Tatte'nham Corner was reached Magyar ran wide, and' Black Jester was in command, but when hearts were fairly in a line for home Durbar 11. dashed into the lead, followed by Black Jester, Dan Russell, Hapsburg, Brakespear, and Peter the Hermit, At the distance 'Hapsbug ran into second place, but though he struggled on gamely he could not reach the French' colt, who won easily by three lengths. A length and a-half separatee, second and third Time, 2m 38 2-ss.

It is a popular opinion that in an even start the Kine's colt Brnkespear would have been very close to the Derby wilder if he did not actually re-ich the post first. It was not the horse's fault, pe hid stood the ordeal well, but it \v.i» big overwhelming m:sfortnne when the start took place frr the horses on either sino to close on him like the invert lettw "V." {Tone?, on Brakcspear could not move until they hud first drawn clear, The jockey was crestfallen and crrievouidy disappointed. " There is not an ' if' about it," ho subsequently told Mr. Marsh, the horse's trainer. '' I must havj won easily." He* enormous was the difference'it made, assuming the jockey is correct, as I believe him to lie, can ho left to the imagination of readers, An historic goene would have b?oii enacted through the, first victor)- in the Derby for his [present Majesty.