WHAT WIL JOHN SAY?

NZ Truth, Issue 1228, 13 June 1929, Page 13

WHAT WIL JOHN SAY?

Sequel To The Alleged Mix-up With Prince Humphrey

There is liable to be something doing when the keeper of the ■• Australian stud book makes his report, on the identity of last year's A. J.O. Derby winner, Prince Humphrey.

SHOULD the breeding not coincide with that given m all faith, it .will be too late to upset any doings on. the Derby, but where will John Brown come m;? He gave 2600 guineas for a Valais colt that was sold as, a half-brother to . Prince Humphrey. ) . All thoroughbreds are more or less related, but the relationship between , John Brown's colt and the Derbywinner will, amongst punters, be , looked upon as about the same as that , of two men who are both descended • from Adam. . John has money to burn, but he i doesn't care about burning it on horses i that are wrongly described. He is the . type of man who would sooner give away a hundred than be beaten for; a fiver on a deal. He gave £1000 more for this colt than was given for any other Valais at the sale, and he gave it ; because he thought he was get-: • ting a half-brother to a Derby . winner. Some of John's intimate friends say that lie is not going- to take this I knock; lying down. He gave at least a thousand more for this colt than the animal would have fetched if he had been catalogued under his correct pedigree, and no one can blame him if he feels that he has been done m the eye for a thousand.

No blame attaches to Alf. Thompson, breeder of the colt, for he sold him m pei'fect! faith as ' half-brother to a Derby winner, and there is a clause. in the, auctioneer's conditions that no error of misdeseription shall annul the sale. But there was a case the other, day where a picture was sold for 30,000 guineas as the work of a celebrated artist, and when it turned out to be by another artist, the vendor had to take it back. John Brown has his hands pretty full just now, what with strikes and his stud at Gundagai, and his prize bumble bees. . , He has not made any statement of ; what he. intends to do, and nothing can be done till the Stud-book Keeper 'makes his report. The colt has been broken m, and ia ■working at Randwick under Frank ■McGrath's charge, but McGrath knows nothing about the owner's intentions. Others, however, who know. John Brown, say that he is : peeved over giving £4000 for a full-brother to Windbag, which has turned out. a dud, and now, to put the lid on it, he has given an. 'extravagant price for a colt that is quite likely wrongly described. If John asks the breeder* to take him back, will he also ask him to . pay the breaking m and training /' expenses incurred while he had the supposed half-brother to Prince Humphrey?