RETIREMENT OF LORD ROSEBERY FROM THE TURF.

Otago Witness, Issue 1296, 30 September 1876, Page 17

RETIREMENT OF LORD ROSEBERY FROM THE TURF.

The retirement of Lord Rosebery from the Turf i» the great topic of conversation of the hour. When the simple announcement was made that at one of the autumn 'meeting* at Newmarket the whole of Lord Rosebery'* racing stud would be brought to the hammer, surprise was universal. 'His lordship does not retire from the Turf a disappointed man. With him it has not been a case of spending thousands and getting back nothing. On the contrary, he retires in the full tide of success. On the very day that the notice appeared, the " rone and primrose " hoops were borne first past the poßt by Controversy in the great hsndicap at Liverpool. The same Controversy, it is understood, has put nearly £30,000 into the pockets of his lordship this season. Only a week or two ago The Snail netted between £10,000 and £12,00u in the Pitman's Derby, and there is the two-year-old Rosbach looking more like being next year's champion than anything we have yet seen. It is the moment when everything looks most rosy and alluring that Lord Rosebery has selected for bidding his adieus. It is well known that he aspires to taking a high position in the political arena, and those who have watched his career in the House of Lords predict for him great things. Only those who have owned or managed a large racing stud .can appreciate the difficulties attending it. Racing is all absorbing, and there is hardly a business that requires from those engaged in it more hard work, close attention, and earnest thought than the apparently •imple task of handicapping and running

horsea. Being the owner of racehorses on a large scale is incompatible with the career of a legislator. A man cannot find time for both pursuits. Lord George Bontinck appreciated thii when at Goodwood he sold his stud in one lot, "from Bay Middletown, the sire, down to little Kitchener, the jockey," for £10,000, and his colours were known no more. Though for the last five or six years Lord Rosebery has been so actively and successfully engaged in Turf pursuits, it was known to the initiated that he had higher things in view. Not many knew, however, that after the hard and tiring days on Newmarket Heath his lordship never missed three or four hours every evening in study ; and that it was at that very unacademical place, Newmarket, he made himself master of Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations." Lord Rosebery is about to pay a third visit to America, and it is whispered that he will not return alone. We shall be curious to see what his stud fetches. Probably one horse will realize as much as Lord George Bentinck obtained for his whole stud — a stud, it must be borne in mind, that contained in Bay Middleton, a giant of the past, and in Surplice, the champion of the future.