The Russley Team.

Otago Witness, Issue 956, 16 May 1889, Page 26

The Russley Team.

In 1859 Prince 1 left Mr Merry, and thenceforth 'Matthew had it all his own Way at Russley; and to him alone belongs all the credit and the glory of Thormanby's brilliant two-year-old performances, with his Derby and A^cpt Cup in the following years. Especially, , was Thormanby one of his own triumphs and pleasantest memories, for not only did he enjoy with him the good fortune of leading back to scale his first' Derby winner, and of beating the then acknowledged head of the trainer's art, John Scott, with, his Two Thousand, Wizard, but it was entirely through his'judgment and discernment that the colt was introduced into,. Mr Merry's team. It was jefet after Sunbeam's Leger that Mr Dawson met with Mr Plummer, his breeder, in the town, who had been unsuccessful In finding a'bidder for the colt, and begged Mat to come and look at him, and when lie did so he was at once taken with him, and secured him for the member for Falkirk for the trifle of £350; one of the cheapest lots ever picked up in the yearling sale ring, and verily one of the prises out of what' 'r The Druid " so happily called the ".Doncaster 1 Lucky Bag." Next year Dundee' was% nearly as rich a nugget, as Mat got> him for, £170, and he proved a grand two-year-oldi and was esteemed an even better- horse than Thormanby; but his breakdown in' Kettledrum's Derby is historic. Yet, beaten as he was by the colt who, oddly enough^ was the lot immediately preceding him in the sale ring, but who did not take Mat's fancy, inasmuch as Dundee was of Russley parentage, being by Mr Merry's own horse Lord of the Isles, bred from him by Mr Oooksdn, who also bred Kettledrum, there is^cant room for doubt, having regard to thetr ■ respective value at the stud, that Mr Dawson made the better bargain. With the rest of ihe Russley team, with which Mat was identified down to the close of his connection with the stable about 1864-5, we can only deal cursorily, and after mention of Costa,- Sir William, Russley, Folkestone, Lidditfgfeon, Crisis, Buckstone, and Scottish Chief, all more or less distinguished, the last two with the memorable Derbies of Caractacus and Blair Athol—Buckstone again by his exciting struggle with The Marquis, the last of tbd 16 Whitewall Leger winners, and both by their Ascot Cups in consecutive years —we must pass on to the more eventful period of our subject's history—his establishment at Heath House, and the era of his greatest triumphs under the banner of the Lord of Mereworth. Previous to his taking over