"PETER ST. ALBANS."

Otago Witness, Issue 2320, 18 August 1898, Page 31

"PETER ST. ALBANS."

The death of Peter Bowdren, at the age of 35 years, recalls recollections of the St. Albans stable in its most successful clays. Bowdren, most racing men are aware, was the real name of the light-weight "P. St. Albans," who rode for Mr James Wilson in the late seventies. He was the fashionable light-weight of the day, and very soon came to be entrusted with the stcoring of a Derby favourite. I think, writes the sporting editor of the Australasian, that St. Albans s first win was gained at Geelong, in February 1876, when he rode the two-yoar-old Newcastle, 5.0, and won the Maiden Plate by 30 lengths. That autumn he was winning races on Briseis in Sydney, and in the spring he had two mounts, and won the Melbourne Cup on | Briseis and the Flying Stakes on Savanaka. i At this time Yeomane and Hales were doing y most pi tho rjdma fos ib.s ((table, and gfc*

Albans only got one mount at the Autumn meeting. Tho first iace I saw St. Albans ride was on Savanaka, when the little grey was so unluckily beaten by Chester, in the Melbourne Cup of 1877. The pace at which Sava. finished was something to marvel at, but he could not quite get up, and Chester won by half a head. Waxy had fallen in front of Savanaka, and the ground lost through this accident cost Mr Herbert Power the race and a splendid stake. In 1878 St. Albans was again on the Melbourne Cup favourite This time it was Melita, who ran badly, bul her jockey rode fivo winners at tho A.J.C. Autumn meeting that season, and "Augur" wrote of him: "The lad St. Albans is a more accomplished artist than three-fourfchs of the adults. Mr Wilson possesses a treasure in the lad he has named after his establishment, the youngster being a capital second edition of Mr Wilson's eldest son James." In 1879 St. Albans did not lide in the Melbourne Cup, but in 1880 Hales v/as engaged for Mr Long, and St. Albans rode Progress in both the Derby and Cup. As everyone knows, Grand Flaneur won both races, and in the Sydney Cup Mr Long and Mr Branch changed jockeys, with the result that Hales won on Progress, and St. Albans was third with The Wandering Jew. After this season St. Albans gradually dropped out, and C. Moore became known as the stable light-weight. On giving up riding, St. Albans did a little training, the best horse he ever had being Foiest King, who ran second to Gnaroo in the Caulfield Cup of 1891. There is no doubt that as a light-weight Peter St. Albans was full of promise, but like a number of other youngsters who have displayed phenomenal promise at the outset of their career, he did not " train on." This was no fault of his own, as he was a steady, hard- woi king lad. He simply grew out of his riding with age, and scores of other lightweights ha*-e done the same thing.