PHŒBUS APOLLO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2410, 10 May 1900, Page 37

PHŒBUS APOLLO.

This stallion, bought in England by Mr T\Morrin, was bred in 1893 by Lady Meuxv The pedigree is given elsewhere. Students of the Stud Book will probably say on perns* \ ing the table that Phoebus Apollo is a beauti-fully-bred horse. So he is. So is every other thoroughbred. But* the farce *£ saying that the No. 9 family is the one to cross with the No. 42, or of swearing by any such, formula to the disparagement of other crosses, is illustrated in this very case, for Phoebus Apollo is descended from, horses and mares whose names are familiar as household words. Take any number of the New Zealand Stud' Book, and you will find Flying Dutchman* JKarkaway, lon, West Australian; Sweetmeat, Wild Dayrell, and King Tom mentioned scores of times. The blood of this stallion is the stock blood. Necessarily he is descended from the great horses, and in that respect —that is to say, on pedigree grounds alone —Phoebus Apollo is neither better nor worse than any orse of a hundred other 1 stallions that could be mentioned. I ami not arguing, however, that Mr Morrin's stal« lion is not a superior horse. Though -hisf ancestry is on the old lines, lie claims notice! by being the son of such an eminent horse* as Bt. Simon, and the fact that his maternal graiukire is such a stout customer as Bar- 1 caldine is decidedly a recommendation. Thesel were distinguished horses on their merits* and their merits apart from their blood. By 1, which I mean that the brother and sistetf, theory is nonsense. St. Simon comes fromi. a family that has produced come duffers^ therefore I say that pedigree is not an infallible test; still, St. Simon himself was a great! horse, and ws are lucky to' get a son of hia for use at Wellington. P^rk. 1 What I should like to 'kuow, and what we shall have to waifi and find out. is whether Phcsbus Apollo ia a good-looking horse, and whether he hag the qualities of activity, good temper, ami courage. Meanwhile. I give his chief performances. At Epsom he ran a dead neat with Bach for the Durdans Plate, of 500sovs f nnd at Goodwood won the Chesterfield Cup, of 500sovs, run over the Craven course, defeating a field of a dozer. As a four-year-old Phoebus Apollo won i):e Alexandra Plate,of lOOOsovs, at Doncaster. and at Birmingham* he won the Great Midland" Handicap, ofi 1200sovs, beating a dozen. At five years old he won the Nottingham Handicap, of 500SOVS I,'1 ,' and was second to Sligo for the Alexandra Plate, of 500sovs, and in the Norfolk and Suffolk Handicap, run at Great Yarmouth* lie made a. dead heat of it with The Quack; to whom he was conceding 231b. 1 | I i i , ' I I