THE OLD SIR HERCULES

Otago Witness, Issue 2426, 12 September 1900, Page 39

THE OLD SIR HERCULES

Bar Eclipse, no English thoroughbred i& better known by name than Sir Hercules, yet maybe there aio few who possess a record of his racing career. I supply it as written up recently in England: dir Hercules — a black colt, by Whalebone out of Peri, a mare bvocl by Lord Egremont— was born in 1826, when his mother w"ifS the property of Mr Laing, who told her in 1628, together with her two-year-old son, subsequently named Sir Hercules, to Hercules Rowley, second Baron Langford,_of Summer Hill, in county Meath, Ireland. Sir Hercules ran thrice as a three-year-old in 1829 — once at York spring meeting, where on his first public appearance he won a 20sov sweepstake in a field of six ; and twice at Doncasterj where, on September 15, he finished third to Rowton and Voltaive for the St. Leger, and' on September 18 won a 30sov sweepstakes against two other starters. Next year, as si four-year-old, he won the Claret States, Ditch In, at the "Newmarket Craven sneeting ; and as a five-year-old he started at Liverpool f or; a handicap cup, in which he wa*> not placed. Ho was trained for all his races in Ireland, and. it is said that when John Spott looked him over after the St. Leger of 1829, he remarked that had the horse been trained at WRite'wall he would have been first instead of third. Foimany years he stood as a stallion at Summer Hill, where he became the father of Coronation, the Derby winner in 184-1 : "of Faugh-a-Ballagh. the St. Leger winner in 1841 ; and of Irish Birclcatcher. born in 1833. who was the sire of one winnsr cf the Derby, three winners of the St. Leger, one of the Oajks, and two of the One Thousand Guineas. From The Baron, a son of L'ish Birdeatcher, sprang Stockwell, one of the grandest stallions ever bred in theso islands, to whom we are indebted, among many other superior horses, for Blair Athol, Doncaster. and all their descendants, including Prince Charlie, Silvio, Bend Or, and Ormonde. In 1853, when Sir Hercules was 2T, nrd apparently worn out, he became. the property of Mr E. Phillips, of Bushbury, near Wol< ■verhainpton. who gave a few sovereigns for the old horse. Under the influence of a. little care and good food, he soon revived, and front his union with Snowdrop, by Heron — the first mare put to him by Mr Phillips — sprang Gemma di Vergy. In the same year he got Gunboat out of Yard Arm, by Sheet Anchor ; 'and next year, when 28, he became the progenitor of Lifeboat! from the same mare. Sir Bercules died in 1855, aged 29, at which age Gunboat, his last surviving son, also died, in 1883. No more prepotent sire than Sir Hercules figure? in the pages of the Stud Book ; and to his son, Faugh-a-Ballagii, the sire of Leamington and Fille de lAir, the thoroughbred blood of the United States and of France is deeply indebted. The history of Sir- Hercules,, and of his stock down to the present day, reaches us that, it is eminently desirable to breed from stallions which have not been run to death as two-year-olds — the same maxim which is enforced by Bay Middleton and Glencoe : by Touchstone. Newminster, nnd Stockwell : by Venison, "Velocipede, Slane. Irish "Birdeatcher, Faugh-a-ballagh, Voltieeur. Pantaloon, Sweetmeat, Macaroni, King Tom, and Doncaster.