SOME FAMOUS GELDINGS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2430, 10 October 1900, Page 39

SOME FAMOUS GELDINGS.

The best old horse up to, say, two miles in Australia just now is Paul Pry, and he is a gelding. So says the Australasian, and it adds : Probably Paul has won more public money than, any gelding we have had. Whether lie is the best of the many good unsexed ones which have raced in Australia during the last 40 years is another matter. There have been some very good ones. Talleyrand, who raced in Mr John Tait's name, won the Champion Race in 1862. The only other gelding to win this race was Strop, but <jaoh of his

races was run in Tasmania, and as Glencoe gave him 191b when he beat him in the Melbourne Cup of 1863, the game old Tasmanian coulcl hardly be described as the equal of some geldings the Australian turf has known. Talleyrand, when he won the great lace at Geelong in 1862, beat Barwon, Archer, Mormon, and seven others. Strop certainly had Volunteer behind him one year and Glencoe another, but there was not the same competition for a champion race run in Tasmania as for the same race decided in Victoria. A gelding of the Paul Pry type, inasmuch as he kept racing clay after day without losing form, was Falcon, who won the Adelaide Cup in 1864-. In those days the country cluSte gave prizes of sufficient value to attract the be&t horses from Melbourne, and Falcon picked up his full share of these stakes. Warrior, who won the Melbourne Cup in 1869, was another good gelding. he got a good lace at Flemington on a New Year's Duy through Ccntess.a, who beat him, being short weight. After the late Mr Austin Saqui deemed him ufeless, Warrior parsed into the hands of Mr rhil Gle lifter, and trained by the late Robert Sevior, he won the Australian Cup of 1873. This was a particularly good Uetting race. Nimblefoot, another supposed "has been," trained by the late William Lang, was second. When he won the Melbourne Cup lie beat another gelding in Lapdog by a short head. This was the judge's verdict. Many people thought "the Dog" had won, and James Wilson, jun., who rode him, has no doubt he beat Nimblefoot. But as Sir Joseph Hawley once remarked, the only opinion which counts on these occasions is that of the judge, and the big stake for which Lapdog was backed was mis&ed. Nimblefoot won a number of races after this, and carried big weights, while as a three-year-old he twice made the mighty Fishhook put his best foot foremost in Tasmania. Still we should hardly class him with some geldings we' have known. The only gelding to win the V.R.C. Derby was Ensign, and he beat Carbine. That victory has always been set down as a fluke, due to a very fine piece of riding on the part of Tom Hales. Ensign broke his leg — or a small bone in his leg— in the Melbourno Cup jus-t after beating Carbine, and we saw no more of him. Titan, who cost 4600 guineas al Mr White's sale, was possessed of extraordinary pace, and not long before he died he beat Light Artillery and Marvel over two miles at Randwick. He was an in-and-outer from no faidt of his own, and fell dead from heart-disease after doing a gallop at Ballarat. If such things could be proved, perhaps we would find that Titan was the best gelding ever known in this country. Another verygood one was Highborn, who won the Australian and Sydney Cups with over 9.0 in the^ saddle, and afterwards carried off the Viceroy's Cup twice in India. It is true that Highborn was not a success at weight for age, but he had to meet Strathmore, Zalinski, Marvel, etc. It is not likely that Paul Pry has had anything equal to these horses to beat in Adelaide or Sydney. Bungebah was a brilliant sprinter, but Paris must rank above .nim, because he could go farther. The Grafter and Merloolas are of very recent date. Very good they both were, and it is hard to say which was the better. Neither, however, could keep at it as Paul Pry has clone, and Sir Rupert Clarke's old son of Lochiel may well be dubbed "cast iron." He has been racing and travelling for six years in four colonies, and has run in 82 races.