JUDGES AND PRICE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2556, 11 March 1903, Page 47

JUDGES AND PRICE.

It lias been frequently noticed that ilia best judge* (says the English EcriLe "Augur") hare always been indifferent 10 price. The> would give three thousand or thirty rounds ■with the same nonchalance, with pe-ihap* the keenest twitter In the eyo about the Inttci, in slowing that ihey knew; a little more about it than the other fellow. This is hoy.- Mat Dawson used to extol the judgment of Lord Falmouth. Price did not stop him, us in the. cose of Cantiniere, fotf* viioid he gave nearly £4000, and was chaffed for giving so much "for a roarer; but his • reply was hie stud could not do without such a mare, and that she would pay. She- did * pay, as her produce realwed £40,000 in stakes and prices paid for them. On the other, hand, some of his lordship's mares tvera ■well purchased cheaply, and he romctimes ' used cheap stallions, although price never ' stopped him lr that direction. Mr "Billy Williamson," ar the late Lord Zetland's brother-in-law used to be called, wae always proud of the feat of picking out Vedette* He was -ent by his relative to look at al vcarline colt, for which a very large f-v —

Was asked. He did not quite like him, and Ksk'ed whether there was anything else to ■ be seen. "Yes, a brown colt, of no great Recount," and 1 after being looked over the torice demanded was only lOOsovs, and was bicoepted. Here was the headline of perhaps the greatest horae family ever known,, and iprobably saved by the judgment of one man. Mr "Billy" Williamson waa a great judge of both korse and bound, and the two pften go together. Sir Joseph Hawley was, like Lord Falmputh, an extraordinarily good jjudgs, and price, one way or the other, . jdi^ not warp his opinion at all. It was rather singular, too, that great coups jrefrom a very cheap expenditure, and a Jrery expensive one. He purchased Teddington as a. foal, -with his dam, Mis« for 25flsoys only, with the contingenpy of lOOOsovs if the colt won the berby. For Mendicant, the dam ol Beadsjnan, lie paid 2500sovff, and it is a question Which family made the most money, or has none the most lasting good to the turf. It was said that Sir Joseph won £80,000 over Teddington's Derby, and the game son of Orlando and Miss Twickenham introduced '» lot of good into pedigrees, as seen to-day. "The .Druid" Bays : — "He was n little clubby with" one foot, aud though by constant paring an<J attention it was got nearly right, there was always a marked difference in - the size of his plates. AJs a yearling he ,Was. always throwing his head un an£ run- ' ning away with the boys, but Alec Taylor -. #Mea."him. to the best of Kis young ones, • " «nd albeit that iis two-year-old season was "disappointing, owing to bis being a slow i.J~-l)S9ginneT,-'b.e was , tried co high as an early "'three-year-old with Vatican as to make the Derby, in the opinion of Sir Joseph and Alec Taylor, simply a matter of health." The confident baronet took every sort of price down to 3 to 1 in a field of fe3. This, too, with drawbacks enough to shake the nerves of most people, a 6 the skin of Teddington's off foreleg festered, and he jWbuld only eat split peas out of his corn on the morning of the race. However, he was full of game and heart, aad won with plenty *o spare by two lengths. A rare field it ,was, as Newminster was in it, and so was 'Mountain Deer (subsequently great as a sire in-Ireland), Hungerford (the good hunting eire), The Prime Minister, The Black Doctor, and Midas. What great good has "sprung from the celebrated troop of 1851. (But Teddington, who ' was exactly the opposite of Stockwell, being a light, wiry morse, somewhat short and not over 15.3, ' jwas made famous by the defeat of the lastnamed hero, as they met in the Ascot Cup Jwhen Teddington was five and Stockwell was four, the weights being 9.0 and 8.5. The opinion has always been that Teddington, Who was not quite up to concert pitch owing to a. leg trouble, beat Stockwell by a head ty sheer stamina and gameness, and a good authority has spoken of Teddington as the ,best *tayer ever seen. Be it remembered lie won the Derby, Doncaster Cup, and 'Aicot .Cup, and beat in his day Newminster, Stockwell, and Kingston. As a Eire, he ,was certainly not as good as might have been expected, as he never, got a Derby, Oaks, or St. Leger winner, and the two jtb'at brought him into the greatest fame jnrere bis daughters Emblem and Emblematic, two winners of the Grand National. H,e had a lot of very useful winners like Marigold, Master Richard, and Moulsey, but they were not quite in the front rank. His daughter Marigold, though, reproduced her teire'a great qualities when mated to his •'Ascot Cup rival Stockwell, as the result ,w«s Doncaiter, and never was a breed co •firm as from this alliance. It has come jdown in great strength through Bend Or, jOnttonde, Orme, and Flying Fox, and it etands crossing with almost anything. I 'should say it represents a study to get in iTeddtngton lines. Through Doncaster' s descendants, of course, on one side, and there •re" various others to be collected in the "Stud Book."