UNDEFEATED HORSES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2617, 11 May 1904, Page 45

UNDEFEATED HORSES.

It is jus*- 140 years ago (say? "Vigilant," of the London Sportsman) sinoe Eclipse was bred, and, allowing that races before that date (1764) were not of a kind to reckozt much with she undefeated, it will be rate to take Eclipse as the first of such heroes-. His career was an etxraordiiary one, a* at first his temper was so bad as to suggest his being vn 3 exed, and Ko was finally tamed by a colt-breaker, who half-starved anti ill-used him. After this, his great merits were discovered, " but not before he was five years old, and then for about two seasons ke beat eveiy thing brought against him, and could, it is said, have distanced any horse in England. Admiral Rous stated in print that Eclipse would not have been a great hor»9 in later decades, but how the* turf could have- done without him as a sire the genial Admiral did not discuss, and I think isuch an argument would have been in favour or Eclipse. The next great undefeated one was Highflyer, bred in 1774, and it was boasted of him that he had never been beaten, and never paid forfeit. He was nearly the equal of Eclipse as a sire, for his ixin, Sir Peter, brought down a lineof great fame to the present day. Hambletonian, bred in 1792, held an unbeaten record, and his match with Diamond, for 3000sovs, over the Beacon course, made him. out to be the greatest horss in the world,, although it was only won by a head. The first undefeated horse in tho new century iv aa Thunderbolt, but he ran on very few' occasions, and, excepting a horse called Albert, who won five good races off thd reel, and was considered about the best of his time, there was really no nndofeateci flier until 1655, tho year of Bay Middietou's birth. This great horse, spoken of to mo by Admiral Rous one afternoon afc Tattersail's, in the sixties, as the best horse ha had ever seen, was only stretched once, bjj, Elis, in the Duke Michael Stakes, at Newmarket. His every other r-tce he won as he pleased, and his speed was quite extraordinary. Four years afterwards another undefeated one was seen in Crucifix; but, like Hambletoman, she was very nearly losing that character, as she onco ran a dead heat with a colt called Gibraltar. After this, there was nothing of consequence to claim the undefeated honour until 1878 r when a colfc was bred in Ireland to be called! Baroaldine, and after clearing the boards as a two- year old in his own country, came to England, andi proved himself quite the> best of his clay, putting the extreme stamp of excellence on himself by winning the Northumberland Plate in a canter, under 9.10. Th« world seemed to have got into a vein of heroes at this time, as only four years later St. Simon was bred, and here, according to the opinion of the late MatJ Dawson, was the best horse- ever seen. H^ won all his races in the commonest of canters, and as a two-year-old it was estimate?by his eminent trainer that he could have beaten any three-year-old at level weights." To still mark the decade, Ormonde was bred in 1883. and he was never doomod to defeat, although, like Hambletonian and Crucifix, the situation was only just saved in the Hardwicfee Stakes at Ascot. Suspender never knew defeat, but his claim to olassio honours may be questioned. I have not got jjU tho foreign records by me, but Kincsem, t?L Hungarian-bred winner of the Qcodwot;* Cup, in 1878, was never beaten, and won, 1 bolicve, 17 races, and I rather think Si French mare called Prodestin© held the unbeaten rcrord. Mons. Lupin's Salvator cer-» tainiy did, and, turning to far-off Australia^ Grand Flaneur, the sire of Merman a-ntf P op -nmv sir. • in. England, was r ej

beaten. In America, I am in doubt about Lexington, and perhaps some cousin from over the Atlantic w,ill supply me with names of some such honour-takers. There is a great breeding question involved m the records I have touched upon, and this I shall go into later ; as well as to speak of those unluckily beaten.