Felstead Derby Winner, Possesses Fighting Spirit

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 409, 18 July 1928, Page 10

Felstead Derby Winner, Possesses Fighting Spirit

Some good in a general way will have been derived from this year’s Derby, writes the London critic, “Augur.” Even though its result, as given out at the judge’s box, did not profit the great majority. How could one fancy Felstead against, for instance, the winner of the Two Thousand on their running at Newmarket, bi'ed as Flamingo is on lines calculated to pass him through to the end of a twelve-furlongs race as easily as to that of a mile? And Flamingo a dour fighter, too, as seen in every attempt of his in public! Yet Felstead, while of no use at a mile proved stouter than Flam-

ingo, as I have always maintained, it takes a good horse, on the day, to win a truly-run Derby, as Wednesday’s was, no matter what the animal may descend to afterwards. Likely to Develop Felstead may at least claim the right of being one exception in a field which has been rightly described as very moderate. Beyond doubt Felstead has improved much since the afternoon of the Two Thousand, and he has the rugged, rangy frame typical of his family, and likely to develop still more. And there is no line in this colt’s pedigree which even hints at flashiness in so far as I am familiar with his I ancestry, going back four generations ! to such stalwarts as Minting, Isonomy, I St. Simon and Carbine. It is breeding such as would have I rejoiced the heart of the late Duke of Beaufort, who was always search- j ing for an ascendancy of stout blood i —the sire a stayer, the dam a speedy | winner of stout parentage. “A Racing Monarch” I was asking Sir Hugo CunliffeOwen this question: Supposing he had seen Felstead in the yearling sales ring at Doncaster, how much would he have been inspired to bid for him? Sir ! Hugo, it goes almost without sayin. had

recollections of Felstead's grand-sire. Spearmint, being sold at Doncaster for as little as 400gns.. and equally so, appreciates that Spearmint became a racing monarch of that period. Yet great sires and dams have not always reproduced their like, and Sir Hugo was doubtful as to what Felstead might have been worth had tne colt been in the yearlings’ salering; “but,” said he, “how nice to own a Derby winner without even having seen him in the salering.” The pointer derived from this year’s Derby is, after all, nothing new, although it comes up again with sticking force. Carbine—Australia’s “Old

Jack,” grand weight-carrier-, restored to this country, thanks to the enterprise of the Duke of Portland—gave us Spearmint, and the latter’s son was Spion Kop, and the last-named’s son is Felstead.

Three Derby winners, all imbued with fighting spirit. Yet Spearmint, because he was not liked as a salering yearling, was bought at the price of a hack, and Sir Hugo Cunliffe-Owen would not, I warrant, have bid much more for Felstead had the latter gone into the Doncaster salering. Breed Less for Speed So that the lesson taught by this year’s Derby would appear to be that one must breed less for speed and its ofT-time accompaniment of flashiness, or some other frailty, and more for stoutness, and I hope our “Special Commissioner,” who agrees with me on this point, gets on with the idea of showing the lines which make for lasting qualities rather than for the speed which is “here to-day and gone, to-morrow.”

Parenthetically, Felstead will not go to Paris for the Grand Prix, and I think his owner is wise in the matter. The colt will be still in the progressive stage by St. Leger time. So will Gang Warily, and the two maji proviefe a battle royal at Doncaster in September.