LUCK IN BREEDING.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 946, 23 April 1908, Page 7

LUCK IN BREEDING.

Angelica, though sister of St. Simon and dam of Orme, found no favour with the Duke of Westminster, and all her daughters (writes the Special Commissioner of the “ Sportsman”), were disposed of. I was in at the buying of three of them myself, and a fourth went to France. So, too, with Ornament (dam of Sceptre), the late Duke would have none of her stock, though she is own sister to Ormonde. This can only have been due to caprice, for not only is Ornament own sister to Ormonde, made “ taboo,” but all her stock was sold without any exception, coming under the hammer or being privately sold, from Stat Ruby down to Sceptre. Would the latt-j Duke of Westminster have retaineq. Sceptre had he lived? I do not think he would have done so, for he cheerfully got rid of such horses as Star Ruby, Labrador, and Collar, all out of the same mare. Indeed, to my mind, there was never a breedei’ who enjoyed better luck than the late Duke of Westminster. He was lucky in his initial purchase of Doncaster, but he did his best to offend fortune when he sold the sire of Bend Or for the beggarly sum of 6,0u0 guineas to go tc Hungary, just because he did not at once follow on with another Bend Or Then there was the good luck oyer the mix up between Bend Or and Tadcaster, and, as regards this, the late Mr. James Lowther, who was one of the stewards called upon to decide that objection, told me some few years before he died that while they had, of course, done their best to arrive at a correct decision, he had come to the conclusion from what he subsequently came to learn, that they were wrong, On that I have always been inclined to the same belief, for there was no more impartial, clear-headed man thar Mr. Lowther, and Bend Or, as a horse, bore a very striking resemblance to Sandiway, who was probably his sister. No one need worry about the matter now, for Bend Or was certainly better bred, if he was out of Clemence, than if he was out of Rouge Rose, and the matter can never go beyond academic discussion. Likenesses may be attributed to the com - mon blood of Doncaster in either case and thus we may argue in a circle for all time without making any advance. Here, then, was another instance of the Duke of Westminster’s luck. If Mr. Lowther had known earlier what he came to know later, it is in the highest degree possible that Bend Or would have been disqualified for the Derby, add the Duke would have likely enough cut racing from that time forward. As it was, he won

the Derby and carried on with great results, while if Bend Or was really out) of Clemence, that made him all the better as a stallion, and probably contributed to the merits of Ormonde. Perhaps the crowning instance of the Duke of Westminster’s luck was the breeding of Flying Fox from Vampire. He bought the mare privately, and on finding that she was of very vicious temper, did all he could to make the seller take her back. Then, when she was mated with Orme, it was no case of judicious selection of a sire, but the mare was so queer in her temper that it was thought unsafe to send her away from home. On one occasion, when she came open-mouthed at his Grace, who had gone into her box to look at her, he was so annoyed thtt he ordered her to be destroyed, but the stars in their courses were on his side. Needless to say, no one dreamed of executing the sentence on Vampire, and the momentary anger was soon forgotten. Vampire produced Flying Fox, and for that alone ranks among the immortals, but there have been other good ones out of her, and some people still believe in her son, Vamose, for the classics of this year.