AMERICAN HORSES IN ENGLAND.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 952, 4 June 1908, Page 9

AMERICAN HORSES IN ENGLAND.

About the first American-bred horse to race in England was Prioress, who won the Cesarewitch in 1857 (recalls the ‘‘Australian.”) There was a magnificent finish for the race, and Prioress, El Hakim, and Queen Bess ran a dead heat. It was decided to. run it off, and Fordham was substituted for Tankseley on Prioress, and Bray replaced. Little on El Hakim, who started favourite in the run-off. Prioress, however, won easily. Parole was the next American-bred horse of any note to figure on the English turf, and after beating the great Isonomy at Newmarket, he beat a strong field in the City and Suburban in 1879. It was . Parole’s success, that induced Mr Pierre Lorillard to take Iroquois to Eng.and, and, after being beaten in the. Two Thousand Guineas by Peregrine, Iroquois won the Derby and St. Leger. Last year’s Derby winner, Orby, is out of an American-bred mare, and so is Rhodora, the Dewhurst Plate winner. This year the Americans have begun the season well, as Rubio won the Liverpool Grand National Steeplechase Norman 111. the Twto Thousnd Guineas, and Rhodora the One Thousand Guineas.

Octagon, the sire of Norman 111. was a great performer in America, where he twice won the Toboggan Handicap for Mr Belmont. He has been a great success at the stud, and, in addition to siring Norman HL, he got that great filly Beldame. Octagon is a son of Rayon d’Or, a French-bred horse, who won the St. Leger in 1879. Norman 111. is out of Nineveh, who goes back to Old Diamond (sometimes called Duchess), imported to South Carolina before the Revolution. Old Diamond runs back through Lady Thigh to D’Arcy’s Black Legged Royal mare, the tap root of Bruce Lowe’s No. 5 family. Nineveh’s sire was The 111-Used. He was so badly knocked about in his first three races, when he ran as the Breadalbane colt, that Mr Belmont named him The 111-Used. He was a great stayer, but, strangely enough, his stock were sprinters rather than stayers. He was practically a brother in blood to Epigram, the sire of Le Grand, as he was by Breadalbane from Ellermire, whilst Epigram was by Breadalbane’s brother, Blair Athol.