A LEADING LIGHT IN THE WORLD OF SPORT IN ENGLAND.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIX, Issue 1109, 13 July 1911, Page 6

A LEADING LIGHT IN THE WORLD OF SPORT IN ENGLAND.

THE EARL OF DERBY.

This celebrity, not only in turf circles in the Mother Land, whose brace of horses, Swynford and King William, ran first and third in the Princess of Wales’ Stakes at the Newmarket July meeting, is the senior steward of the English Jockey Club, and during the present reign had the honour conferred upon him of having ,His Majesty’s horses running in his name, during the . period of mo.urning which followed the death of King Edward. For generations the Earls of Derby have been connected with the sport in England, and their association’ with the recreation has been of a beneficial nature to racing, for although severity in dealing with offenders was one of the long suits from which they played, they were all imbued with a spirit of fairness, and whether the suspicious practices were indulged in by one of high degree or low estate, wherever the Earls of Derby were in the position to sit upon the cases, the offenders, if the charges were proved against them, met with the same punishment. The owner of the winner of the Princess of Wales’ Stakes was in the Grenadier Guards for four years, and at the expiration of that period became aide-de-camp to his father, who was then Governor-General of Canada — this was in 1890. The Earl of Derby has an up-to-date training establishment at Newmarket, his horses being educated by the Hon. G. Lambton, who as an amateur horseman in days numbered with the past, was considered one of the finest horsemen in England.

The breoci mare Sceptre (by Persimmon—Ornament) was offered by auction at Newmarket, London, on Monday, and at 7000 guineas fell to the bid of the Messrs. Tattersail. Mr. R. S. Sievier purchased Sceptre at the sale of the Duke of Westminster’s Hood stock in 1900, for 10.000 guineas. She won for him amongst other races, the Two Thousand Guineas, One Thousand Guineas, Oaks and St. Leger, and stake money to the extent of £30,000. Sievier subsequently quitted the bay mare to Sir William Bass for 25,000 guineas.