THE LATE DANNY MAHER’S SUCCESSES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1397, 1 February 1917, Page 5

THE LATE DANNY MAHER’S SUCCESSES.

A PHENOMENAL CAREER. Many thrilling experiences in the meteoric career of the late “Danny” Maher, the greatest jockey of his day, whose death occurred in a nursing home in London on November 9, continue to be told wherever racing men congregate, and the name of the deceased horseman will ever remain a lasting memory in the annals of the Turf. Maher, who was born at Hartford, Connecticut, U.S., was only 35 years of age at the time of his death, and was a victim of that dread disease consumption. One could write a vast deal on those triumphs which made his name worldfamous, and, indeed, they were of the sort that were regular and constant rather than intermittent. He began well in the autumn of 1900, and he went from strength to strength for thirteen years, until he had to surrender to his troubles. Every year that passed added to his reputation in and out of the saddle, and the greatest tribute the writer can give to his memory now is to say that he was as greatly respected and admired out of the saddle as he was in it. It is giving him very high praise, but he earned and deserved it. I remember well in 1913 (says an English writer) how Mr. C. Bower Ismay and his trainer. Robinson, were most anxious to secure Maher to ride Craganour for the Derby. After that horse had been beaten by Leuvois for the Two Thousand Guineas, Maher was given the mount on the horse for the Newmarket Stakes a fortnight lately, and he won easily. Louvois only being third. Naturally, they wanted him again for the hoise for the Derby, for which he was a great favourite, find they offered him a big sum. I know that he would like to have taken the mount, but one day he said to me: “If Lord Rosebery runs Prue I shall certainly ride the mare. I shouldn’t think of not doing so, though I don’t think she has an earthly chance of beating Craganour.” Lord Rosebery, I may point out, had long retained his favourite jockey’s services. Shortly before the race I received a letter from him, and perhaps I may be permitted to say, now that Maher is dead, that the letter made the position quite plain where the jockey was concerned. For Lord Rosebery had been advised by his trainer that Prue, in his (the trainer’s) opinion, had a chance and should, therefore, run. Lord Rosebery, however, had asked Maher in his own interests to take the mount on Craganour, but the jockey refused to do so if Prue ran. That was a fine test of loyalty, not imposed by Lord Rosebery, but by the jockey himself. Prue ran and Maher rede, while Craganour won and was disqualified in favoui’ of Aboyeur. The sensational history of that Derby would have been written differently had Maher keen less loyal.

Among Maher’s early successes in England veie the One Thousand Guineas on Aida, the Derby and St. Leger on Rock Sand, and the City and Suburban on Pharisee. Then came his second Derby triumph, when he won the Derby of 1905 on Lord Rosebery’s Cicero, and a yeai' later he won the Blue Riband again on that fine horse Spearmint in the colours of the late Major Eustace Loder. I rather fancy Spearmint was in the nature of a chance mount for him. HISTORIC DEAD-HEAT. His next classic winner was lelayed for four years. In 1910 he won the Two Thousand Guineas on Neil Gow, beating by a few inches Mr. “Fairie’s” Lemberg. That was a brilliant piece of race-riding, but perhaps those who were privileged to see it will say that the jockey’s greatest riding triumph was when he dead-heated on Neil Gow with Lemberg for the Eclipse Stakes. There was spice in the third meeting of the rivals that year. Lemberg had gained ample revenge in the Derby for the Two Thousand Guineas defeat, end this was to be the deciding round of the rubber. Any other jockey would surely have been beaten on Neil Gow, but Maher got up to make the de adheat on an apparently beaten horse — a dead-heat which, thanks to Maher’s participation, will long live in history. I might mention those other notable triumphs, when he won the Eclipse on Cheers, Darley Dale, Llangibby, and Bayardo; the Jubilee Stakes on Donetta, the Ascot Gold Cup on

Bachelor’s Button, when Pretty Polly was beaten, and the Cambridgeshire on Polymelus. It was in Neil Gow’s year that “Danny” received an enormous sum in retainers. Throughout the winter Mr. “Fairie” was endeavouring to outbid Lord Rosebery, so that the jockey should ride Lemberg, and not Neil Gow. Finally, in the spring, it was announced that he would still “carry on” in the old colours, and 1 believe Lord Rosebery made the retainer £4OOO. So that he might have second claim for Bayardo (then a great four-year-old) Mr. “Fairie” gave £2000; and Mr. Leopold de Rothschild had third claim. Probably Maher received no less than £BOOO in retainers in 1910. SINCERE TRIBUTE BY FELLOW HORSEMEN. The esteem in which Maher was held by his fellow riders is borne out by Stephen Donoghue, the wellknown jockey, who, on receipt of news of Maher’s death, said: —“A straighter, cleaner man and a better jockey never lived. He was loved and respected by all the jockeys, because he would never stoop to take a mean advantage in a race. Once a mare of Lord Falmouth’s, called Isolde, carried me over the rails at Doncaster, and Maher was blamed for being too close to me. But there never was such a wrong done to a jockey. No one could have been kinder in constantly inquiring about me when I was laid up. When he went to Scotland I went to see him in the sanatorium, and during the whole time I knew him I had nothing but the greatest admiration for him.” Another leading horseman, Whalley, who has for many years ridden for Mr. Leopold de Rothschild, referred to Maher’s demise as follows: —“He was the best man I ever rode against; such a wonderful judge of pace and speed. He never did a dirty action, and was a fine fellow through and through.”