' VIRAGO'S ' SUCCESSES 7 



Metropolitan Stakes at Epsom, a thing never done be- 

 fore or since on the same day. In the latter she beat 

 Muscovite, a five-year-old, at 21 lb., and he won the 

 Cesarewitch Stakes easily, carrying 8 st. 3 lb. The same 

 year, at York, she won both the Great Northern and 

 Flying Dutchman Handicaps ; the 1,000 Guineas Stake 

 at Newmarket ; the Goodwood Cup and Nassau Stakes ; 

 the Yorkshire Oaks ; the Warwick and Doncaster Cups 

 winning ten stakes out of eleven, of the collective 

 value of .9,750, beating seventy-six horses and being 

 herself only beaten in one race (T.Y.C.) by Ellermire, 

 a two-year-old and very fast, at York August meeting. 



Virago's defeat on this occasion may, I think, be 

 readily accounted for. She had already run and won 

 so many long races that her speed must have been a 

 bit diminished, and it was a mistake to run her at all 

 over so short a course. But the owner had to be con- 

 sidered ; and Mr. Padwick could never keep a horse in 

 the stable if he thought he had the least chance of 

 winning a ribbon in which idiosyncrasy he followed 

 the practice of that renowned and original trainer, Mr. 

 T. Parr of whom more later ; and I may add, of the 

 late Mr. Osborne. Virago, I should state, was tried at 

 Findon before the Epsom Spring Meeting with Little 

 Harry, a five-year-old, at 10 lb., and beat him easy two 

 and a quarter miles, myself riding the old one, who was 

 second, and the rest beat a long way. This at least 

 proved how good she was, if we may take it that she was 

 Little Harry's equal at even weights, and he afterwards 

 won the Ascot Stakes, carrying 8 st. 7 lb., beating King- 

 ston, the same age, at 7 lb., and fourteen others. In the 

 winter of 1854 she went a roarer ; yet in the spring of 

 the following year won the Port Stakes at Newmarket, 

 beating Acrobat. After this she gradually got worse, 



