22 PRETTY POLLY 



steal the race. This is an opinion which can only be 

 offered by a small minority, and cannot be seriously 

 maintained by any one who saw this race. 



It is also an opinion which would so gravely reflect 

 on both Maher and Cannon (and Maher indeed was 

 not concerned with the Gold Cup race) that, if true, it 

 would, one should imagine, preclude their employment 

 in the future by the same owners. 



Yet M. Cannon rides Zinfandel and D. Maher rides 

 Pretty Polly to victory a fortnight after the race. 



The writer is not in any sense a professional racing 

 man, and offers his opinion with some diffidence, but 

 gives it for what it may be worth. 



Every one knows that a journey across the sea, and 

 to a foreign country, seriously handicaps any horse 

 (and especially a three-year-old filly) undertaking it. 



Add to this a course which is exceedingly holding 

 and (from a weight for age point of view) a very in- 

 equitable ratio of weights, for, as I have pointed out in 

 the previous chapter, the race is not exactly similar to 

 our weight for age contests, but is a weight for age 

 race with penalties and allowances, and is more akin 

 to a handicap. 



In England, at weight for age, Pretty Polly would 

 have carried 8 st. 2 lb. to Presto II's 8st. 51b., but here 

 she gives him 13 lb. (including sex allowance)! 



In this race, handicapped as she was by weight, by 



