THREE- YEAR-OLDS. 169 



forget how many thousand pounds. Nor less celebrated was 

 the investigation into the identity of the mighty chestnut, while 

 the paternity of Ormonde, and of we hope many other winners, 

 will perpetuate the renown of the son of Doncaster and Rouge 

 Rose. 



' The Bend Or case ' is one of the causes ceVchres of the Turf, 

 a singular instance of disputed identity, and so instructive as to 

 how such disputes may be and should be guarded against for 

 the future, that an authentic account of it may for all time 

 prove interesting. It created an immense contemporary sensa- 

 tion, and as all pretenders from Per kin Warbeck down to Arthur 

 Orton have had, even after the collapse of their pretensions, 

 a large if not over-intelligent following of believers, so to this 

 day there are many who confidently affirm that Clemence and 

 not Rouge Rose was the dam of the Derby winner of 1880. 



The controversy originated in the foregathering of stud 

 grooms at Newmarket in the July Meeting 1879, and happened 

 in this wise. 



I'he Duke of Westminster's servants had come from Eaton 

 in that month to fetch away some brood mares, and while at 

 the station had their attention called to Bend Or, who after 

 winning the Chesterfield was being boxed for his homeward 

 journey to Kingsclere. They made observations over which 

 they pondered, and on their return to Eaton discussed freely 

 this victorious two-year-old, ultimately arriving at the conclu- 

 sion that the horse they had seen was the offspring not of 

 Rouge Rose but of Clemence — in other words, Tadcaster and 

 not Bend Or. 



The following year, Goode, Lord Falmouth's stud-groom, 

 took Lady Coventry to be served by Doncaster at Eaton, and 

 while he was there Sexton, who had charge of Doncaster, un- 

 burdened his mind of the verdict arrived at by the saddle-room 

 jury. When he got back to Newmarket, Goode chanced to 

 meet Matthew Dawson, and in the course of a conversation 

 which ensued on the mating of various sires and dams, Dawson 

 mentioned that it was in consequence of Bend Or's prowess and 



