GOLD CUP TRAGEDY 



the turn into the straight and we prepared for her to 

 come away as usual. " Here she is," cried Melhsh of 

 the Daily Mail. " Come along, you beauty," growled 

 John Corlett, and she appeared for a moment to be 

 doing what we had always looked for her to accom- 

 plish ; but suddenly it was seen that there was to be 

 a race. Danny had waited most patiently for his 

 run, and Bachelor's Button drew away. It was all 

 over. It may have been the excitement, perhaps it 

 was sentiment, but there was a handkerchief or two 

 taken out, and not by women. Well, damn the 

 excuses ! Pretty Polly was beaten, and wasn't that 

 enough to make one have a watered eye. There was 

 no prouder man that day than Mr Sol Joel. One or 

 two made a remark that he patted his favourite's neck 

 with his gloved hand. Some people will always say 

 the unpleasant word about anybody. It would have 

 been more of an affectation to have taken off his glove 

 which he always wears. The bet he had was as 

 nothing; he gloried in the success of his great horse. 

 But there will be other things to be said about Sol Joel 

 on a racecourse. 



In the last few pages there has been a good deal to 

 say about the year 1906, indeed a very eventful one. 

 There is another about whibh a lot can be said. I 

 refer to Polymelus ; indeed he was a proud possession 

 for W. R. Baker, the Collingbourne trainer, to have 

 in his stable. I always had an extraordinary opinion 

 of this horse, thinking that he could stay, and was in 

 a class distinctly by himself. He managed to run third 

 in the Stewards' Cup and then second to Challacombe 

 in the St Leger, but it was as a four-year-old I looked 

 for him. I had an idea that he would win the City and 

 Suburban in 1906, but someone approached me and 

 said : " Get that out of your head as quickly as you 



199 



