MINORU'S YEAR 



won from that nice mare Electra, who had taken the 

 One Thousand. That most capable rider, Bernard 

 Dillon, had a very strong idea that he would win the 

 One Thousand Guineas, despite the fact of Princesse 

 des Galles being backed like a semi-certainty. Perola 

 was also fancied, and I was able to get nine to one 

 about Electra, who won in great style. Louviers, 

 however, won the big race at the Second Spring 

 Meeting. Then came the discussion about the Derby ; 

 of course there was nothing else to do but to nap 

 Minoru again. There was a larger contingent of 

 Americans present at Epsom that year than I have 

 ever seen before or since ; they had come to back Sir 

 Martin. He had been out once before in England, 

 winning the Wednesday Welter at Newmarket as he 

 liked. He had such a tremendous reputation in 

 America that it seemed to those who had seen him run, 

 and knew his reputation, that it was money for nothing. 

 American breeders and trainers looked to him to 

 uphold their reputation, and to make a bold bid for 

 the greatest honours on the turf. 



Dining one night with a friend of mine at the Savoy, 

 he asked me the best way to get a very large sum of 

 money on Sir Martin. Before giving him the pointer 

 as to the best way to go to work and average his 

 money at a fair price, I told him that I knew the 

 American horse had come over with a big reputation, 

 but was he sure that Sir Martin was as big a horse as 

 he had been acclaimed ? " Well, boy," he said, " I 

 have seen him run all his races. There was a four-and- 

 a-half furlong event at Belmont Park last year where 

 he was giving five pounds to Uncle Jim ; he could only 

 run second, but it was a sloppy track that day and the 

 winner did it in fifty-four seconds. He followed that 

 up by winning the Great American Stakes at Gravesend, 



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