Blood Mares. 2 1 7 



his eight, including Hernandez, in 1849, was 344 

 guineas. Prices were very quiet in 1853, when 

 Cavalier (520 guineas) was the premier ; but the 

 honour of being the Anni Mirabiles of the stud was 

 reserved for 1854-55. The whole fourteen Royal 

 yearlings, in the first of these years, averaged 441 

 guineas, six of the colts making 611 guineas, and a 

 like number of the fillies 406 guineas. This one- 

 thousand-guinea " Yellow Jack " epidemic soon 

 spread : The Salutation, true to itself, heard Mr. 

 Tattersall's hammer fall that autumn to 1020 guineas 

 for Voivode, and before another year had flown we 

 heard of two, if not three more 1000 guineas private 

 sales, two of 1200, and another of 1500 guineas. In 

 the autumn of 1855, Mr. A. Johnstone averaged 311 

 guineas apiece for his fifteen yearlings ; but the 

 average was unduly swelled by the sale of Lord of 

 the Hills, who ran the gamut from 200 guineas to 

 1800 guineas, by a succession of rapid 5O-guinea bids. 

 Four commissioners were at work, one of whom left 

 off at 800 guineas ; while a Newmarket trainer, who 

 had come with a commission to that amount in his 

 pocket, never got a bid at all. It was the general 

 impression that Mr. Crauford had as little intention 

 of being beaten for this luckless colt, as he had when 

 he was wont to send on The Shaver to a favourite 

 meet with the Quorn. The Royal Stud has averaged 

 about 220 guineas for its fifty-three yearlings in 

 1851-55, and 1 60 guineas in 1856 ; but still if breeders 

 could calculate on 100 guineas apiece for every blood 

 yearling they bring to the hammer, they would not 

 do far amiss ; whereas the average of yearling prices, 

 at public sales, in 1854 was 136^ guineas, and 120 

 guineas for 1854-56. The largest and most furnished 

 yearling within modern trainers' memory, is Hunting 

 Horn, who, but for his mouth, might have been any 

 age to look at; he was sold at that age for 5 70 guineas, 

 and his owner, who lives at Doncaster, and only keeps 



