DERBY, ST. LEGER AND ASCOT CUP 



while to start anything but an animal of the very 

 hig-hest class. 



An absolutely superlative standard cannot be 

 maintained, even in the greatest of races. One or 

 two names which tend somewhat to dull the lustre 

 invariably creep in. And so in the case of the Cup 

 we find Althorp — he started eight times that 

 season, and the Cup was his only success — Bird of 

 Freedom, who had been second to Althorp the 

 previous year, Throwaway, Bomba, and perhaps a 

 very few others might be added who are not alto- 

 gether worthy of their association. This is, how- 

 ever, inevitable, and on the other hand, to glance 

 through the list of winners of the Cup is to recognise 

 a host of the very greatest names in the history of 

 the Turf. Here since 1854, when, as already noted, 

 the trophy again became the Cup, we have West 

 Australian, Gladiateur, Isinglass and Persimmon, 

 who, as just mentioned, carried off both Derby and 

 Leger ; other Derby winners in Thormanby, Blue- 

 gown, Cremorne and Doncaster ; Leger and Oaks 

 winners in Apology and La Fleche ; Leger winners 

 in Petrarch, Robert the Devil and Bayardo. Be- 

 sides these there have been great Cup winners who 

 for one reason or another did not compete in the 

 classics — Foxhall, demonstrably a vast deal better 

 than his American contemporary, the Derby and 

 Leger winner Iroquois ; the invincible St. Simon, 



7 



