CHAPTER II 



THE PEDIGREE OF PRINCE PALATINE 



If breeding guaranteed success the road to victory 

 on the Turf would be more plainly marked out than 

 it is. Breeding nevertheless counts for much, and 

 it naturally gave rise to the highest hopes about 

 Prince Palatine, a son of Persimmon and Lady 

 Lightfoot. There is much to be said about the 

 parentage of Mr. Pilkington's great horse, though 

 little perhaps that is not known to students of 

 racing history. I am able, however, to furnish an 

 undoubtedly authentic account of the sire, Persim- 

 mon, for the reason that I treated him at length in 

 a book which I wrote some years ago entitled King 

 Edward VII. as a Sportsman. His Majesty in 

 according leave for the production of this volume 

 graciously said that Lord Marcus Beresford would 

 help me in the chapters dealing with the Turf As 

 a matter of fact I had been tolerably familiar with 

 Persimmon's history, having written much about it 

 in current periodicals, often deriving information 

 from Lord Marcus and from Richard Marsh, the 



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