Gladiateuk Ah'D Blair Atiiol. 75 



the Two Thousand, then the Epsom Derby. The Emperor of the French, on hearing the news, 

 embraced Count Lagrange, the owner of Gladiateur, in public, declaring that " Waterloo was 

 avenrred ! " Gladiateur next crossed the Channel, and won the Grand Prix de Paris, returned 

 to England, and carried off a couple of small races at Goodwood, and wound up the year 

 by winning the Doncaster St. Leger, where he beat the famous Regalia, winner of the Oaks. 

 Gladiateur made another successful journey to Longchamp the same year, and returned in 

 time to win the Newmarket Derby. When a four-year-old he won the Ascot Cup, beating 

 Regalia and Breadalbane. 



On the sale of Count Lagrange's stud during the Franco-German war Gladiateur was 

 purchased by the late Mr. Blenkiron for stud purposes. On his decease, his stud, which 

 included both Gladiateur and Blair Athol, came under Mr. Tattersall's hammer. Gladiateur 

 fetched five thousand guineas, Blair Athol twelve thousand five hundred guineas. 



Blair Athol is by Stockwell out of Blink Bonny, by Melbourne, her dam Queen Mary by 

 Gladiator, grand-dam by Plenipotentiary out of Myrrha by Whalebone. 



Blink Bonny in 1857 performed the rare feat of winning the Epsom Derby on the 

 Wednesday, and the Oaks on the Friday. Blair Athol won the Derby in [S64, was beaten 

 for the Grand Prix de Paris, won the St. Leger, and retired from the turf in 1865, when he 

 was purchased by Mr. Jackson, a leviathan bookmaker who was founding a stud, for seven 

 thousand guineas. On Jackson's death he was purchased at auction at Tattersall's by Mr. 

 Blenkiron for five thousand guineas. 



Gladiateur died without having begotten one famous winner, while the "Racing Calendar" 

 year after year contains the names of winning colts and fillies by Blair Athol. Such are the 

 lotteries of the turf. 



The reputation and consequent annual income of a stallion (as far as thoroughbred mares 

 are concerned) depends, in his first years, on the prowess of his running progeny. A winner of 

 any of the great three-year-o!d races can always secure good mares at the commencement of 

 his career. At the end of four or five years his custom depends on the success of his produce. 

 His reputation may continue to improve until the period when his powers decline — an ad- 

 vanced age — or sink in four or five years to the value of a country travelling stallion. In 

 the stallion list are many horses nineteen and twenty years old. There have been stallions, 

 like Newminster, which have continued to maintain a high reputation as sires long after they 

 were crippled by injured limbs or fevered feet, or partly blind ; and some sires of famous 

 pedigree, like Gladiator who ran second in Bay Middleton's Derby, and Young Melbourne, have, 

 from the success of their produce on the turf, attracted a large annual income without having 

 won a single race. 



The fees vary, and are sometimes very high. In a recent "Racing Calendar" two stallions 

 are advertised at one hundred guineas each, and Blair Athol in 1878 commanded a fee of 

 two hundred guineas. The prices for horses of reputation, either from performance or blood, 

 are commonly from twenty guineas to thirty-five guineas. In the list of stallions in the "Racing 

 Calendar " at the head of the list of foals, many have not more than one, others only half a 

 dozen, attached to their names. But as this would not pay for their keep, the probability 

 is that these, where not old exhausted heroes, are engaged in serving half-bred mares at 

 from two to five guineas each. 



In 1859, when the fate of the Conservative Government was trembling in the balance, Lord 

 Palmerston had Mainstone, and Lord Derby Cape Flyaway, in the coming Epsom Derby, both 

 favourites named in the betting. The day after the Derby Cabinet had been beaten in the 



