THE GREAT MEN OF OLD 23 



fourteen hundred. But prior to the great sale the name of Fisher had, in 

 conjunction with one or two others, dominated the turf. 



And we find during the five decades or so that have elapsed since then, 

 that but a few owners, a few breeds of horses, stand in the limelight during each 

 period, and leave their influence for good or ill for all time. 



Contemporary with the Fishers, however, there was quite an abundance 

 of sportsmen whose names, even after the lapse of all those years, seem to be 

 as familiar to us as are those of the magnates of their day in the Old Country, 

 the Merrys, Graftons, Albemarles, Falmouths, Hastings, Westminsters, 

 Portlands, Bowes and Peels. Listen to them as they are told, and see if they 

 do not stir a chord within you, awakening afresh dear and stirring memories 

 of the olden time, of those days gone by in which we fondly believe that 

 there were many giants. 



Andrew Town, John Lee and his brothers, C. Baldwin, John Tait 

 ("Honest John"), the Rouse family, T. Ivory, E. De Mestre, P. Dowling, 

 Hector Norman Simson, James Wilson, William Pearson, W. C. Yuille, H. J. 

 Bowler, Rawdon Greene, F. Tozer, and George Watson. What teams the 

 Fishers had, as well as old John Tait! 



From Maribyrnong's massive gateway there used to emerge each 

 morning to their work, a string containing Angler, Fishhook, Rose of Denmark, 

 The Sign, Lady Heron, Kerosene, Smuggler, Sea Gull, Bude Light, Sour 

 Grapes, Ragpicker, The Fly, and for a brief day only, the beautiful 

 Maribyrnong. 



This colt, who afterwards took his sire's place, fractured his near foreleg 

 in the Derby, his only contest. His life was spared, however, and he made an 

 enduring name at the stud. 



John Tait was a worthy rival of the Fishers. We see him, in '66, winning 

 with the mighty Barb, then a three-year-old. Mr. John Daly, until of late the 

 handicapper to the A.J.C., a man of the soundest judgment, and with a 

 prolonged experience, asserts with confidence that this black Sir Hercules 

 colt was the superior even of our more modern Champion of Champions, 

 Carbine. Volunteer, a brown horse by New Warrior, was a big winner for 

 Mr. Tait, and ran a dead heat with Tarragon in the three-mile championship. 

 They ran it off, and Tarragon won. Fireworks, a very great horse, and one 

 with the curious distinction of being the Victorian Derby winner of 1867, as 

 well as of the same race in 1 868, was another of Mr. Tait's winners whose 

 name lives for ever. Honest John did not keep his horses to look at. 

 Fireworks won the Derby on November I st, and ran second to Mr. Fisher's 

 two-year-old Fenella on November 2nd — -beaten a head. On November 30th 

 he was third to Mr. De Mestre's Tim Whifller in the Duke of Edinburgh 

 Stakes, I i miles, at the Complimentary Meeting. Later in the day he came out 

 again and won the Galatea Stakes, two miles, beating Glencoe and a fine field 

 of horses. Tim Whiffler ran, but smashed into a post, and was pulled up. On 

 New Year's Day Fireworks again won the Derby, and was saddled up for the 

 very next race, the Midsummer Stakes, one mile and three-quarters. His starting 

 price was even money, and he won easily by two lengths from ten opponents. 

 In February Fireworks crossed the Straits and won the Launceston Champion 

 Cup, pulling double, from Tim Whiffler, Strop, The Barb and two others. 

 Next day he walked in for the Tasmanian Leger, and in March did the same 

 in the V.R.C. race of that name at Flemington. At Randwick Glencoe beat 

 him in the A.J.C. St. Leger, but both horses were in the one ownership, and 

 Mr. Tait declared to win with Glencoe. At the same meeting, however, this 

 great son of Kelpie took the All-Aged Stakes, one mile, the Autumn Stakes, 



