26 RACEHORSES IN AUSTRALIA 



Whisker's full brother, which it was destined to meet. It is hard to say. But 

 Mons Meg was the most successful of the mob, and that was not saying very 

 much. She won the Gold Vase at Ascot, and certainly seemed to stay. But 

 she failed at the stud, and although Kirkham sired a winner of the Grand 

 National Steeplechase, it was the best that any of the colts could do, and the 

 great Armada deserved a better fate. 



During James White's career there v/ere no stars of heaven which 

 approached him in magnitude, although Sir Thomas Elder with his Gang 

 Forward and Neckersgat blood, E. K. Cox with his Yattendons, Andrew 

 Town with the Maribyrnongs, and Mr. Frank Reynolds with the Goldsbroughs, 

 did much for the Australian horse. And in good truth the star of the last- 

 named family never seems to set, although its racing fortunes may rise and 

 fall v/ith the tide. 



And now, when the great constellation was near the setting, others 

 commenced to rise. There was Mr. Donald Wallace, a generous and successful 

 owner, and one whose name has been rendered altogether deathless through 

 the peerless Carbine. He did not, however, breed the great horse himself, but 

 bought him for what was considered a very large sum, three thousand guineas. 

 Before Mr. Wallace died, unfortunately at a comparatively early age, Mr. 

 W. R. Wilson appeared on the scene. He bought the St. Albans Estate, in 

 the neighbourhood of Geelong, collected a stud of the very highest class of 

 brood mares, and, by the aid of the Musket blood, principally through Trenton, 

 and the St. Simon strain, through Bill of Portland, he experienced a succession 

 of successful years, during which he stood at the head of the list of winning 

 owners. It was in his reign that the first importations of the Galopin-St. Simon 

 stock found their way into Australia, the effect of which has revolutionised 

 the whole of the horse-breeding industry of our great island continent. Indeed, 

 from Mr. W. R. Wilson's time the aspect of everything has changed. We have 

 become so intensely democratic in our notions that we do not seem to be able 

 to suffer a king to live, not even in our pastimes. The prize-money has become 

 much more evenly distributed, which, perhaps, is all the better for the 

 prosperity of the turf, and we do not seem to be able to breed racehorses 

 without importing a constant stream of sires from Europe. And for the greater 

 part these importations have been scions of the Eclipse-Blacklock house 

 through St. Simon and his great sire, Galopin. It was with the closing years 

 of the nineteenth century that the last of the great dominating owners 

 disappeared from the scene, and the days of the turf democracy commenced. 

 Since the new century began there have been many good owners, many fine 

 men, good sportsmen, but none who have held their place year in, year out, 

 in the old-fashioned way. Mr. L. K. S. Mackinnon, the present Chairman of 

 the V.R.C., has owned in his time many horses, and some good ones, amongst 

 them Woorak, a great sprinter. Mr. E. E. D. Clarke, with his Welkins, is also 

 constantly on the long roll. No one in Australia races in quite the same princely 

 style as does Mr. Clarke. He breeds his own stock, employs the best of 

 trainers, is faithfully served by Robert Lewis as his first jockey, and he races 

 for the sport alone. Mr. Agar Wynne is seldom absent from the yearly roll 

 call, and Mr. S. A. Rawdon never seems disheartened by cycles of bad years. 

 Mr. A. T. Cresv/ick races lavishly, and, winning or losing, retains an imperturb- 

 able countenance. Mr. Hawker, from South Australia, sticks nobly to the 

 great game, and Mr. N. Falkiner, with his magnificent stud farm, and his high- 

 class stallions and carefully selected mares, looks like emulating the deeds of 

 those cf old time. And then there is a long list of professionals and semi- 

 professionals whose names appear with a fair amount of regularity. But times 



