40 RACEHORSES IN AUSTRALIA 



him, he was proclaimed the A.J.C. Derby winner, beating Collarit, Antonious, 

 lolaire and a couple more. With his penalty he was beaten next day by 

 Solution in the Metropolitan. Then came triumphs in the Eclipse Stakes at 

 Caulfield, the Caulfield Cup, with a fourteen-pound penalty, the Victoria 

 Derby, the Melbourne Cup, the St. Helier Stakes at Caulfield in February, the 

 St. Leger at Flemington, and the Loch Plate, two miles, beating Dividend. 

 Then he was checked in this triumphal progress. Dividend took down his 

 number in the Champion, and again in the Cumberland Stakes at Randwick. 

 Meanwhile, however, Poseidon had won w^hat was practically a bloodless 

 victory in the A.J.C. St. Leger. 



At four years Poseidon still, retained his form, and was successful seven 

 times, the Spring Stakes, the Eclipse, the Caulfield Cup, with nine stone three 

 up, the Melbourne Stakes, the Rawson Stakes, the Cumberland .Stakes, and 

 the A.J.C. Plate falling to his lot. Mountain King, however, who might have 

 been a great horse but for wind troubles, beat him in the Rawson Stakes in 

 spring, the Craven and the C. B. Fisher Plate. Poseidon was unplaced 

 (eighth) in the Melbourne Cup that year, carrying ten stone three, including a 

 penalty, and he did but little more. Had Alawa depended upon his three- 

 year-old record, he might have been included in the Roll of Honour, but his 

 star had reached its zenith by his three-year-old autumn, and those greater 

 suns. Comedy King and Trafalgar, obscured his lesser light until it finally sank 

 beneath the horizon. There was a rich vintage just at this period of our 

 history: Trafalgar, Alaw^a, Comedy King, Prince Foote. It was when Comedy 

 King was a four-year-old and Trafalgar a five-year-old that the real fun began. 

 The latter*vas a chestnut horse by Wallace from Grand Canary, by Splendor 

 from a Lapidist mare, and to see him walking out for his afternoon exercise, or 

 lagging along in the saddling paddock, you w^ould never, as a casual spectator, 

 have taken him for anything but a rather lazy, spiritless, w^ashy old gelding. 

 He was sleepy, indifferent to his surroundings, careless of the calls of love, or 

 of w^hat the next hour might bring in the shape of a tussle with some worthy foe. 



Comedy King, a rich brown, with fire in his eye, and in his every move- 

 ment, with a skin like satin, showing every vein as he paced along, was the 

 very antithesis of his great rival. He had been imported by Mr. Sol. Green, 

 at his mother's side, and he was by King Edward's horse Persimmon, out of 

 Tragedy Queen, a Gallinule mare. 



Prince Foote was a great three-year-old. But his nine victories at that 

 age left their effects upon him, and he only started three times as a four-year- 

 old, winning the Chelmsford and running second in the A.J.C. Spring Stakes to 

 Comedy King, beating Trafalgar, Pendil, etc. The Chelmsford came early in 

 the spring, and here, with the exception of Maltine, he had not much to beat. 

 As a three-year-old, however, he won the Chelmsford again, against a large 

 field, including that great miler. Malt King; the A.J.C. Derby, from Patronatus 

 and Danilo; the V.R.C. Derby, the Melbourne Cup, carrying two pounds 

 over weight-for-age ; the V.R.C. Leger; the Champion Stakes from Pendil; 

 the A.J.C, Leger; the A.J.C. Plate, from Pendil and Trafalgar; and the 

 Cumberland Stakes, two miles, from the same couple. Yes, he was a "great" 

 three-year-old. 



Between Trafalgar and Comedy King it was a case of "pull devil, pull 

 baker," so long as they were running at a distance not beyond a mile and a 

 half. After that Trafalgar was the master. For, although Comedy King 

 beat the chestnut in the Cup, the latter was giving weight, and I do not think 

 that many people, with the exception of Comedy King's backers, were 

 altogether satisfied that Trafalgar had had a clear run. The black horse, at 



