SIXTY YEARS ON THE TURF 



is no such unanimity, as in truth there has been no 

 such discussion, as to which counts the best filly of 

 the century that lately was sealed in the book of 

 history. If my opinion were asked I should, after 

 careful thought of all the magnificent fillies I have 

 watched seek Turf honours, unreservedly place 

 Virago on the highest pedestal. She was a daughter 

 of Pyrrhus the First and Virginia, and the property 

 of Mr. Padwick. Her glorious career commenced 

 most ingloriously, for at the Shrewsbury Autumn 

 Meeting of 1853 she ran unplaced in a selling race* 

 That truly stands an extraordinary circumstance ; 

 nor is it one to be explained away by the suggestion 

 that her trainer, old John Day, was unaware of her 

 exceeding worth. Her full merits may not have 

 been known to him ; but the Danebury trainer had, 

 through a rough up, a shrewd suspicion of her 

 ability, and to get her beaten in a selling plate 

 towards the end of her juvenile days was part and 

 parcel of the game. 



Mr. William Day, son of John Day, says, in his 

 *' Reminiscences," when speaking of Virago's " sell- 

 ing" effort, "I should remind my readers that in 

 those days it was only the winner that could be 

 bought or claimed, or she would not have run, as 

 her merits were too well known at the time to her 

 party to run the risk of losing her." In one way 



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