FAMOUS HORSES 69 



place — was this time the result ; at Newcastle, with 

 odds of 100 to 9 on him, St. Simon very easily dis- 

 posed of a solitary opponent, Chislehurst ; and with 

 odds of 100 to 7 on him in the Goodwood Cup he 

 cantered away from Ossian, who had won the Leger of 

 the year before but had become unsound in his wind. 

 That was St. Simon's last appearance on a racecourse ; 

 he retired to the stud, where his success has been very 

 great, his fillies having been considered specially good, 

 until his sons, St. Frusquin and Persimmon, not to 

 mention St. Serf, showed that he could produce horses 

 as well as mares. As for the latter, in five consecutive 

 years his daughters won the Oaks four times. That 

 " handsome is as handsome does " is a proverb not to be 

 disputed, but certainly St. Simon was as different as he 

 well could be from the "long, low, level" horse, whose 

 make and shape has been so often eulogised. He was 

 unusually short and had slight looking hind quarters. 



Melton's beautiful action gave him distinction, but 

 he misses a place quite in the first rank, as other 

 animals were too close to him, for he only beat 

 Paradox a head in the Derby, and Paradox only beat 

 Crafton a head in the Two Thousand Guineas. More- 

 over, it is very probable that Paradox won only 

 because Archer husded Crafton out of it, and that if 

 the owner of the latter had objected he would have 

 got the race. During this year (1885) a rumour, 

 which was not infrequent at the time, and has often 

 been repeated since, became current, to the effect that 



