90 THE TURF 



of Ladas, who barely misses a place in the list of 

 winners of ^20,000. He was a very good horse, 

 no doubt, and the scene of enthusiasm which broke 

 out at Epsom when he won the Derby, Lord Rose- 

 bery, his owner, being Prime Minister at the time, 

 will not soon be forgotten. There is no reason to 

 assume that Lord Rosebery ever rated him as really 

 in the very first class, for it is known that during the 

 two-year-old career of Velasquez his owner considered 

 that the son of Donovan and Vista was the best 

 animal he had ever owned. Ladas failed in the St. 

 Leger, which was most unexpectedly won by Throstle, 

 who was considered by her stable to be at least 21 lbs. 

 inferior to Match Box, whom she beat on the 

 Doncaster Town Moor. Throstle was an exceedingly 

 wayward animal. Her friends had hopes that she 

 would beat Isinglass in the Jockey Club Stakes after 

 her St. Leger victory, but their hopes would probably 

 have been vain, even had she not bolted, as she did, 

 in the course of the race. She gave her running truly 

 enough at Sandown shortly afterwards in the Select 

 Stakes, but never had the remotest chance with Best 

 Man. Her owner, it is true, did not read the race in 

 this way, and when the horses returned to the 

 paddock "remarked to Webb, who had ridden Best 

 Man, " Three hundred yards further and we should 

 have beaten you ! " " Not if we had gone round the 

 course three times more. Sir Frederick," was Webb's 

 reply. Next year Lord Rosebery won the Derby and 



