50 



ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



to the stud. In 1859 she lost her foal, by Wild Dayrell, 

 at ten weeks old, after which her udder became impure, 

 caused by the absorption of milk into her system. 

 Towards the end an abscess formed in her udder, which 

 was lanced by Mr. Hedley, of Richmond, just before 

 the "Queen of the Turf" breathed her last, after a 

 glorious career. 



Old stagers may agree, after reading the foregoing, 

 with John Osborne in his high estimate of Alice 

 Hawthorn as being one of the grandest mares that 

 ever bore saddle, possessing as she did first-class speed 

 and great staying powers. He speaks of her effort, in 

 which she just failed, to give a useful handicap horse 

 like Red Deer no less than 5 st. 8 Ibs. in the Chester 

 Cup as one of the greatest performances on record. 

 She followed that up the following day, when, carrying 

 9 st. 6 Ibs., she won the Duke of Westminster's 

 Plate, giving Philip, four years, who was second, 2 st., 

 and having seven others behind her. Her subsequent 

 defeat of Robert de Gorham, and her victory in the 

 Goodwood Cup with 3 to 1 on her in a field of eleven 

 starters, bore further testimony to her all-round merit 

 and her wonderful hard constitution perhaps the 

 hardest of any racer of the present century. She missed 

 twice to Lanercost, and then bore useful animals in 

 Young Hawthorn, Lord Fauconberg, and Terrona. She 

 redeemed her character as a matron by throwing 

 Oulston, a high-class animal, but so delicate in his con- 

 stitution that John Day affirmed the lightest cloth would 

 make him sweat, and rarely would he look at his manger 

 after a strong exercise. With increase of years as a 

 matron her stock improved. But she set a seal on her 

 name when she threw Normanby in 1857, then being 



