COMMON 129 



He won three handicaps in 1892. Vasistas was a 

 moderate horse, slow but sure. He had but one 

 pace, which he maintained from end to end. In 

 fact he could keep at it for a week. Although 1890 

 was not one of the great years for the stable, the 

 winnings amounted to 23,727/. 



Having, for the purpose of completing the 

 account of a horse to which no further reference is 

 necessary, leapt over a year or two, we recur to 1891, 

 and pause at the name of Gonsalvo, now four years 

 old. This stoutly bred son of Fernandez and 

 Cherie was entitled to the epithet ' a pretty fair 

 horse,' in a year of extraordinary flyers, but he was 

 perhaps more than that. He ran third to Morion 

 and Queen's Birthday in the Gold Cup at Ascot, 

 but at the same meeting he rewarded Mr. John 

 Gretton by winning the Alexandra Plate (Barme- 

 cide second), and again defeated Barmecide for the 

 Goodwood Cup. How is it, Porter wonders, that 

 Fernandez has been so neglected at the stud ? 

 There is no stouter blood in the world, and his 

 offspring repeat the qualities of the sire. ' It may 

 be,' Mr. Porter suggests, with a touch of good- 

 humoured cynicism, in which there possibly lurks 

 a grain of truth, ' that breeders don't want stayers.' 



The year 1891 was the year of the great horse 

 Common, not only at Kingsclere, but in the recol- 

 lection of every lover of the national sport, who 

 delights to dwell on the achievements of the 

 heroes of the Turf. He won the triple crown, yet, 

 unlike Lord Lyon and other similar victors, he 



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