153 



CHAPTER X 



Throstle — Her two-year-old career — The Coronation and the sensa- 

 tional St. Leger — Parallel cases — Caller Ou and Dutch Oven — A 

 story of Caller Ou's St. Leger — Throstle's trainer on the wrong 

 one — Throstle, when she liked, 'the best filly of her year' — Her 

 final ' bolt ' — The season following remarkable for Kingsclere 

 seconds — An excuse for Garter Queen — The disappointing Le Var 

 — Always slightly unsound— Only a tolerable trial — Porter's advice 

 to Lady Stamford — Omladina — Good, game Matchmaker — 

 Analysis of stakes won by horses trained by John Porter. 



Throstle (by Petrarch out of Thistle) was second 

 as a two-year-old, in 1893, f° r tne Chesterfield 

 Stakes, beaten a head by Speed, and again second, 

 defeated a length and a half, to La Nievre, in the 

 Molecomb Stakes at Goodwood, the race being 

 reduced to a match with the pair. She ran un- 

 placed in the Kempton Park Great Breeders' 

 Stakes, which, as we have already observed, was 

 won by Matchbox. At three years old (in 1894) 

 she was ■ nowhere ' in the One Thousand. She, 

 however, won the Coronation Stakes at Ascot, 

 beating Royal Victoria by a head. Three lengths 

 behind Jocasta and Amiable finished a dead-heat 

 for third. On returning to weigh in Mornington 

 Cannon drew 3 lb. overweight, owing to mud and 

 rain, but was passed by order of the stewards, 

 Throstle was fourth to Isinglass in the Eclipse 



