EPSOM 97 



week later Flying Fox was sent to Newmarket to oppose 

 the American horse Caiman, in the Middle Park Plate. 

 What took place on that occasion has been a constant topic 

 of conversation among racing men ever since. There was a 

 terribly strong wind blowing right up the course, and Sloan, 

 who rode Caiman, came right through with his mount, and 

 in my opinion stole the race. Afterwards a great deal was 

 said about wind pressure, and how the little American, 

 hidden behind his horse's neck, had presented so small a 

 surface of resistance to the gale, that it meant an advan- 

 tage of 7 or lo lbs. But the fact is — and I admit that 

 under the very unusual circumstances the American seat 

 must have been an advantage — that Flying Fox was waited 

 with too long, and when Cannon sent him out there was too 

 much ground to make up. The colt's effort out of the 

 Abingdon Mile Bottom was a grand one, and stamped him 

 as the gamest of the game. The result of the race was a 

 fluke, and even with a similar head gale blowing such a 

 result would never have occurred again, unless, for a second 

 time, the English jockey had allowed the American to get so 

 far ahead. 



It may also be stated here, on the word of no less an 

 authority than John Porter, the colt's trainer, that Flying 

 Fox was not himself either at Kempton or in the Csesare- 

 witch week. Porter did not wish to run him, and had his 

 probably very mild advice been taken, it is quite certain that 

 Flying Fox would have copied the example of his grandsire 

 Ormonde, and retired from the turf an unbeaten horse. 

 Luckily the colt took no harm from his two defeats, and 

 came out again in the Houghton week to oppose his old 

 conqueror St. Gris in the Criterion Stakes. With the 

 Kempton running only three weeks old, backers were much 

 divided in their choice, and at the start Flying Fox had 

 only a fractional call of St. Frusquin's half-brother. In the 

 race, however, he made hacks of the opposition, winning in 

 a canter from Sinopi — in receipt of a lot of weight — with 

 St. Gris beaten out of the first three. The performance 

 was about the smoothest accomplished by a two-year-old 

 during the season, and the way Flying Fox collared the stiff 



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