318 THE ENGLISH TURF 



the knee within an infinitesimal fraction of 8| inches. He 

 was always bigger than Galopin, but still showed many of 

 the characteristics of his sire, though, to my thinking, he had 

 not so much of the Arab character. In galloping his action, 

 for such a big horse, was singularly perfect, and this smooth- 

 ness of action has been transmitted to a large majority of 

 his stock. Not so long ago I heard an old habitue of 

 Newmarket, when talking of the St. Simon family, exclaim, 

 " They are not perfect horses, these St. Simons, but they 

 are perfect galloping machines, and many of them might 

 have been constructed on mechanical principles, so smoothly 

 do they go." To me this was a splendid definition, for it 

 must be conceded that many of the St. Simon breed are 

 not built on what are considered strictly orthodox lines, 

 yet, take them all round, they are quite at the top of the 

 tree, and can beat horses which are better looking in the 

 strict sense of the term. 



To sum them up in a few words, many of the best 

 St. Simons are high, short horses, and therefore of quite 

 a different type from such recent Stock well Derby winners 

 as Galtee More and Sir Hugo. Necks and heads carried 

 high, rather short shoulders, short strong backs, long 

 drooping quarters, and long thighs are usually to be 

 found, but the colts are by no means always big and the 

 fillies are generally small. Persimmon, St. Serf, and Bill 

 of Portland (now at the stud in Australia) may be men- 

 tioned as specimens of the upstanding St. Simon colt, and 

 Simonian, Raeburn, and St. Frusquin as examples of the 

 smaller sort. Up to the present time Persimmon and 

 St. Frusquin have been St. Simon's best male runners, 

 and while the Prince of Wales' horse is of the upstand- 

 ing type which I have attempted to describe, St. Frusquin 

 was much more symmetrically built, and I should guess 

 nearly a hand less in stature. Raeburn was smaller again, 

 but a model of quality, and it is rather curious that these 

 smaller St. Simon horses — ix. those which have little or no 

 suspicion of legginess— are really more symmetrical and 

 better looking than the bigger type. With the St. Simon 

 fillies the same rule does not apply, for one or two of the 



