320 THE ENGLISH TURF 



important race of the same name with such stayers as 

 Faugh-a-Ballagh and Friday (a Goodwood Cup winner) 

 among the beaten lot. He next won the Gold Cup at 

 Gosforth Park, and then he took the Goodwood Cup in 

 a canter by twenty lengths from Ossian, winner of the 

 St. Leger in the preceding year. He never ran again, but 

 was taken out of training perfectly sound, an unbeaten 

 horse ; and as he had done quite enough for his reputation 

 this decision to place him at the stud as a four-year-old 

 can hardly be condemned. He had run ten times in two 

 seasons, and had beaten the best that could be brought 

 against him in the four most important cup contests of the 

 year. He had stayed the severe two miles and a half of the 

 Ascot Cup Course in a fashion which is only occasionally 

 seen, and he had no engagements for the following year. 

 Had he been kept in training he could only have repeated 

 the same round of victories. Moreover, he had not been in 

 the least abused, and by not running after Goodwood, had 

 six months in which to recoup himself before his stud life 

 began. Not only was St Simon an unbeaten horse, but 

 he was never seriously challenged in any of his races. In 

 this respect he has an advantage over another unbeaten 

 one, Ormonde to wit. It can be urged in favour of the last- 

 named that his lines were cast in rougher places ; in other 

 words, that St. Simon met nothing of the same class as 

 Minting and The Bard. But one cannot get away from 

 the fact that Tristan, whom he twice defeated, was a really 

 good horse over all sorts of courses, as was proved by his 

 winning the Hardwicke Stakes three years in succession ; that 

 in one of these years he had won the Gold Cup on the pre- 

 vious day, and that a year later, when St. Simon beat him for 

 the Cup, he was still equal to tackling and beating all comers 

 in his third Hardwicke Stakes only twenty-four hours later, 



Ormonde won the classic races in which St. Simon was 

 unable to compete, but St. Simon's greatest victories were 

 achieved over a distance of ground, whereas Ormonde never 

 attempted a longer course than the mile and three-quarters 

 of the St. Leger, and so many of his "might-have-been" 

 opponents were not sent to oppose him. In the Guineas 



