SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



RACING CELEBRITIES 



The foremost place among racing celebrities 

 of the county belongs to the first Lord Alington, 

 who from his earliest years took the greatest 

 interest in the turf. The late Sir Francis Doyle, 

 who was a distant cousin of the Sturts, used to 

 relate that Gerard Sturt, when an Eton boy in 

 1839-40, backed Lord George Bentinck's famous 

 filly, Crucifix, for all her races as a two and 

 three-year-old, and wound up by landing a 

 treble event bet when, in 1840, she won the 

 TwoThousand Guineas, One Thousand Guineas, 

 and Oaks.^ 



In 1849 colours were first registered for 

 Mr. Gerard Sturt, as he was then — light blue 

 jacket and white cap ; and the first of his many 

 trainers was John Day of Danebury. 



His first successes worthy of record were 

 gained when he and his staunch confederate, Sir 

 Frederic Johnstone, transferred their horses to 

 William Day's care at Woodyates, which that 

 good trainer and fine judge of racing had leased 

 from the earl of Shaftesbury. Perhaps the most 

 remarkable of the lot was Brigantine, which 

 William Day bought for Sir Frederic Johnstone 

 as a yearling for 150 guineas. This mare, 

 trained at Woodyates, won for Sir Frederic the 

 Oaks and the Ascot Gold Cup in 1869. She 

 subsequently remained in Lord Alington's stud 

 at the White Farm at Crichel until 1882. 



The real interest attaching to Lord Alington's 

 racing life, so far as it affects the majority of 

 modern racegoers, commences with the period 

 when, about the year 1882, he became for the 

 first time a patron of John Porter's famous 

 training establishment at Kingsclere in Hamp- 

 ihire, of which his partner. Sir Frederic John- 

 stone, was already a supporter. There is no 

 occasion to recapitulate in detail the names and 

 performances of the numerous thoroughbreds in 

 training which belonged jointly or severally to 

 Lord Alington and Sir Frederic Johnstone be- 

 tween 1 88 1 and 1903. Are not their names, 

 ages, pedigrees, and performances, as well as the 

 jockeys who rode them, exhaustively recited by 

 John Porter in his entertaining work Kingsclere, 

 published in 1896? Before he joined the 

 Kingsclere stable Lord Alington's triumphs had 

 been principally confined to handicaps, selling 

 stakes, and two-year-old races. With each and 

 all of his many previous trainers, William Day 

 alone excepted, he had been singularly unsuc- 

 cessful. At Danebury, at Littleton, at Findon, 

 at Newmarket, where for fifty years he had 

 horses under the charge of several trainers, 

 some of whom, by his orders, kept his con- 

 nexion with their stables a profound secret, 

 he was seldom cheered by victory. All, how- 



' The editor of the Sportsman has most kindly sup- 

 plied a great deal of information concerning Lord 

 Alington's racing life. 



ever, was changed when the partners threw 

 in their lot with William Day at Woodyates. 

 The long list of prizes won by Lord Alington 

 (then Mr. Gerard Sturt) and Sir Frederic John- 

 stone is given by William Day in his Racehorse 

 in Training (p. 99), from which we quote the 

 following passage : — 



That some estimate may be formed of the merits 

 of the animals my horses met, I v/\\\ summarize a few 

 of the races they won. Handicaps : — Chester Cup, 

 Cambridgeshire, Royal Hunt Cup, and Somersetshire 

 Stakes, three times each ; the Metropolitan, Goodwood 

 Stewards' Cup, Great Eastern Handicap, Goodwood 

 Stakes, and Northamptonshire Stakes, twice each ; 

 the Portland Plate, Cesarewitch, Chesterfield Cup, 

 Stewards' Cup at Chester, the Doncaster and Lincoln- 

 shire Handicaps ; the Newmarket, Lincoln, Goodwood, 

 Doncaster, and Stockbrldge Nurseries, the Shrewsbury 

 and other small handicaps. Among two-year-old vic- 

 tories I may include the New, Molecombe, and Lavant 

 Stakes, the Ham and Findon Stakes, the Criterion, 

 and the following weight-for-age races ; The Oaks, 

 Goodwood, Derby (twice). Queen's Vase at Ascot 

 (twice), the Ascot and Goodwood Cups, the Two 

 Thousand Guineas (twice). Royal Stakes, and, finally, 

 the Yearling Stakes at Shrewsbury, not to mention 

 others. 



In 1883 St. Blaise running in the name of 

 Sir F. Johnstone won the Derby. 



In 1 891 Common won the Triple Crown. 



In 1894 Throstle won the St. Leger. 



In 1 891 Lord Alington sold Common to 

 Sir J. Blundell Maple for one of the largest sums 

 ever paid in the United Kingdom for a racehorse, 

 and in 1894 he sold Matchbox, which ran second 

 in the Derby to Lord Rosebery's Ladas, to Baron 

 de Hirsch for ;^i 5,000. 



Towards the end of his life Lord Alington 

 generally had a few horses in training with 

 Walters at Pimperne, and many of them were 

 successful. He died in 1904 and was succeeded 

 by his son the Hon. Humphrey Napier Sturt, 

 who still keeps some good horses in training with 

 the same trainer. 



The late Lord Wolverton had a few good 

 horses in his time, the most famous of his breed- 

 ing was The Bard. The late Mr. Ralph Bankes 

 of Kingston Lacy also did a little racing, and he 

 won quite a good number of the smaller events 

 between the years 1881 and 1902. Amongst 

 his best horses were Camiola which in 1894 

 won five races at Hurst Park and Kempton Park, 

 and Perseverance, the winner between 1899 and 

 1 90 1 of seven races at Ayr, Birmingham, Kemp- 

 ton Park, and Newmarket. 



TRAINING ESTABLISHMENTS AND 

 STUD FARMS 



Now that Mr. Gilpin has left Langton and 

 gone to train at Newmarket the only trainer left 

 in the county is Mr. Alfred Walters at Pimperne. 

 The father of the present trainer of this stable 

 was Mr. W. Walters, who himself was the son 



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