8T0CKWELL AND BLINK BONNY. 



ALL experience points to the paddock as the phice where the germ of future success in 

 racing pursuits is first laid, and on the proper mating of sii-e and dam must depend the 

 excellence of every horse produced. A few years ago this was left very much to 

 chance, some successful i-unner or fashionable sire being selected without reference to the 

 suitability of his blood to the mare allotted him. Eut this is in a great measure changed 

 now, and the chance of mixing with various strains of blood is more carefully studied than 

 formerly ; indeed there is no doubt that though influences over which we can exert no 

 control may aftect the produce so as to render it useless, much may be done towards 

 producing better class horses by such studj\ Under these cii-cumstances we oft'er no 

 apology for placing the paddock second in our list of turf scenes, and no more worthy 

 representatives of their class as a blood sire and brood mare could be offered than 

 Stockwell and Blink Bonny. In fact, both have reached the highest pinnacle of fame, 

 both on the tiu-f and in the paddock, and well, indeed, may the former be termed the 

 Emperor of Stallions. But j^lace aii.r dames miist be oiu* motto, and ere entering on his 

 merits we will discuss those of his consort, Blink Bonny. This celebrated mare was a 

 daughter of Melbrnmie and Queen Mary, by Gladiator, and worthilj^ takes rank beside 

 the old horse's sons. Sir Tatton Sykes and West Australian, with his daughter C'ymba. 

 As a two-year-old she was very successful, but at three her reverses began, and when 

 an immense public favourite she was beaten all to nothing by Imperieuse for the One 

 Thousand Guineas at Newmarket. The mare was said to be amiss at the time fi-om 

 shelling her teeth, and did so badly between that period and Epsom, that her owner and 

 ti'ainer, I'^Vnson, had little hope of attaining the success which really awaited him. 

 Anxiously as he watched the race, his mare was nowhere to be seen until a few strides 

 from the chair, when she came out from her horses like an arrow from a bow and won the 

 first Derby that a filly had carried off since Eleanor in 1801. Like her, too, she won the 

 ladies' race ; but the Oaks was a verj" different aftair fi-om the Derby, and the mare, still 

 continuing to improve, so spread-eagled her field that the judge placed them all. With 

 such credentials it is no wonder that she became a hot f;ivoui"ite for the St. Leger despite 

 the claims of Ignoramus, and the race was considered as little more than a match between 

 the pail'. These deductions, however, proved fallacious, and ere the Stand was reached 

 both of them were seen to be hopelessly tailed off, and Imperieuse, who had beaten her in 

 the One Thousand and herself suffered defeat in the Oaks, added another to John Scott's 

 long bederoU of Leger victories. On the Friday she won the Park Hill Stakes easily 

 enough, and^ so- great was public indignation at these equivocal performances, that 

 I'Anson and Charlton barely escaped lynching on the spot, and a cry was raised to ham- 

 sti'ing the mare as sheretiu-ned to scale. Three years old saw the best of her ; and though 

 she started at Goodwood the next year she never could be prepared properly, and, quitting 

 the tm-f, made her first stud alliance with Newininster, the offspring of which was the 

 clever little mare Borealis. It was, however, fi-om a visit to Stockwell that her paddock 

 fame was destined to spring, and by the aid of Blair Athol to place the Derby and St. Leger 

 to the credit of Spring Cottage. In his first essaj' he Avon the Derby, and then closed a 

 short but brilliant turf career appropriately with the Doncaster trophy. Twice he suf- 

 fered defeat, biit on each occasion there was some allowance to be made for him. The next 

 foal of Stockwell and Blink Bonny, Breadalbane, though sold to Mr. Chaplin for an 

 enormous price before he commenced racing, turned out very moderate ; and the old 

 mare died ere she could breed him up, so a cart mare was called in as stepmother. 

 It is certainlj' strange that with two horses the produce of the same parents, 

 one should be so much inferior to the other, which can only be accounted for 

 by some influence unknown to us at present. Xevcrtheless, it is frequently 



