DESCRIPTION OF SCEPTRE'S DERBY 133 



the Newmarket Second Spring Meeting was published 

 exclusively by me, and most of us at that time 

 thought, very erroneously, that Sceptre would be all 

 the better for the rest. My description of her Derby 

 now follows : 



$th June 1902. 



I THINK somehow that everybody was, in a sense, 

 sorry to see Sceptre beaten to-day, for her victories at 

 Newmarket were of a character to excite enthusiasm, 

 and her owner has won a sort of regard as a game 

 sportsman struggling with adversity just as calmly as 

 when he basks in prosperity. Mr Sievier was no doubt 

 bitterly disappointed, but he did not show it in any 

 way, and immediately resolved that Sceptre shall run 

 for the Oaks, and she will also go over for the Grand 

 Prix. 



The first idea of those who saw her performance was 

 that she does not stay the mile and a half, and Morton, 

 who trained her last year, is of this opinion ; but I shall 

 want something more than to-day's defeat to convince 

 me of it, for if ever there was a mare that looked and 

 galloped like a stayer it is Sceptre, and as a daughter 

 of Persimmon and a granddaughter of Lily Agnes, 

 where can her lack of stamina come in ? My own idea 

 when I saw her beaten after taking a position on the 

 rails at Tattenham Corner and facing for home as if 

 she was going to win readily was that perhaps she 

 may be short of a gallop or two, for, as I stated on 

 Saturday, she had to be stopped for three or four days 

 between the Two Thousand Guineas week and the 

 Derby in consequence of bruising a foot. 



We shall see what we shall see when she runs again, 



