178 MEMORIES OF MEN AND HORSES 



the fourth day he won twice, finishing up with the 

 C. B. Fisher Plate, two miles. Mrs Langtry had her 

 half of the stakes cabled the following week, so all was 

 well that ended well. 



Later on Aurum won the Victoria St Leger before 

 he was sent to England ; but lack of attention to his 

 feet put him in a bad way on the voyage, and Fred 

 Webb, who had found Merman so easy to train, may 

 have thought all colonial horses were alike. 



Anyhow, galloping with Merman, who was then in 

 training for another Cesarewitch, set up trouble, and 

 later on, when the horses went to Foxhill, the late 

 W. T. Robinson could never wind up Aurum, though 

 he found out enough to assure me that this was by far 

 the best horse he had ever had in his stable. His 

 brother, Nat Robinson, who was then at his zenith, 

 told me the same thing. 



Such were the colonial horses of that period. Now 

 you can send out a second-class animal from here and 

 he carries all before him. It is because they have 

 been breeding from cheap and nasty paper pedigrees, 

 just because they are gaudy. Let them hold on to 

 their old Musket, Fisherman, Yattendon, Tim Whiffler 

 and Goldsbrough strains, and then they will find the 

 importations not a serious menace. 



I can safely claim that I was never responsible for 

 sending to Australia or New Zealand any but good 

 horses, and one of the latest of them was Kenilworth, 

 with whom Mr E. R. White of Merton, New South 

 Wales, did very well indeed. 



When the late Mr G. G. Stead who was the leading 

 owner in New Zealand, asked me some twenty years ago 

 to send him out two or three nice young mares, Otterden 



