CHAPTER XVII 



CLASSIC WINNERS 



Record since 1863 General Improvement Great Individuals in the 

 Past Occasional Bad Ones in the Present Blair Athol and Robert 

 Peck Gladiateur and Rev. Cecil Legard All the Winners 

 Prince Charlie magnificent Cremorne and Lord Rosebery 

 Doncaster Bend Or Ormonde Galopin, Kisber, Silvio 

 Defeats of Galliard and Bruce Iroquois and Foxhall St Gatien 

 and St Simon 



I SUPPOSE there are not many people who have seen 

 more classic winners than I have, and the question 

 often crops up Which was the best of them? It 

 is a question which no human being can answer 

 definitely unless he lacks a judicial mind for how, 

 indeed, is it possible to compare the form throughout 

 more than fifty years ? That the form of our horses has 

 been improving throughout that time I know, though I 

 am quite sure that a Derby winner like Macaroni was 

 immeasurably superior to such as Durbar, Tagalie or 

 Aboyeur, who as Derby winners were mere freaks. 



It is a different matter when we try to compare the 

 best of years that have passed, and I make no doubt 

 Macaroni was a good horse, though not a wonder. His 

 forelegs were proppy and light of bone, and he trans- 

 mitted that defect to many of his descendants, but he 

 was a good stud horse, and has always proved valuable 

 in the making of brood mares, such as Lily Agnes and 

 her sister, Tiger Lily. Macaroni stood little over 15-2, 

 and in his latter stages was wrong in his wind. I 



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