GREAT WEIGHT-CARRIERS 277 



that Spearmint went in the Derby, and though Willonyx 

 won the Ascot Cup it was only because Charles 

 O'Malley would not struggle and even he was no 

 wonder. 



I think, perhaps, the greatest exponent of weight- 

 carrying ability, while lacking class, was Foxhall I 

 write only of horses within my own experience. Bend 

 Or gave him tons of weight in the City and Suburban 

 and beat him, but he won the Cesarewitch, and then went 

 on to win the Cambridgeshire under 9 st. as a three-year- 

 old, simply because he was a powerful weight-carrier 

 who could claim no great pretensions to class. He won 

 the Ascot Cup the next year against poor opposition, 

 but was readily defeated for the Alexandra Plate by 

 Fiddler, who was also of native American ancestry. 



It is very easy to be carried away by these handicap 

 fancies, and I myself succumbed to such a feeling after 

 the really splendid victory of Willonyx in the Cesare- 

 witch, and arranged a syndicate of breeders to fill him 

 for three years at 300 guineas, and buy him for 30,000 

 guineas, but Mr Howard would not sell. We were all 

 carried away by a splendid handicap performance, and 

 forgot that Willonyx had nothing like such a record 

 against the best of his year at weight-for-age. Rosedrop, 

 the winner of the Oaks, carried a penalty at York and 

 beat him over a mile and a half, thus earmarking his 

 weight-for-age form as by no means top class. 



Air Raid won the Cesarewitch as a three-year-old 

 with 8 st. i lb., and this performance was equal to that 

 of his sire, Willonyx, for Air Raid was a three-year-old. 

 Nevertheless he was by no means in the same class as 

 the best of his year as represented by Gainsborough. 

 He was a good one, of course, and a true stayer, like 



