20O 



A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



One of the best mares ever bred for this long-distance racing under heavy weights 

 was the Uuke of Rutland's Bonny Black, who was only a year younger than Fox, 

 and was by His Grace's Black Hearty, a son of the Bycrly Turk. She was the 

 only mare who in August 1720 had won the King's Plate at Hambleton twice. In 

 her first victory, in 1719, she beat thirty mares a year older than herself, the largest 

 field then seen, including Mr. Adam's ch. Smiling Molly, and Mr. Mutton's bl. 

 Gipsy by Bay Bollon. This was for five-year-old mares, four miles, at 10 stone, and 

 sixteen of them were placed. In the next year, under the same conditions, though 

 now of course she was not giving away a year to the rest, Bonny Black beat a field 

 of seventeen including 

 Mr. Chapman's bay 

 mare by Lord Wharton's 

 full bred son of Careless, 

 Mr. Markworth's Bonny 

 Bay, and entries by Sir 

 William Strickland, Mr. 

 Hutton, Lord Kinnoull 

 and others. So great 

 was her endurance, as 

 well as her speed, that 

 after she had beaten 

 (when six years old) 

 Lord Hervey's Merry - 

 man (who received three 

 stone) she challenged 

 any horse or mare in the kingdom to a race four times round the King's Plate 

 Course at Newmarket (or sixteen miles in all) without rubbing, and no one was 

 found to meet her. It would be difficult to quote a better example of the sterling 

 stamp of animals produced about this time. She bore a filly to the Cyprus Arabian, 

 who became the dam of Mr. Bright's Chicken (by Bartlett's Childcrs) and of the 

 same owner's Tawney (1743) by Crab, and this Tawney was one of the leaders in the 

 famous Queensberry carriage match. Chicken was the dam of Sir Charles Sedley's 

 Charmer by Badger (1746) and his Royal by Regulus (1749). 



The year of Bonny Black's birth saw also the first appearance of another famous 

 horse Lamprie. 



The Duke of Rutland's " Bonny niack." 



By permission of H.R.H. Prince Christian. 



