6l7 



CHAPTER XXI. 



FAMOUS RACING STUDS OF THE LAST THIRTY YEARS. 



" Between two horses, which doth bear him best, 

 Between two girls, which hath the merriest eye, 

 I have, perhaps, some shallow spirit of judgment." 



'""INHERE has been a considerable change in racing studs and training stables, 

 as in most other things connected with the Turf, during the last thirty years. 

 In tracing these developments, I have begun with one of the old-fashioned sort, not 

 only for the sake of contrast, but to emphasise the value of the Musket blood, to 

 which increased attention has been given of late. 



Several men are still living who have heard old Tom Parr's stories of how 

 gentle old Fisherman, with George Hall up, would never begin to go until he 

 had run two miles, and then would wear the heart out of anything on four legs ; 

 how he could be trained on a turnpike road and raced every day, and never leave 

 a grain in the manger, though he ate more solid corn than any other horse. 

 Bred by Mr. Fowler in 1853, this stout son of Heron and Mainbrace carried as 

 a two-year-old the puce and white jacket of Mr. Thomas Parr, who bought him 

 from Mr. Halford. When three years old he started in 34 races and won 23 

 of them, including the Queen's Vase at Ascot and the Cumberland Plate at 

 Carlisle, against Warlock, the future St. Leger winner, whose chances were lost 

 by George Fordham's thinking too soon that the race was over. In his fourth 

 year he won 22 races out of 35, and in the next season out of 32 attempts he 

 scored 21 times, including the Ascot Cup, which he won again when he was six 

 against Saunterer and Defender, and actually won his last Queen's Plate (over 

 three miles) on the same afternoon. He was bought privately in 1860 for Mr. 

 H. Fisher, of Adelaide, after Stockwcll had been captured by Mr. Naylor for 

 4,500 guineas, and with him went to Australia four of Lord Londesborough's 

 brood mares : Gildcnnirc, Juliet, Marchioness, and Rose de Florence, one of whom 



