FAMOUS RACING STUDS OF THE LAST THIRTY YEARS 633 



Melton by a head. It must have been some slight consolation to his owner that 

 Paradox won the Grand Prix at Paris. Another terrific race Mr. Cloete had in 

 1891 for the Park Hill Stakes at Doncaster, over the old St. Leger course, with 

 Cereza, a regular Newminster filly, who did not stand, or require, much training, and 

 was therefore kept out of the Oaks in order to win the Coronation Stakes at Ascot. 

 At Doncaster she met Haute Sadne and Mimi, and this time the short head went 

 the right way. The struggle was so close that Cereza 's jockey did not know which 

 had won, for there was only a short head between all three mares, and the excellence 

 of the performance may be judged from the fact that the betting was 100 to 30 

 against Cereza, 2 to i against Haute Sadne, and 5 to 4 against Mimi, who had won 

 the Thousand Guineas, the Newmarket Stakes, and the Oaks in that season. 

 Mr. Cloete moved his horses from Porter's to Marsh's, and then started training 

 them himself at his own stud farm, where gallops have been laid out on the beautiful 

 meadows at Hare Park, near Newmarket. 



But Porter must soon have been consoled for the defeat of Paradox, if a trainer 

 who was doing so well for so long ever really needed consolation ; for in that 

 very same year of 1885, a two-year-old by Bend Or out of Lily Agnes was 

 being tried in October over the Kingsclere Downs, and from the first day the 

 Duke of Westminster's bay colt showed his fine, free, tireless action, every good 

 judge saw he was a smasher. Even the best of them, however, hardly realised 

 at once that Ormonde was to have an unbeaten career of so brilliant a lustre 

 that, in the opinion of very many, he was the best horse of the nineteenth century. 

 Take him all round, this lineal descendant of Stockwell was certainly one of the 

 most remarkable horses ever bred in England, and his first rough gallop, against 

 Kendal, when both were two-year-olds, was the first time he was stripped, the 

 only time he was tried, and the only time he was ever headed at the finish. In 

 the Post Sweepstakes (Bretby Stakes Course) he did not start the favourite, and 

 beat Modwena (11 to 10 on) by a length. A strong favourite for the Criterion 

 Stakes (6 to 4 on, freely), he beat Oberon (by Galopin out of Wheel of Fortune) 

 and Mephisto easily. He met a fairly good field again in the Dewhurst Plate, 

 but started at 1 1 to 4 on, and beat Miss Jmmny, who was not much more than 

 moderate, though she won the Oaks. He cantered home, and went into winter 

 quarters; and the spring of 1886, that memorable year, dawned happily for every 

 friend of Kingsclere. There was great discussion over a particularly fine crop of 

 three-year-olds. The Bard was unbeaten, with the Brocklesby Stakes at Lincoln 



