FAMOUS RACING STUDS OF THE LAST THIRTY YEARS. 639 



When he appeared at Newmarket for the Two Thousand, local critics thought him 

 well named ; but they soon altered their opinion when he had beaten Gouverneur, 

 Peter Flower, and Orvieto in a common canter. At Epsom he showed he could 

 go as well on soft ground as on hard, and thoroughly justified the odds of 1 1 to 10 

 laid on him. Immediately after he had secured the triple crown by winning the 

 St. Leger, he was sold to Sir Blundell Maple for ,15,000, and went to the stud after 

 as short a career on the Turf as was possible for so commanding a success. But there 

 were many who regretted that so fine an animal was not given the chance of becoming 

 the great Cup horse he might undoubtedly have proved himself, for he was one 

 of the very best that ever trod the turf, of so powerful a make that, as in the case 

 of Ormonde, a hasty glance at him at the stud produces an impression of coarseness, 

 which is really unfounded. His loins and quarters are wonderful, with good hind 

 legs, a grand stifle, and excellent shoulders and humerus. Kingsclere had four 

 good two-year-olds while Common was in training. These were La Fleche, Orme, 

 Goldfinch, and Windgall. The daughter of St. Simon and Quiver cost Baron Hirsch 

 5,500 guineas, at that time the record price for a yearling, and one which the 

 King, then Prince of Wales, strongly advised her purchaser to give. Like her 

 full sister, Memoir, La Fleche was beautifully and truly made throughout, with 

 very fine stifle, straight hincl leg, and good shoulders. She eventually won .31,153 

 in stakes alone ; was unbeaten as a two-year-old ; cantered away with the One 

 Thousand ; was beaten by a cleverly ridden outsider for the Derby ; won the Oaks 

 by a head, in spite of having a very hard race in her; beat Orvieto (4 yrs., 

 gst. rolb.) by three lengths (gst. Sib.) in the Lancashire Plate at Manchester; and 

 turned the tables decisively on Sir Hiigo at Doncaster by winning the Leger in 

 a canter. Her final success in 1892 was the Cambridgeshire, under 8st. iolb., against 

 Pensioner with 6st. 4lb. That year the Prince of Wales and Baron Hirsch left 

 Porter's stables with mutual regret on both sides. Ormes career was by no means 

 over while his brilliant stable-companion was rolling up her victories. He had been 

 only once beaten out of six attempts as a two-year-old, and his three-year-old season 

 was rendered sensational throughout the length and breadth of England by the 

 mysterious incident popularly known as " The Poisoning of Orme." The theory 

 of a diseased tooth was at one time widely believed ; but in the book he published 

 in 1896, John Porter asserted that he had "not the least doubt whatever" that the 

 horse had been poisoned. Mr. Williams, the well-known veterinary professor, was 

 of opinion, when called in at the time, that the poison was mercurial. Besides the 



