FAMOUS RACING STUDS OF THE LAST THIRTY YEARS. 



663 



here. But whether they be mere fables or no, they certainly became an accurate 

 description of the facts ; and the first of them has occurred twice over already. Lord 

 Rosebery was once heard to say, in connection, I think, with his second Derby 

 victory, that the objections which some people had formed against his racing had 

 lain dormant during the long period of his comparative failure on the Turf, but 

 were roused to fury by his success. When it came, that success was certainly 

 unquestionable, and much of it was owing to Matthew Dawson's training. Between 

 1894 and 1898 inclusive, he owned Ladas, Sir Visto, and Velasquez, and won 

 over ,76,000 in stakes. The stallions are now at the Durdans, and at the 

 Crafton stud near Mentmore, where Seabreeze, that famous winner of Oaks and 

 St. Leger, is among 

 the brood mares, and 

 Ladas looks one of the 

 handsomest and most 

 spirited of living stal- 

 lions. The Durdans, 

 where the collection 

 of sporting pictures 



Hy permission of" Country Life." 



" Bend Or" at Eaton. 



that has illustrated so 

 many of my pages is 

 one of the best in the 

 world, was once owned 

 by Sir Gilbert Heath- 

 cote, who won the 

 Derby with Amato, 



and it is here that Lord Rosebery 's yearlings are kept, in the very atmosphere of 

 Epsom racecourse, where that famous matron, Il/uminata, passed the last days 

 of her twenty-sixth year close by them. 



When Lord Rosebery was asked to stand for the Chancellorship of Oxford 

 University after Lord Salisbury's death, some opponents revived the obsolete 

 romance that he had been sent down from Christchurch. The truth is that his 

 first Ladas was doing well on the Turf as a two-year-old while his young owner 

 was a member of the Bullingdon with Lord Randolph Churchill, Sir A. W. -Neeld, 

 Sir George Chetwynd, Lord Ilchester, Sir W. Milner, and other good sportsmen. 

 Dean Liddell was naturally cognisant of the fact of Ladas existence and ownership. 



