694 



A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



jockey was suspended for the rest of the meeting. Sceptre then lost the Park Hill 

 Stakes in the effort to give Elba i2lb. forty-eight hours after the Leger ; and 

 those who had persistently betted against her for the big event considered they had 

 been justified; but the filly's staying powers were full proved. Time 3 min. 12 sec. 

 on a wet day, trained by an amateur confident enough to have refused two 

 offers of 38,000 and 40,000 guineas for her, and ridden by an apprentice only 

 just emancipated from the allowance stage, from the outside, without a single 

 advantage, in weather almost as tempestuous as Robert the Devil's year, she won 

 with fully a stone in hand, in the opinion of Mr. Charles Greenwood, who had 

 foretold her victory, and who had always considered that her occasional failures 



only accentuated the bril- 

 liancy of her triumphs. 

 These were indeed worth 

 considering, for she had 

 won ,25,650 in stakes, 

 and her victory in all 

 the five classic events 

 except the Derby put her 

 ahead of Formosa, who 

 won the One Thousand, 

 Oaks, and St. Leger, but 

 ran a dead heat with 

 Moslem for the Two 

 Thousand (1868) ; ahead 

 of Shotover, who won 



Two Thousand and Derby (1882); ahead of Eleanor and Blink Bonny, who won 

 Derby and Oaks in 1801 and 1857. No filly has ever won both Derby and Leger. 

 Sceptre was the twenty-second to win both One Thousand and Oaks, and she 

 followed Formosa (1868), Hannah (1871), Apology (1874), and La Flcche (1892), in 

 winning One Thousand, Oaks, and St. Leger. Impfrieuse and Achievement won the 

 One Thousand and the Leger, in addition to the quartette already named who added 

 the Oaks. But Achievement, one of the best mares that ever raced, undoubtedly 

 ought to have defeated Hippia in the Oaks. Sceptre is the only filly who has won 

 the Two Thousand outright, and added the St. Leger to it ; and the only other 

 two who have won Two Thousand, One Thousand, and Oaks are Crucifix and 



" La Roche " (1897) bv " St. Simon." 



