GLADIATEUR 



odds upon the "pale-faced chesnut." Gladiateur 

 was a very big -boned angular horse, and his 

 tremendous hips made him appear to be even more 

 "dipped" in the back than he really was. His 

 stud career must be described as disappointing, and 

 yet, but for a cruel piece of ill fortune, he might 

 have been remembered as the sire of one veritable 

 wonder. This was Hero, a bay colt out of Tesane, 

 foaled in 1872, who has probably been forgotten by 

 the majority even of those who take a genuine 

 interest in racing matters. Yet, had he lived, it is 

 probable that the Turf history of 1874 and the year 

 or two following it would have been considerably 

 altered. Hero's only appearance in public was 

 made in a sweepstakes over the last half of the 

 Rowley Mile at the Newmarket Second Spring 

 Meeting. Reports of his being something alto- 

 gether out of the common had evidently leaked out, 

 for only the smallest shade of odds was obtainable 

 against him at the start, and, in the hands of 

 Fordham, he did what he liked with Lord 

 Falmouth's smart Blair Athol filly. Ladylove, and a 

 couple of others. After this confirmation of what 

 he had accomplished in private, Jennings, to whom 

 the colt belonged, was more than ever sanguine that 

 the much-talked-of "second Gladiateur" had at 

 length arrived. Unhappily he inherited a good deal 

 of his sire's excitable temperament, and one 

 morning, after running clean away from old Luisette 

 in a gallop on the Limekilns, he became almost 

 unmanageable, and gave the lad who was riding 

 him a terrible time of it on the way home. With 

 the idea of quieting him down, Jennings told the 

 boy to give him a canter on the tan. Hardly, 

 however, had he got fully into swing, when he was 

 observed to falter and stop, and, on his owner 

 galloping up to the spot, he found that the colt 



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