JAMES MERRY 



started at 6 to 1. In the interim, however, his 

 wind had become more seriously affected than 

 ever, the half-mile of hill at the beginning of the 

 race fairly choked him, and he and Lord Rosebery's 

 Ladas — a very poor prototype of his brilliant suc- 

 cessor — figured in the extreme rear. He had three 

 tries as a four-year-old over half-mile courses, but 

 had then gone utterly to pieces, every trace of his 

 once brilliant speed having vanished. Belladrum 

 was a big rich bay with black legs, possessing great 

 bone and very truly made ; indeed, he was one of 

 the grandest specimens of a racehorse that I can 

 remember. 



Contemporaneously with Belladrum, INIr. Merry 

 owned Crocus, a chesnut filly by Thormanby out 

 of Sunflower, who won five out of the thirteen 

 events in which she took part as a two-year-old, 

 and was very smart indeed at that age, but as she 

 then trained off, and never earned a bracket after 

 her first season, I may safely pass on to IVIacgregor, 

 Sunshine, and Sunlight, who were all home-bred, 

 and were certainly three of the most remarkable 

 two-year-olds that a man ever possessed in one 

 season. Giving the place of honour to the lady, I 

 will first deal with Sunshine, a bay filly by Thor- 

 manby out of Sunbeam, who must have inherited a 

 great deal of the wear-and-tear nature of her sturdy 

 sire, as she was out ten times in her first season, 

 only once tasting defeat, and even that defeat was 

 more glorious than the majority of victories. She 

 was a remarkably muscular filly, and unusually 

 wide in the chest. Few finer walkers have ever 

 been seen, and I have a vivid remembrance of 

 having to do a jog-trot round the Epsom paddock 

 to keep up with her prior to the Oaks, as she must 

 have been moving at the rate of fully five miles 

 an hour. Mr. Merry was in Rome when Waugh 



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