JAMES MERRY 



Frivolity and Kingcraft were concerned, I think 

 that this was true, but the stout Thormanby blood 

 in Sunshine soon enabled her to shake off the 

 effects of such an ordeal, and her subsequent 

 failure as a three-year-old was due to other causes 

 altogether. In the first place her wind became 

 slightly affected in the autumn, and the services 

 of Mr. Robinson were requisitioned to fire her in 

 the throat, the unfortunate Claret colt being again 

 the ostensible object of the veterinary's visit, and 

 having to undergo the unpleasant operation once 

 more. It is doubtful if this remedy did much 

 good, still she never became a very pronounced 

 roarer, and might have pulled through her principal 

 engagements all right but for an accident which 

 happened early in 1870. There had been a hard 

 frost, and, before this was fairly out of the ground, 

 she slipped up and severely strained the back sinew 

 of her near hind-leg, a misfortune which made it 

 advisable to at once hedge the money for which 

 she had been backed for the Derby. Under these 

 circumstances she did wonderfully well to run 

 Gamos to a length for the Oaks, and there is not 

 the smallest foundation for the statement which 

 was made in a recent book dealing with the Turf, 

 that she was "poisoned" prior to that race. 

 Probably, however, the author of the work in 

 question was confusing her case with that of 

 Hester, who, having won the One Thousand 

 in hollow fashion from a field which included 

 Frivolity, INIahonia, and Mantilla, was backed at 

 evens for the Oaks, 4 to 1 being laid against 

 Sunshine. Hester made no sort of show in the 

 race, finishing sixth of the seven runners, and it 

 has always been supposed that she was "got at," 

 though the real facts connected with the matter 

 are scarcely likely ever to come to light. The 



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