JAMES MERRY 



since the defeat of St. Mungo in the Chester Cup 

 of 1869. On Waugh's assurance that the three- 

 year-old could not well be beaten, his owner 

 backed him heavily, but little Gradwell did not 

 prove strong enough to keep him straight, and, 

 when he was pulled up, his near side was badly cut 

 and scored from having run for lengths in close 

 contact with the rails, but for which Knight of the 

 Garter would have found the task of giving him 

 43 lb. an absolutely hopeless one. The loss of the 

 Derby in the following year completed the rupture 

 between master and servant. INIr. Merry said on 

 one occasion, " If you'd trained Sunshine, she'd 

 have won all the classic races," a very unreasonable 

 remark to make about a filly who was not only 

 touched in her wind, but who, as I have related 

 when dealing with her, had met with a serious 

 accident in the early part of her three-year-old 

 season. Waugh very naturally deeply resented 

 this imputation upon his ability, and the hasty 

 remark, possibly made when JVIr. Merry was smart- 

 ing under the disappointinent of JNIacgregor's in- 

 explicable defeat, was the real cause of the colt never 

 being able to run again. Up to that tiine his trainer, 

 knowing the trouble that had always existed with 

 the suspensory ligament of his off fore-leg, had been 

 very tender with him in his work, but, after the 

 unmerited aspersion that had been cast on him 

 with regard to the training of Sunshine, he de- 

 termined to leave no loophole for the same thing 

 to be said about Macgregor, so sent him along in 

 his work day after day just as though he had been 

 a perfectly sound horse, the inevitable result being 

 that he very speedily broke down. Macgregor was 

 a short horse, standing a trifle high on the leg, 

 being built somewhat after the style of St. 

 Frusquin. His chief fault was that he was terribly 



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