JAMES MERRY 



straight in front, but no one ever knew how good 

 he really was, and James Waugh's remark to me, 

 *' I don't know how much he could have given 

 Sunshine," is the best tribute to his extraordinary 

 excellence. 



The unlucky Sunlight, a chesnut colt by Stock- 

 well out of Sunflower, was a really good one, a bit 

 in front of Sunshine, though this would never be 

 guessed by a casual glance at his performances in 

 the Calendar. It was nothing in his favour that 

 he started his career by being beaten a head for 

 the Coventry Stakes at Stockbridge, which was 

 reduced to a match between him and Lady Annie, 

 a Trumpeter filly belonging to John Day ; but 

 what did him irretrievable harm was running him 

 in two races at Goodwood. On the Tuesday of 

 that meeting he fought a single-handed battle with 

 Kingcraft in the Ham Stakes, getting done by half 

 a length, and, two days later, contrary to the 

 earnest advice of his trainer, Mr. IMerry insisted on 

 running him again for the Bentinck INIemorial 

 Stakes, in which he finished third to Gamos and 

 Gertrude. These two races seemed to sour his 

 temper, and ever afterwards he was very trouble- 

 some at the start, almost invariably whipping 

 round to the left ; indeed, though he was allowed 

 to walk over for a couple of nice little stakes as a 

 two-year-old, the only race that he actually won at 

 that age was the Black Duck Stakes at York, in 

 which he was ridden by Harroway, a stable lad in 

 Waugh's employ, to whom I have already referred 

 when writing of Belladrum. Still he was generally 

 " on the premises," and it was no bad performance 

 to run Hester to a length for the Criterion Stakes, 

 w^hilst the four lengths beating he gave Kingcraft 

 in the same event fully counterbalanced the 7 lb. 

 he was receiving from Lord Falmouth's colt. In 



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