THE DUKE OF PORTLAND 



sires could get any number of winners for other 

 people, whilst they were uniformly unfortunate in 

 their alliances with the superb collection of brood 

 mares that had been got together by their owner. 

 As I write there are signs that the pendulum is 

 once more about to swing in the opposite direc- 

 tion, but any successes achieved after Persimmon's 

 day are beyond the scope of this volume, and I 

 must content myself with a sketch of one of the 

 most remarkable periods of good fortune ever 

 enjoyed by any owner of racehorses. It must 

 surely have been an omen of the great luck 

 presently in store for the Duke when he bought 

 St. Simon as a two-year-old for 1600 guineas, 

 which must be regarded, all things considered, 

 as the best bargain ever secured in the history of 

 the Turf He is a bay horse by Galopin out of 

 St. Angela, short, well-coupled, and high on the 

 leg, very much after the style of St. Frusquin, 

 who is the most like him of any of his sons or 

 daughters that I have ever seen. He was bred by 

 the late Prince Batthyany, who died suddenly in 

 the Jockey Club Stand at Newmarket, the im- 

 mediate cause of this sad and tragic event beins: 

 the excitement of seeing Galliard, a son of his 

 idolised Galopin, win the Two Thousand after a 

 very close finish. The sale of the Prince's stud 

 took place soon afterwards, and it was doubtless 

 the fact of all St. Simon's nominations being void 

 that enabled the Duke of Portland to secure him 

 so cheaply. In the following season Scot Free 

 won the Two Thousand, St. Gatien and Harvester 

 ran a dead-heat for the Derby, and The Lambkin 

 secured the St. Leger. The Turf history of that 

 year would have been somewhat different had 

 Prince Batthyany lived a couple of years longer, 

 for none of the horses named could have extended 



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