THE DUKE OF PORTLAND 



laid him to the same money against Melanion, 

 instead of his original wager. His feelings after 

 the race was over must have been too deep for 

 words. Seabreeze was also making her first 

 appearance as a four-year-old in this event, and it 

 seems very strange that 10 to 1 should have been 

 obtainable about her. Doubtless the result of the 

 Newmarket Oaks, in which, with 200 to 7 laid on 

 her, she only scraped home by a head, had given 

 warning that her form was going, and she had 

 presumably wintered badly. Still, she and Ayrshire 

 had the finish entirely to themselves, but the 

 result of the Lancashire Plate was reversed, the 

 verdict of three - quarters of a length being in 

 favour of the colt. These determined opponents 

 met for the fifth time in the Eclipse Stakes at 

 Sandown Park, but the filly was deteriorating very 

 rapidly, and gave no trouble to Ayrshire, who won 

 by a couple of lengths from El Dorado, and thus 

 landed £20,665 in stakes in two successive races. 

 This was destined to be his last triumph, for he 

 broke down in the Champion Stakes in the autumn 

 of that year, and never ran again. In spite of his 

 high courage, he was a remarkably lazy colt, and 

 on one occasion in his two-year-old days, when he 

 had been sent to Windsor to run for the Royal 

 Plate, which he won, George Dawson went into 

 his box in the course of the inorning and found 

 that he had raked out all the straw from the 

 corner where it had been piled up, and was quietly 

 stretched out upon it. His numerous successes at 

 the stud have iDcen too recently gained to need 

 recapitulation, and he should do good service for 

 several years yet to come. 



Successful as Ayrshire proved himself so far as 

 the winning of valuable stakes was concerned, I 

 question if he is entitled to rank very high in the 



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