THE HOUSE OF ROTHSCHILD 



not come to his best until the autumn, and Exeter 

 always lacked pace. There was possibly, there- 

 fore, a certain amount of luck attaching to the 

 victory of Sir Bevys, and it is quite certain that 

 Palmbearer and Visconti, who were respectively 

 second and third to him, were thorough commoners. 

 On the other hand I have the best authority for 

 writing that Sir Bevys was a fairly good colt on 

 the Derby day, and not by any means so moderate 

 as has been generally imagined. At the same time 

 it is a curious example of the irony of fate that 

 George Fordham should have won his only Derby 

 upon him, succeeding where he had failed when 

 favoured with such exceptional mounts as Lord 

 Clifden and Macgregor. Shortly after his Epsom 

 victory Sir Bevys became a very bad roarer, so 

 that his complete failure in the St. Leger, the 

 only subsequent engagement which he fulfilled, 

 need be a matter of no surprise. 



In 1870 the " dark blue, yellow cap " passed 

 into the safe keeping of Mr. Leopold de Roth- 

 schild. To give an account of the careers of all 

 the good horses he has possessed since that time 

 would occupy half this volume, yet it is a very 

 singular fact that, although he has headed the list 

 of winning owners in four out of five successive 

 years, had it not been for St. Frusquin his name 

 would not have appeared as the owner of a classic 

 winner, and even that great horse had to be content 

 with a Two Thousand. So much for the important 

 part played by luck in all racing matters, for there 

 are certainly two of the eight winners of the " triple 

 crown" who were decidedly inferior to St. Frusquin. 

 He is a brown horse by St. Simon out of Isabel, 

 by Plebeian out of Parma, and I have always 

 considered him to be more like his sire than any 

 of the other sons or daughters of the famous 



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