H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES 



Persimmon will be generally followed. The colt's 

 victory in the Cup was one of those brilliant per- 

 formances that will never be forgotten by those 

 who were present, and it is pretty certain that he 

 was never quite such a horse as upon that after- 

 noon. No one could entertain a reasonable doubt 

 that he would beat Winkfield's Pride, Love Wisely, 

 and Limasol, but even his most enthusiastic ad- 

 mirers scarcely expected that he would treat them 

 as though they had been a field of selling-platers. 

 It is all very well to describe the Irish representative 

 as a " mere handicap horse," but I do not think 

 that this is doing him anything like justice. He 

 ran in three other races during that season, and " 

 won them all. It was a pretty good start for the 

 year to carry 8 st. 9 lb. successfully in the Lincoln- 

 shire Handicap, for the eighteen that took part in 

 the race were a bit above the average, and Victor 

 Wild, Clorane, Diakka, and Greenlawn were all 

 amongst the unplaced division. Then he won the 

 Doncaster Cup as he liked, and was shortly after- 

 wards sent to the Paris Autumn Meeting, at 

 which he landed the rich Prix du Conseil Municipal 

 in a common canter, having Elf, Omnium II., 

 Champaubert, and Masque amongst the fourteen 

 that finished behind him. All this is a little above 

 ordinary handicap form. Then Love Wisely had 

 scored a very easy victory in the Ascot Cup of the 

 preceding year, and, later in the season, polished 

 off Velasquez, Chelandry, Goletta, and others in 

 great style for the Jockey Club Stakes ; whilst 

 Limasol had gained a three lengths verdict in the 

 Oaks only a fortnight previously. I think it was 

 Persimmon's extraordinary excellence, and not the 

 weakness of the opposition, that enabled him to 

 canter past the winning post with his ears pricked 

 on that memorable afternoon. The month that 



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