H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES 



for a piece of very bad fortune, it is quite likely 

 that Thais would have supplemented Persimmon's 

 great victory by a triumph on the Friday. She 

 was a brown filly by St. Serf out of Poetry ; her 

 dam was always a soft and delicate mare, and, 

 unfortunately, this delicacy was inherited by her 

 daughter, who always required the most careful 

 treatment. She only ran three times as a two- 

 year-old, her first appearance on a racecourse 

 being made at Ascot, where she finished third 

 in the New Stakes to Roquebrune and Shaddock, 

 with Galeazzo and Mimic failing to obtain places. 

 Then came a third in the July Stakes, Labrador 

 and Galeazzo finishing in front of her, a couple of 

 necks separating the three. A victory in the 

 Crabbet Plate at Gatwick finished her work for 

 the year ; with the exception of Amphora there 

 was nothing of much character amongst the 

 eleven she beat, with nearly all of whom she 

 had a slight pull in the weights. Thus her form 

 could scarcely have been described as being more 

 than respectable, but she wintered pretty well, and 

 started second favourite to Omladina for the One 

 Thousand Guineas. The latter, who was such a 

 brilliant two-year-old, at which age she was never 

 beaten except by St. Frusquin in the Middle Park 

 Plate, had evidently gone all to pieces, and gave 

 no trouble at all, but there was a tremendous 

 finish between Thais and Santa Maura, the 

 majority of us inclining to the idea that the 

 latter had just won, until the numbers went up. 

 This race settled Mr. Douglas Baird's filly for the 

 time, indeed she never ran again until the autumn, 

 when a desperate struggle with Regret, in which 

 a head verdict again went against her, ended her 

 racing career. Thus the way seemed pretty well 

 cleared for Thais in the Oaks, but, knowing her 



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