116 CANADIAN TURF EECOLLECTIONS 



Doctor he liad been standing in a narrow stall for nearly 

 a week, receiving no further exercise than two trips daily 

 to the trough at the stable pump. 



He only arrived at Barrie the morning of the race, and 

 when stripped for the contest looked in no shape to win 

 it; but the quality of the company was such that they 

 couldn't make the pace fast enough to make him quit, 

 and despite his being ''all off," he won the Derby by a 

 length in the slow time of 2.471/2, the distance, one mile 

 and a half. War Cry afterwards won many good races 

 on the Canadian turf, but as a sire of speed was not a 

 success. 



The Queen's Plate, at the same meeting, was a capital 

 race, there being eight candidates for the Blue Eibbon, 

 and several of them having a string of staunch support- 

 ers back of them. If I remember aright, honors in the 

 pool box were about even between Mignonette, Nor- 

 lander, Groldfinch and Emily, and lots of money depended 

 on the issue. The race was a slow run one, but it was a 

 close game throughout, the verdict being secured by Mr. 

 Pringle's Mignonette, the others finishing as named 

 above. No sooner was the winner's name announced than 

 some miserable kicker started a report that the mare was 

 a foreign bred, and therefore not eligible for the Plate. 

 So persistently was this story repeated that quite a num- 

 ber of people began to believe it, and in a few hours it 

 had so increased by the telling that some were ready to 

 declare that they knew all about it, that the filly had been 

 brought over from the States when a yearling, and that 

 indisputable evidence could be secured at Cobourg to 

 prove it. Mr. Pringle, the owner of Mignonette, took 

 just the right course to put a summary stop to such 

 scandal. He expressed his willingness to make oath to 

 the eligibilty of his filly, and at the same time wager from 

 a hundred to a thousand dollars that no man could 

 prove one word of the story about the filly true. This, 

 though it did not altogether shut the mouths of the 

 squealers, was satisfactory to everybody worth satisfy- 

 ing. 



