4.2 'The American 'Thoroughbred 



Thousand. Cobweb afterwards became famous as the dam of Bay Middleton, winner 

 of the Derby and Two Thousand of 1836; and Achmet, also a Two Thousand winner, 

 while her full sister produced Ibrahim, winner of the Two Thousand, and Princess, 

 winner of the Oaks of 1844. It now becomes necessary to turn back to the beginning 

 of the century, to see just what the Matchem horses did for the turf. 



SORCERER, a black horse foaled in 1796, got Soothsayer, winner of the St. Leger 

 of 1811 and sire of Tiresias, who defeated Sultan in the Derby; Smo- 

 lensko, who won both the Derby and Two Thousand in 1813 ; two other winners of 

 the Two Thousand; three winners of the Oaks, one of which was the famous brood- 

 mare, Morel, and the great stallion, Bourbon, sire of that stout mare, Fleur de Lis, 

 who won one Doncaster Cup and two Goodwood Cups. Smolensko got Jerry, the 

 St. Leger winner of 1824. Even that early in the day the Matchem line began to show 

 a falling-off. Sorcerer also got Comus, foaled in 1809, and he got Reveller and Matilda, 

 winners of the St. Leger ; and Gray Momus, who won the Two Thousand and Ascot 

 Cup of 1838. Comus also got an enormous brown horse called Humphrey Clinker, said 

 to have been eighteen hands high and believed to have been the largest thoroughbred 

 ever foaled. This big horse got Bran, second to both Glencoe and Touchstone in 

 the Ascot Gold Cups of 1835-36 and afterwards sire of the Oaks winner, Our Nell; 

 Famine, a great winner in Ireland ; and last but not least, that great, homely horse, 

 Melbourne, who was no very great performer but good enough to beat at a mere 

 nominal difference of weight such horses as Lanercost and St. Bennett (who had 

 previously beaten the great Harkaway) in a race for the Palatine Plate at Chester. 

 Melbourne was from the Tregonwell Barb mare (family No. i) and therefore was 

 selected for such mares of Touchstone's get as had a cross of Whisker on their dam's 

 side. One of these was Mowerina, sister to Cotherstone, who won both the Two 

 Thousand and Derby but was beaten a neck by Nutwith in the St. Leger. From this 

 union of Melbourne and Mowerina came West Australian, the first horse in history 

 to win the Two Thousand, the Derby and the St. Leger, this being in 1853 ; and he 

 also won the Ascot Cup of the following year, after a desperate struggle with King- 

 ston, who carried 126 pounds to his 117, Rataplan being third with 117 pounds also. 

 This has always raided a doubt in my mind as to whether West Australian was really 

 a first-class horse for, had they run at the present scale of weight-for-age, "The West" 

 and Rataplan would have carried 126 pounds each and Kingston 129; and as West 

 Australian barely beat Kingston at nine pounds' difference of weight, it is very evi- 

 dent that, under the present scale, Kingston must have won by about two lengths. 

 As a sire West Australian was a signal failure. He got Summerside, an Oaks win- 

 ner, from that great race-mare, Ellerdale, by Lanercost, who produced Ellington, the 

 Derby winner of 1856; and from a daughter of The Cure he got The Wizard, who. 

 beat the Rap and Traducer (afterwards sire of Sir Modred and Lurline) and twelve 

 others in the Two Thousand Guineas of 1860 and ran second to Thormanby in the 

 Derby. And it's a singular thing that his only three sons of any merit whatever, as 

 sires, should all have been expatriated. Solon went to Ireland, where he got Barcal- 

 dine and Arbitrator; Ruy Bias was sold to France, where he got several great ones; 

 and Millington, afterwards knowns as "imported Australian," was brought to this 

 country, where he got such cracks as Joe Daniels, Wildidle, Rutherford, Fellow-craft, 

 Miser, Mate, Merodac and last and best of all, Spendthrift, who is the only native 

 stallion to get two premier sires Kingston and Hastings in the past half-century. If 

 I were a resident of Georgetown, Ky., I would cheerfully subscribe $100 towards a 

 monument to be erected to the memory of Mr. Keene Richards, who imported Aus- 

 tralian from England. He evidently "builded wiser than he knew," for six grandsons 

 of Australian won big races in England, including the Derby and St. Leger of 1881. 

 And now, having followed the Matchem line into the middle of the last century, I 

 must go back once more to the Eclipse horses, having broken off at Van Tromp in 



