'The Modern British Thoroughbred 57 



RATAPLAN, Stockwell's younger brother, was a good sire though hardly a great 

 one. He got Kettledrum, who won the Derby and Doncaster Cup and lost the St 

 Leger by 'nothing but careless riding. He also got The Miner out of Manganese by 

 Birdcatcher (paternal grandsire of Rataplan, mark you) from Loup Garou's dam; and 

 it was The Miner that beat Blair Athol in the Great Yorkshire Stakes. I have heard 

 men say the Great Yorkshire is not any great race, but it is run at the St. Leger 

 weights and distance ; and as it seldom has less than a dozen starters for it, you 

 may reasonably infer that the Great Yorkshire is a fair test of a horse's powers, be- 

 cause Stockwell and many other good horses are enrolled among its winners. Rata- 

 plan also got Elland, winner of the Queen's Vase and four other cups in one season ; 

 and he got the little Drummer, who ran third in the Derby and won the Great Metro- 

 politan in Pretender's year. The Drummer was sent to Australia and died at Mr. 

 Frank Reynolds' place on the Paterson river. Rataplan is one of the world's greatest 

 broodmare sires, however, and while his daughters have not dropped as many winners 

 as those of Stockwell and King Tom, they have undoubtedly given to the world a 

 stouter and more serviceable type of horses. 



You will see a fine bit of in-breeding in the Australian horse King of the Ring, 

 by the Ace of Clubs, just above mentioned. King of the Ring's dam was Rose de 

 Florence by Flying Dutchman, from Boarding School Miss by Plenipotentiary, from 

 Marpessa by Muley ; and Marpessa was the great dam of Stockwell, the paternal 

 grandsire of King of the Ring. That's the kind of in-breeding that is most desirable, 

 for nothing could be bred further away from a horse than The Dutchman and Plenipo 

 were bred away from Stockwell ; and Ace of Clubs' dam was bred still further away 

 from all of them. Such in-breeding as that is always proper and should be tried 

 whenever it can be made practicable. 



BLAIR ATHOL was by long odds the best son of Stockwell, being the only one to 

 head the list at all, which he did for four seasons. St. Alban's came next, having been 

 second for four years and third for two. He was one of the few Stockwell horses 

 that had bad forelegs for if any Eclipse horse approached Melbourne in the matter 

 of bone, it was Stockwell. St. Alban's was a great racehorse and won the Chester Cup, 

 Great Metropolitan and St. Leger at three years old. He was tried again at four but 

 broke down just before the Ascot meeting. St. Alban's got Springfield, the best 

 weight-for-age horse of his day and Springfield got Sanfoin and Watercress, the latter 

 being as good a sire as can be found in America today. Savernake was full brother 

 to St. Alban's and was second in both the Derby and St. Leger of 1866 to that lucky 

 horse, Lord Lyon ; and distance (who rode the latter horse in all his races, as well as 

 Thormanby and George Frederick) told me, in England, in 1901, that Savernake was 

 a slow horse to get away and that had he been one of the first four to leave the post 

 he must have beaten Lord Lyon, whom Custance did not consider so good a horse as 

 Thormanby or even his own sister, Achievement. Lord Lyon was never very prominent 

 as a sire, his best by a long way being Minting, who ran second to Ormonde in the 

 Two Thousand and afterwards won the Grand Prix de Paris in very hollow style. 

 Doncaster must rank as the third best horse of Stockwell's get for he won the Derby at 

 three, the Goodwood Cup and Alexander Plate at four and the Ascot Cup at five with 

 129 pounds. At seven years old Doncaster was sold to go to Hungary; and that 

 is where he begat that mare Ira that was imported into the United States by my life- 

 long friend, Simeon G. Reed, now deceased. 



THUNDERBOLT was undoubtedly the fastest horse Stockwell ever got and no horse in 

 Europe could beat him at six or seven furlongs, with from 125 to 135 pounds on each. 

 He was out of Cordelia by Red Deer, from Emilia (imported to America by the late 

 A. Keene Richards and dam of imported Australian, the nearest thing to a "double- 

 liner" that we ever had) by Young Emilius, from Perisian by Whisker. Thunder- 

 bolt got Thunder and Tonans, both great performers. Thunder won the City and 



