$2 The American Thoroughbred 



Suburban Handicap and Epsom with 130 pounds ; the Craven Stakes at Goodwood ; the 

 Queen's Vase at Ascot with 129 pounds ; arid the Craven Stakes at Epsom, six fur- 

 longs, with 152 pounds, and twenty other races of less general importance. Thun- 

 derbolt got Krakatoa, sold to France and he, in turn, was sold to Hungarian owners 

 who bred from him that speed-marvel, Dolma Baghtske, that defeated Matchbox in 

 the Grand Prix de Paris, at odds of 40 to I. This horse will be found at greater 

 length in the Austro-Hungarian portion of this book. 



BREADALBANE, brother to Blair Athol, was a very inferior performer, but, as the 

 sire of The 111 Used, imported by the elder Belmont, he certainly is of interest to the 

 American breeders. He was foaled the property of Mr. William 1'Anson, who also 

 bred his dam and his brother ; and was, if anything, the more racy-cut colt of the two. 

 He won the Prince of Wales' Stakes at Ascot, an event in which the owner of the 

 mighty Gladiateur had neglected to enter him, but in the Derby, Two Thousand and, 

 St. Leger he ran unplaced, if at all. In the following year he started against the 

 ragged Parley-vous and the Oaks winner of the previous year, Regalia, later on the 

 dam of Verneuil, by Mortemer, the only horse to win the Ascot Cup, Queen's Gold 

 Vase and Alexandra Plate, all in one week. After being nursed so carefully in the 

 descent of the hill that he was over 400 yards behind when he struck the flat, the 

 greatest horse that France ever saw, came on with a cyclone rush and won by forty 

 lengths from Regalia who was ten more in front of Breadalbane. The latter colt, in 

 spite of his brotherhood to Blair Athol, could not have been much in favor with Brit- 

 ish breeders, as I only find him in the pedigrees of Friar's Balsam and Brilliant, a son 

 of John Davis, he by Voltigeur. 



LORD LYON was, as I have said before, a very lucky horse, especially so to win the 

 "triple crown." His other performances were very mediocre, being beaten in the 

 Grand Duke Michael Stakes by Rustic, whose dam was Village Lass by Pyrrhus I. Lord 

 Lyon's two best sons were Minting, who ran second to Ormonde in the Two Thousand 

 and, being scratched for the Derby, went over to France and won the Grand Prix de 

 Paris in a field of nine starters, his price being even money. Lord Lyon also got 

 Touchet, a noted winner and a fairly good sire. One of his sisters, the lanky and 

 slab-sided Achievement, won every one of her two-year-old engagements, and the One 

 Thousand Guineas and St. Leger at three (running second to Hippia in the Oaks) and 

 won the Doncaster Cup at four in which she beat the great Hermit with ease and 

 Tynedale as well. Another sister to Lord Lyon was Chevisaunce, which was never 

 raced. Mated with Lord Clifden, she produced that flying filly Jannette, the pride of 

 Lord Falmouth's heart, for she won the Oaks and St. Leger at three and galloped over 

 a good field for the Jockey Club Cup at four, being second to Pilgrimage (afterwards 

 dam of Jeddah, the Derby winner and Canterbury Pilgrim, winner of the Oaks) in the 

 One Thousand Guineas and second to Isonomy in the Doncaster Cup with Glendale 

 third. 



It is about time that I was saying something about the Oxford branch of Bird- 

 catcher's line. Oxford was foaled in 1855, his dam being Honey Dear by Plenipoten- 

 tiary, out of My Dear by Bay Middleton, from Miss Letty, -Oaks winner of 1837 and 

 dam of Weatherbit, by Priam. I have at hand no record of his races but he hap- 

 pened in luckily for his sire died when Oxford was four and The Baron, Birdcatcher's 

 best son, had already been sold to France. Now there were three other sons of Bird- 

 catcher, one the Derby winner Daniel O'Rouke; and the other two were Warlock and 

 Knight of St. George, both St. Leger winners, but about that time along came Mr. Rich- 

 ards of Kentucky and purchased the latter horse who had more of the blood of Sir 

 Hercules in him than any other horse of that era. Oxford has been described to me 

 as the best-boned and the best tempered horse that Birdcatcher ever got, for Saunterer 

 and Rory O'More were perfect devils. Therefore it is easy to see why Oxford should 

 have been selected as the breeders' favorite over these horses, more especially as 



