56 The American Thoroughbred 



the best stallion that has ever crossed the Channel up to the present writing. He 

 got Mdlle de Chantilly, the first French horse to win the City and Suburban Handi- 

 cap at Epsom; and, before leaving England, got Prizefighter, who won the Great York- 

 shire Stakes and started as second choice in the St. Leger, won by Nutwith, whose 

 starting price was 16 to I, Cotherstone being second and Prizefighter third. In France 

 he got Fitz Gladiator, sire of Compeigne, sire of Mortemer whom Admiral Rous de- 

 clared to be the only horse he ever saw that "was a race horse at any distance from six 

 furlongs to four miles." Mortemer won the Ascot Gold Cup of 1871 with 131 pounds 

 up, two and a half miles, defeating Bothwell, who had won the Two Thousand and 

 Kingcraft, who had won the Derby of the previous year. He trailed the two four- 

 year-olds for two miles and then made all the 'running of the last half mile. And in 

 the next year another French horse Henry, by Monarque out of Miss Ion accom- 

 plished the same feat, beating the Derby winner Favonius and Hannah, by King Tom, 

 who won both the Oaks and St. Leger of that year. 



Gladiator got Sweetmeat also before leaving England. He was the property 

 of Harry Hill, a well-known betting commissioner for the nobility. Sweetmeat I 

 consider one of the six greatest factors in the modern British thoroughbred, the other 

 five being Birdcatcher, Touchstone, Blacklock, Sultan and Melbourne. He won the 

 Queen's Gold Vase at Ascot and the Doncaster Cup, after a terrific race with Alice 

 Hawthorne, the third horse, Pantasa, being beaten over seventy yards. Sweetmeat 

 got two Oaks winners in Mincemeat and Mincepie, two years apart. He also got that 

 honest little horse Macaroni, who won the Two Thousand, the Derby and the Don- 

 caster Cup, but paid forfeit in the St. Leger rather than risk a meeting with Lord Clif- 

 den (whom he had already twice defeated) over a flat course like the Town Moor. 

 Sweetmeat also got Parmesan, a brown horse out of Gruyere by Verulam, son of Lot- 

 tery. Parmesan was a rather plain looking horse himself, but his get had a great 

 deal of quality. He won the Queen's Vase and the Great Metropolitan Handicap at 

 Epsom. On his retirement to the stud he got Favonius, who won the Derby and th> 

 Goodwood Cup ; and in the next year another of his sons,, Cremorne, won the Derby in 

 the most hollow style, after which he crossed the Channel and" defeated a field of nine 

 in the Grand Prix de Paris. At four Cremorne was by long odds the best horse in all 

 Europe at weight-for-age, winning the Ascot Cup with 126 pounds and the Alexandra 

 Plate, three miles, with 129. Cremorne was a failure at the stud but got that flying 

 filly Kermesse, the best two-year-old of her day. Cremorne also got St. George, im- 

 ported into Kentucky by the late James Ferguson of Lexington, Ky., and St. Georee is 

 the only son of Cremorne that was worth a ten-dollar piece as a sire. He got Gray 

 Friar, Lucien Appleby and Aladdin, all stake horses beyond any doubt. Favonius 

 got Favo, a good cup horse and sire of that great sprinter, Royal Flush, now located 

 at Sacramento ; and he 1'ikewise got Madam du Barry, winner of the Goodwood Cup 

 and many other good races. He also got Conveth, one of the only three Pocahontas 

 horses in America, but the British Colony about Riverside turned him down and he 

 never distinguished himself particularly although he got Formero, a two-year-old, for 

 which an offer' of $12,000 was refused, to my certain knowledge. Parmesan, sire of 

 Cremorne and Favonius, also got Fetterlock out of Silver Hair (dam of Silvio, the 

 Derby winner) but he was such an inferior horse that it seems idle to mention him at 

 all. Two of his daughters were imported into California, but just why, the Lord 

 only knows. The blood of Sweetmeat is considered great all over the world, for the 

 best all-aged horse and the best three-year-old filly in Australia Abercorn and his 

 sister Spice traced back to a Sweetmeat mare at the fourth generation, she being a 

 full sister to the Oaks winner Mincemeat. 



Sweetmeat's best known son, Macaroni, was a great broodmare sire, but did not 

 figure extensively in the male-line. He got Macgregor, winner of the Two Thousand 

 with Normanby and Kingcraft behind him, the latter winning the Derby a few weeks 



