166 T'he American Thoroughbred 



pounds. But his grandest horse, to my eye, is Merman, now in England and owned by 

 Mrs. Langtry. Planet, by Revenue out of Nina by Boston, from an imported mare by 

 Lottery, was "the traveling, conquering terror" of all the Eastern tracks in America 

 up to the time of "the late unpleasantness," to borrow a Nasbyism ; and Merman 

 resembles him more than any other horse I ever saw, save that he is of more substance 

 than Planet, and, in covering condition, would outweigh him over one hundred pounds. 

 Merman won so many races in the Colonies that they saw there was no more chance 

 for him there, so the International Horse Exchange bought him for the "Jersey Lily," 

 in whose colors he won the Lewes Handicap and Cesarewitch at five years ; and the 

 Ascot and Goodwood Cups at six, walking over for the latter event (with 129 pounds) 

 for the third time in just seventy-five years. The previous walk-overs for the Goodwood 

 Cup were Stumps (by Whalebone) in 1826 and The Bard (by Petrarch) in 1886, so 

 the reader can judge for himself whether the English race-goers regarded Merman 

 as a racehorse of high-class or not. I saw him last on a rainy day, but the dear old 

 red brick house at Cobham held nothing but sunshine with Mr. Allison's family all 

 there and with their kindly greeting to the strangers from the shores of the sunset 

 sea. The total absence of all formality made the day one never to be forgotten by the 

 wayfarers. It takes hearts to make homes, after all. 



One word more about Yattendon. It is not every horse whose sons go out of 

 three seasons with over 40,000 to their credit, but Yattendon's name is not perpetu- 

 ated by Grand Flaneur, Chester, Patriarch and Emerald alone. He was equally as 

 famous as a broodmare sire and no stallion ever owed more to a predecessor in the 

 stud than Musket and Grandmaster owed to Yattendon. At the Melbourne Cup .meet- 

 ing of 1889 when Bravo carried off the coveted prize, there were thirty races in all, 

 three of which were won by male-line descendants of Yattendon ; thirteen by sons of 

 Yattendon's daughters ; and three by horses whose dams were by Goldsbrough, out of 

 Yattendon mares. Of course, the great Lexington made a better showing than that for 

 years, so far as his daughters were concerned, but Lexington's best son (as a sire) 

 was War Dance, who was barely second-class as a sire of performers ; and as no 

 son of Lexington was ever within ten miles of either Chester or Grand Flaneur, as a 

 sire. No portrait of Yattendon is to be found, but Mr. Lopez tells me that in confor- 

 mation he greatly resembled our American phenomenon, Boston. 



FISHERMAN was an older horse than Yattendon, having been foaled in 1853. 

 He was raced originally by a Mr. Starkey and afterwards by old Tom Parr (at one 

 time owner of Rataplan and Fandango), who won over 80,000 on the turf and yet 

 died a pauper in a workhouse. Fisherman started 131 times and won 70 races, the 

 Queen's Vase once and the Ascot Cup twice. The last race he ever won was at seven 

 furlongs, with 153 pounds in the saddle, which would be considered a pretty good bur- 

 den in a steeplechase. He lost in his last six starts and believing him about used up, 

 he was retired and made the season of 1860 but got only a few mares, as his breeding 

 was deemed unfashionable. They did not stop to look over his female tail-line or 

 they would have seen that his great grand-dam was full sister to Memnon, who won 

 the St. Leger ; that his next dam won the Oaks and produced Belshazzar, while her 

 full sister carried off a St. Leger in the next year; and that from the next dam, 

 Mandane, came Lottery and Brutandorf, to say nothing of Liverpool, the sire of that 

 marvelous campaigner, Lanercost. So Fisherman only got five foals out of six mares. 

 Before the next season rolled around, a ship came in from Australia having on board 

 two lucky gold-diggers named Charles and Hurtle Fisher. They had come to England 

 to buy horses with a view to breeding racers according to colonial time, where a horse 

 is a year old on the first day of August following his birth. The "boosters'" were .at 

 once set to work to induce them to buy Fisherman and the champagne flowed like water 

 with that end in view ; and the trick won out, for the old brown son of Heron and 



