Australian Thoroughbred 



YATTENDON looms out above all the rest as a double-line horse, equally prominent 

 as a sire of great broodmares and of sires as well. He is as conspicuous in his native 

 land as was Sir Archy in America a hundred years ago. He came up from obscur- 

 ity, through sheer merit, as signally as did Washington among American generals or 

 William Bede Dalley among the statesmen of Australia. There was but one Stockwell 

 in England and but one Yattendon in Australia. Before him and behind him, alike, all 

 is space and silence. He was a horse "without a model and without a shadow." 



I cannot close this chapter, which I trust contains some new information to readers 

 in my native land, without paying a brief tribute to the management .of the Australian 

 race courses which are fifty years ahead of those of England and, in many things, ad- 

 vanced beyond ours. The Flemington Course, near Melbourne, is as far ahead of 

 Morris Park as that track is ahead of any other in America, and no candid-minded 

 American who sees it will contradict me. They have a clock on top of the judge's 

 stand which is started by electricity at the starting post and stopped by an attendant 

 seated over the judge's head. There is not a trotting association in all America that 

 has the moral courage to put a clock like that, where the exact time can be given 

 without a consultation as to whether John Jones' horse will be thrown out of the 2:30 

 class next year or not. 



The spectators' stands are three in number and the prices are graduated to suit the 

 popular taste as well as the individual purse. Here is a rough diagram : 



D 



B 



o E 



A Gateway into the course. B the grand stand. C the Maribynong stand. 



D. the Hill stand, 85 feet above the track. E the judge's box. F stairs to Hill 

 stand. 



The grand stand prices are $5 on Derby and Cup days, which also includes an ad- 

 mission to the saddling paddock, and on ordinary days $2.50, called in their vernacular 

 "ten bob." To the Maribynong stand, which lies up the stretch from the judge's box, 

 the admission fee is $3 on Cup days and half that sum on other days ; and to the Hill 

 stand, where you look down upon the horses' backs as they fly past you, it is $2 on 

 Cup days and one-half that amount on other days. Under each of these stands is a 

 nicely finished basement, fitted up as a restaurant. Under the grand stand it is six 

 shillings for dinner with native wine included ; under the Maribynong stand the price is 

 four shillings but the vin ordinaire is not so good ; and under the Hill stand it is two 

 shillings and sixpence, a dry meal but well cooked and served. 



One thing impressed me very curiously about their racing. They only weigh out 

 four horses at the conclusion of a race, the fourth's horse's weight being checked out 

 to insure him third money in the event of a disqualification of any of the three that 



