WHAT FLYING FOX WAS 



it, I remember, and I told him that in a true run race, 

 and if I had a chance of riding Flying Fox, I would bet 

 him anything from a thousand to ten thousand pounds 

 that Flying Fox would beat Caiman easily. " Morny " 

 rode Caiman once at Sandown Park after this and 

 beat some very moderate horse quite easily, and that 

 was taken as additional evidence : it put the stamp on 

 the much boosted Caiman. We all know of cases where 

 geese have been made into swans but there never was 

 a better example than that of Flying Fox and Caiman. 

 What a great horse Flying Fox was was perhaps 

 not quite imderstood by the Duke of Westminster and 

 John Porter during the horse's two-year-old days, bat 

 I had formed my opinion of him, which nothing would 

 shake. I was convinced that he was the best horse I 

 had ever seen in England, and that he would turn out 

 as good in reputation as Ormonde, who I never saw, 

 but who I had heard so much about. 



One day at Chester a year or two later, when I was 

 riding something against one of the Duke's, he said 

 to me, " Are you going to beat us again to-day, Sloan, 

 like you did on Caiman ? " 



I answered, " Yes, I am, your Grace ; but what a 

 shame it was that Flying Fox should ever have been 

 beaten ! I should say he's the best you ever had." 



The Duke told me then that at one time they couldn't 

 believe it, but he added, " Mr Porter and I have come 

 to the conclusion that he is just as good as Ormonde, 

 and in some respects better." 



That is an opinion which should go down to future 

 generations of horse lovers. I know that Mr Porter 

 will remember the late Duke saying it. Wlien the time 

 comes in this book for me to tell the story of Flying 

 Fox's Derby I shall explain how he might have lost 

 to Holocauste, but that will be no disparagement to 



105 



