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Wizard of the North did such marvels. I had as cicerone old Jim 

 Perrin, who for forty years was head lad at Whitewall. He told me 

 yarns most interesting, and showed me the stalls wherein stood West 

 Australian and many another horse rendered famous through means 

 of Scott's training. 



The home of Caller On and Blink Bonny at Spring Cottage I have 

 also visited, and at Highfield met Mr. William I' Anson, the genial 

 representative of the owner and trainer of these great mares. Highfield, 

 like Whitewall, is another establishment of the good old times. I 

 confess I like to see these historic places preserved in their original 

 state and style, rather than have the classic old walls and stalls pulled 

 down as they have been at Newmarket and elsewhere. 



It is the habit of some people to assert positively that a certain 

 horse was the best that ever started. They may do so, but to 

 prove it is simply impossible in the absence of an actual trial. Mr. 

 George Dawson could, if he chose, tell to the ounce the diflference 

 between Ayrshire and Donovan, simply because he had at the same 

 time these two Derby winners under his own charge, but he could not 

 state as a fact what either of them were, as compared with Ormonde 

 or Melton. Even the jockeys who have ridden the horses are, except 

 as a matter of opinion, unable to draw the line accurately between 

 some of the cracks. 



At times, however, facts can be stated with regard to certain horses 

 which would give people good reason to suppose that someone in 

 particular had a legitimate claim to the title. 



Upon perhaps the best authorities on racing at present alive, I shall 

 refer to two. They are St. Simon and Barcaldine. 



Owing to the death of Prince Batthyany the nominations for St. 

 Simon for the classic races became void, and as a two-year-old in 1883 

 he was purchased for 1,600 guineas by Mat Dawson for the Duke of 

 Portland and Lord Charles Beresford. Although at the time having 

 shares with the Duke in other horses. Lord Charles unluckily gave up 

 St. Simon. He ran eight or nine times and was never beaten, and 

 if required could have won every race by a hundred yards. Collat- 

 erally, he was two stone better than Harvester. Mat Dawson thus 

 found in the colt the makings of a horse quite phenomenal ; accord- 

 ingly, he put him in training to win the long distance autumn races, 

 knowing that no horse then in England could get near him at any 

 reasonable adjustment of weight. Unfortunately he showed symptoms 

 of not being able to stand the work, so the Duke, like a sportsman, 

 rather than have his horse put to the stud otherwise than sound as a 

 bell, stopped his training. No one therefore knows except Mat Daw- 

 son what a marvel was St. Simon, and he has often told me that he was 

 not alone the best horse he ever trained, but the very best he ever saw. 



Barcaldine, bred in 1878 by Mr. Geo. Low, of the County Kildare, 

 was, next St. Simon, perhaps the best horse seen under silk in modern 



