296 The Derby 



was a hot favourite, but nevertheless the colt, who had 

 won the Two Thousand from Iroquois in a canter by 

 three lengths, had a weak spot — an incipient ' leg ' — in 

 saving which he injured the other, as often happens, and 

 he was never seen out again after the Epsom reversal of 

 his Newmarket running. Lord Eosebery was third with 

 the big bay Doncaster colt, Town Moor, as he had been 

 the year before with Visconti ; but, in truth, the three- 

 year-olds that ran in the classic races w^ere very moderate 

 in 1881. Had the best of his age — another American 

 colt, Foxhall — been entered for the Derby instead of 

 Don Fulano, the prize, I have no sort of doubt, would 

 have gone to him. 



There was a 'good thing' in 1882, and it did not 

 ' come off,' which is, indeed, a very common fate of good 

 things. Bruce, a son of See- Saw, was a colt that ' could 

 not be beaten,' but was, the winner being a shelly 

 chesnut mare belonging to the Duke of Westminster, 

 Shotover by name. As a two-year-old Shotover had 

 run thrice without success, her last appearance having 

 been in a nursery, when she carried only 7 st. 6 lb. and 

 finished nowhere — a position it seems to have been 

 expected that she would occupy. Next year, however, 

 she had won the Two Thousand from a very moderate 

 field, ' moderate ' in turf language signifying something 

 between good and bad, with a very strong leaning towards 

 the latter. Two days later she had failed in the One 

 Thousand, second, with the third only a head behind her, 

 and it seemed improbable, to say the least of it, that she 

 could have any chance against Bruce, who had never been 

 beaten, starting four times as a two-year-old, and winning 

 comfortably on each occasion. Bruce, ridden by a very 

 bad jockey, Mordan, had easily beaten Nellie in the 



