15 



marks, &c. He is 15 hands i inch high, and undoubtedly was 

 the best 3-year-old in England. ... In the Second Spring 

 Meeting, 1788, he won the Prince's Stakes of 100 Guineas, 

 beating Grey Diomed, Amatis, &c. ; the following Saturday 

 he won the Prince's Stakes of 200 Guineas, beating again 

 Grey Diomed and Fenoor, giving them 3 lbs. Going from 

 Newmarket to Epsom to run for the Derby he was taken ill ; 

 notwithstanding, he was second to Sir Thomas and more than 

 nine horses* in the race." 



Grey Diomed, it will be remembered, was a son of the 

 chestnut Diomed, winner of the first Derby in 1780. 



The name of Aurelius is not prominent in the 

 pedigrees, however. The Eclipse colour occurs in many 

 good sires of later dates, in addition to those already 

 mentioned. Harkaway's name will occur to everyone. 

 Then there are St. Albans, Blair Athol, Bend Or, Amphion, 

 Bonavista, Kendal, Carnage, Gallinule and Cyllene. In 

 addition to these, we might recall the names of at least 

 seventeen other chestnuts, including Sainfoin, Sir Hugo, 

 Saraband, Prism, Yardarm, Bumptious and Brag. All 

 these trace their descent from Eclipse. 



Although, as mentioned in the first paragraph of this 

 chapter, chestnut has gradually crept in and asserted 

 itself in our Thoroughbred 'stock, it is a somewhat 

 uncertain colour in its appearance. It may lie dormant 

 for a generation or two (as in the case of Hermit) and 

 then reappear, proving the prepotency of a chestnut 

 ancestor. 



Mr. C. C. Hurst collected some very interesting figures 

 bearing on this point and embodied them in a paper read 

 before the Royal Society in December, 1905. In the 

 General Stud Book he found that bay or brown sires, both 



* There were eleven starters. 



