A HISTORY OF SURREY 



trically built and beautifully turned. He 

 was at least lo lb. better than any other 

 three-year-old of his year ; but he did not 

 remain long in training, his owner being 

 tempted by an offer of 20,000 guineas from 

 the Russians. In Derbys, as in other things, 

 there are years of plenty and years of famine, 

 and 1898 was a famine year, when the field 

 was composed of bad horses, and the race 

 was won by Jeddah, a grandson of Isonomy, 

 whose legs looked like scaffolding poles, and 

 about whom the only remarkable thing is that 

 he started at the forlorn odds of 1 00 to I. 



In 1899 another great horse, the late Duke 

 of Westminster's Flying Fox, by Orme, 

 showed immense superiority, but he fell in a 

 moderate year. 



In some of his races Flying Fox fairly 

 electrified the spectators by the brilliant style 

 of his galloping, and curiously enough he 

 was seen to less advantage in the Derby than 

 in any other race. In this Derby, by the 

 way, a French colt named Holocauste was 

 greatly fancied ; but he fell when coming 

 round Tattenham Corner, and, breaking his 

 leg, had to be destroyed. Flying Fox was 

 put up to auction at Kingsclere in March 

 1900, when the horses in training owned by 

 the late Duke of Westminster were sold, and 

 realized the enormous sum of 37,500 guineas, 

 the record price obtained for a thoroughbred, 

 either by private sale or at public auction. 



In 1900 the then Prince of Wales won his 

 second Derby with Diamond Jubilee, a full 

 brother to Persimmon, but nothing like so 

 good a horse as his elder brother. In make 

 and shape there was little or nothing to choose 

 between the brothers. Diamond Jubilee was 

 as strongly built as Persimmon, and not quite 

 so much on the leg, but he was a wayward 

 horse, especially in his two-year-old days, 

 and on more than one occasion he quite 

 declined to do his best. As a three-year-old 

 he exhibited much better behaviour, and in 

 addition to the Derby he won the Two 

 Thousand Guineas, St. Leger, and Eclipse 

 stakes. In all these races he was ridden by a 

 jockey named Herbert Jones, a Surrey-bred 

 lad, the son of the late ' Jack ' Jones of Ep- 

 som, a well known rider and trainer of cross- 

 country horses a quarter of a century ago. 

 This Herbert Jones, who is attached to 

 Marsh's stable at Newmarket where the 

 king's horses are trained, had no great repu- 

 tation as a jockey, had indeed ridden but 

 little in public, but when Diamond Jubilee 

 was a two-year-old it was discovered that he 

 wrould go in Jones' hands, when he would not 

 give his best running for the regular stable 

 jockey Mornington Cannon. It was therefore 



decided that Jones should have the mount in 

 the Two Thousand, and the boy acquitted 

 himself so well that he was allowed to ride 

 in the Derby, and St. Leger, thus winning 

 the three greatest races of the year ; Jones 

 since has been able to hold his own. There 

 was another great demonstration at Epsom 

 when Diamond Jubilee won the Derby. 



In 1 90 1 Mr. Whitney, an American 

 gentleman, won the Derby with Volodyovski, 

 who was, however, an English horse, bred by 

 Lady Meux at Theobalds, a dozen miles 

 north of London, and who was leased to Mr. 

 Whitney for his racing career. Volodyovski 

 is by one of the King's stud horses, Florizel 

 II., and is a grandson of St. Simon, but he 

 was not a high-class horse in his running 

 days. 



In 1902 a much more sensational Derby 

 took place, and the form was immensely 

 superior to that of the two previous years. 

 The hero of the great evwit was Mr. Gub- 

 bins' Ard Patrick, an Irish bred colt by St. 

 Florian — another son of St. Simon — out of 

 Morganette, who had already bred for Mr. 

 Gubbins a Derby winner to Kendal, in Gal- 

 tee More. This Ard Patrick, though a high- 

 class two-year-old, had been well beaten in 

 the Two Thousand Guineas, by the beautiful 

 Sceptre, a daughter of Persimmon, who as a 

 yearling was sold at the dispersal of the late 

 Duke of Westminster's stud, and had brought 

 the record earling price of 1 0,000 guineas. 

 As a two-year-old Sceptre had shown bril- 

 liant form, and had become a great favourite 

 with the public. Prepared by her owner. 

 Sceptre won the double event of the ' Thou- 

 sands ' at Newmarket, but in the Derby 

 she did not give her true running, and was 

 beaten into fourth place. She in a great 

 measure redeemed her character by winning 

 the Oaks two days later, and in the St, 

 Leger she showed immense superiority to 

 Isinglass and Friar Tuck, who had finished 

 in front of her in the Derby. That Ard 

 Patrick beat her on his merits — though there 

 was very little between them — was proved in 

 the Eclipse stakes of 1903, when the pair 

 ran home locked together, and the Irish colt 

 just won. The history of these two great 

 horses is not finished at the moment of 

 writing, but both may be included among the 

 great horses who have run over Epsom 

 Downs. Ard Patrick has been sold to the 

 German Government for 20,000 guineas, 

 but is not to be sent abroad until his running 

 career is at an end. 



Of the Derby of 1903 little need be said 

 except that it was Sir James Miller's second 

 success, and that he won with a horse of his 



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