SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



Bendigo, a very great horse, who also won 

 the Lincolnshire Handicap, the Cambridge- 

 shire, the Jubilee Stakes at Kempton under 

 9 stone 7 lbs., the Hardwicke Stakes at Ascot, 

 and the Champion Stakes at Newmarket. 

 With the public this horse was a great 

 favourite, and though he won the Eclipse 

 Stakes on a day of pouring rain, his victory 

 was witnessed by an enormous concourse of 

 people, and it is questionable whether so 

 many carriages have ever been seen on the 

 Sandown course since — though the numbers 

 in the rings and dub stand have been 

 exceeded. 



The victory of such a horse as Bendigo 

 gave the Eclipse Stakes a wonderful send off, 

 but it took a year or two to firmly establish 

 the race, and as stated just now, it failed to 

 fill in its second year. In its third it was 

 won by a very moderate racehorse in Orbit. 

 Then came a winner of fair class in Ayrshire, 

 who had won the Derby a year before, and 

 who is a stud success of the present day. 

 The class was not particularly good when 

 Surefoot won, though the horse in question 

 was gifted with a great turn of speed, and 

 defeated Common, who that same year took 

 the treble event of Two Thousand Guineas, 

 Derby and St. Leger. Orme's first victory 

 in 1892 was a notable one, for he had not 

 been able to run for the Derby owing to a 

 mysterious illness which attacked him in April 

 of that year. That he had been poisoned 

 was the general idea, and the evidence in 

 favour of this theory, as set out in John 

 Porter's book, Kingsclere, is remarkably 

 strong and convincing. Whether Orme was 

 poisoned or not the public fully believed that 

 he had been the victim of foul play, and 

 when he first pulled through, after a tre- 

 mendous struggle with Orvieto, there was 

 such a demonstration as has only been 

 equalled on a racecourse once within living 

 memory, viz. when Persimmon won for the 

 King his first Derby. In the following year, 

 1893, Orme won again, beating this time his 

 brilliant stable companion. La Fleche ; and 

 in 1894 there was a veritable meeting of the 

 giants, the field including Isinglass, Ladas, 

 Ravensbury, Raeburn and Throstle, who 

 between them won two Derbys, two St. 

 Leger's, a brace of Two Thousands, an Ascot 

 Cup, and various ;£iO,ooo prizes. It was 

 reckoned at the time that the five were worth 

 at least £60,000, and Isinglass, who ran home 

 a gallant winner, was quite one of the best 

 horses who has ever been seen on the San- 

 down slopes. 



In 1895 the French horse, Le Justicier, 

 beat a moderate opposition, but in the two 



following years the race was won by a brace 

 of really great horses, St. Frusquin and Per- 

 simmon. St. Frusquin had little to beat 

 when he won, but Persimmon had gained the 

 Ascot Cup a few weeks before he took the 

 Eclipse Stakes, and having been trained for 

 a long race, it was just on the cards that his 

 speed might have been impaired. How- 

 ever, he won in grand fashion, beating a good 

 horse in Lord Rosebery's Velasquez, who 

 himself took the prize a year later. The 

 next two winners were Flying Fox and 

 Diamond Jubilee, the first-named an excep- 

 tionally good horse. Epsom Lad won in 

 a moderate year, and an even poorer speci- 

 men of an Eclipse Stakes winner was the Duke 

 of Devonshire's Cheers, who was perhaps 

 lucky to beat Rising Glass in 1902. Lack 

 of quality in these two last-mentioned 

 winners was amply atoned for in 1903, when 

 Ard Patrick, Sceptre and Rock Sand filled 

 the first three places. Ard Patrick had won 

 the Derby of the previous year, and Sceptre 

 the Two Thousand, One Thousand, Oaks, 

 and St. Leger, while Rock Sand had taken 

 the Two Thousand and Derby in 1903, and 

 had proved himself to be much the best of 

 his age. Partizanship ran high between the 

 three, but the smaller, cobbler Rock Sand 

 was soon out of it when the real fighting 

 began, and Ard Patrick wore down Sceptre 

 after a magnificent struggle. This was quite 

 the most important Eclipse Stakes as regards 

 the class of the competitors since Isinglass 

 had won nine years before. 



Sandown generally has about five flat race 

 meetings in each year, occupying about nine 

 days. The first is held in April, immediately 

 following the Epsom Spring Meeting, and 

 extends over three days, the last day being 

 given over to sport under National Hunt 

 rules. On the first day the Tudor Plate for 

 three-year-olds and the Sandown Park Stud 

 Produce Stakes, a valuable prize for two-year- 

 olds, are the principal events, and on the 

 second day a long-distance handicap, called 

 the Esher Stakes, and a short-distance handi- 

 cap, called the Princess of Wales Stakes, 

 afford most interest. The second meeting 

 is held in Mid June, usually in the week 

 following Ascot. The Sandringham Foal 

 Stakes for three-year-olds on the first day, 

 and the British Dominion Stakes for two- 

 year-olds on the second day, are the chief 

 events decided, but the programme is fairly 

 strong all through. 



The Second Summer, or ' Eclipse ' meet- 

 ing, is held in the middle of July, on the 

 Friday and Saturday following the Second 

 July meetings. Its trump card is, of course, 



509 



