Horse racing -- Australia -- History; Race horses -- Australia -- History; Stainforth, Martin, 1866-1957
Early in the following spring he was still, apparently, without any
ambition towards higher things. He commenced by winning a welter at the
Sydney Tatt.’s Club gathering in September, and followed it up with a
victory in the Spring Handicap at Hawkesbury. Then, with odds of seven
to one against him, he was proclaimed the A.J.C. Derby winner, beating
Collarit, Antonious, Iolaire and a couple more. With his penalty he was
beaten next day by Solution in the Metropolitan. Then came triumphs in
the Eclipse Stakes at Caulfield, the Caulfield Cup, with a
fourteen-pound penalty, the Victoria Derby, the Melbourne Cup, the St.
Helier Stakes at Caulfield in February, the St. Leger at Flemington, and
the Loch Plate, two miles, beating Dividend. Then he was checked in this
triumphal progress. Dividend took down his number in the Champion, and
again in the Cumberland Stakes at Randwick. Meanwhile, however, Poseidon
had won what was practically a bloodless victory in the A.J.C. St.
Leger.
At four years Poseidon still retained his form, and was successful seven
times, the Spring Stakes, the Eclipse, the Caulfield Cup, with nine
stone three up, the Melbourne Stakes, the Rawson Stakes, the Cumberland
Stakes, and the A.J.C. Plate falling to his lot. Mountain King, however,
who might have been a great horse but for wind troubles, beat him in the
Rawson Stakes in spring, the Craven and the C. B. Fisher Plate. Poseidon
was unplaced (eighth) in the Melbourne Cup that year, carrying ten stone
three, including a penalty, and he did but little more. Had Alawa
depended upon his three-year-old record, he might have been included in
the Roll of Honour, but his star had reached its zenith by his
three-year-old autumn, and those greater suns, Comedy King and
Trafalgar, obscured his lesser light until it finally sank beneath the
horizon. There was a rich vintage just at this period of our history:
Trafalgar, Alawa, Comedy King, Prince Foote. It was when Comedy King was
a four-year-old and Trafalgar a five-year-old that the real fun began.
The latter was a chestnut horse by Wallace from Grand Canary, by
Splendor from a Lapidist mare, and to see him walking out for his
afternoon exercise, or lagging along in the saddling paddock, you would
never, as a casual spectator, have taken him for anything but a rather
lazy, spiritless, washy old gelding. He was sleepy, indifferent to his
surroundings, careless of the calls of love, or of what the next hour
might bring in the shape of a tussle with some worthy foe.
Comedy King, a rich brown, with fire in his eye, and in his every
movement, with a skin like satin, showing every vein as he paced along,
was the very antithesis of his great rival. He had been imported by Mr.
Sol. Green, at his mother’s side, and he was by King Edward’s horse
Persimmon, out of Tragedy Queen, a Gallinule mare.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account