Please wait. Contacting image service... loading

Article text

BLINK BONNY'S NEWMARKET AND EPSOM RUNNING.
- The following are the ingenious explanations
which have been referred to in reference to Blink
Bonny's performance for the One Thousand, and for the
Derby and Oaks: —Taken altogether the present Derby
has been one of the most extraordinary on record, and
it would be an act of great injustice to Mr l'Anson not
to bear testimony to the straight-forward honorable con-
duct which has distinguished him throughout the piece,
in spite of the market influences brought to bear in cer-
tain quarters, whereby the innocent were thrown off their
guard, and opinions indulged in of which the present re-
sult affords the most satisfactory contradiction. All sorts
of insinuations were thrown out respecting Blink
Bonny during the winter, and her fluctuations in the
betting at " the Corner" gave rise to the belief that she
was a "safe 'un." The true cause, however, we are as-
sured by her owner, was an attack of dentition fever,
brought on by the mare cutting her teeth. After Don-
caster, where she was known to be a little "off," Blink
Bonny began to thrive wonderfully, and Mr l'Anson left
her as well as possible (under the care of his son Robert
who has always looked after her, and on most occasions
ridden her in public) when he started, to the Liverpool
Autumn Meeting last November; but, on his return from
Shrewsbury, he found her amiss, and since that period
she has been regularly attended by two veterinary sur-
geons. Previous to being brought out at Newmarket she
could scarcely eat her corn, and, as a matter of course
was in a thoroughly weak state; but, wishing to keep
faith with the public, and thinking her good enough to
win the Thousand even in that condition, Mr l'Anson
started the mare —with what result our readers are well
acquainted. Since then her teeth have been rasped
twice, and she has fed and done much better, but even
now cannot masticate a feed of corn without consider-
able difficulty.
AMOUNT OF DERBY AND OAKS STAKES FOR THE PAST
ELEVEN YEARS. —It will scarcely be credited, but
£60,485 have been paid over to the Derby victors during
the past eleven years, and £42,840 to the Oaks winners,
within the same period making, in all, £102,625 to the
twenty-two viz., for Pyrrhus the First, £5,250; Cossack,
the same amount; Surplice, £5,550; the Flying Dutch-
man, £6,320; Voltiguer, £5,050; Teddington, £5,475;
Daniel O'Rourke, £5.050; West Australian, £5,400;
Andover, £5,950; Wild Dayrell, £4,925; and Ellington,
£5,775, for the Derbies. And Mendicant, £3,800;
Miami, £4,125; Cymba, £4,200; Lady Evelyn, £4,425;
Rhedycina, £3,425; Iris, £3,500; Songstress, £3,275;
Catherine Hayes, £3,800; Mincemeat, £3,915; March-
ioness, £4,175; and Mincepie, £3,500, for the Oaks.
STUD HORSES REPRESENTED IN THE DERBY.-Out of
the thirty runners, three each were by Melbourne, Bird-
catcher, and Surplice; two each by Touchstone (and
both favourites). Orlando and Simoon; and one each by
Womersley, Flatcatcher, Voltigeur, Windhound, Bay
Middleton, the Cure, Woodpigeon, Sir Tatton Sykes,
Alarm, Loup Garou, Cossack, Pyrrhus the First, Robert
de Gorham, Don John, and Malcolm.
DERBY HORSES AND ST. LEGER HORSES.-Skirmisher,
Tournament, M.D., and Saunterer will have no chance
of redeeming their characters in the Leger, not being
entered for that race; but Anton, Arsonal, and Adamas,
as well as Sydney, Loyola and Co., will have an oppor-
tunity of shivering a lance with the northern mare, on
the banks of the Don. Bird-in-the-Hand, too, is not in
the great race at Doncaster. Nineteen out of the thirty
Derby starters are in the St. Leger, including the first,
third, and fourth horses.
YORKSHIRE AND BLINK BONNY. — It is creditably
stated that the result of this mare's extraordinary victories
last week has or will bring near £200,000 into the East
Riding, in all parts of which she was heavily booked,
and that, too, without the parties being able to get out to
any extent.
THE B's AND THE DERBY —Blucher (1814), Bay Mid-
dleton (1836), Bloomsbury (1839), and Blink Bonny are
the only " B's" that have won the Derby; and the mare
is the one of that ilk that has won the Oaks within half
a century.
Sir Robert Peel had a horse at the Derby, which, if it
won, would have brought him in £80,000. How much
he will lose on its failure we do not know- probably a
third or fourth part of that sum.
$