The first appearance of Gladiateur upon the race-course was at the
Newmarket autumn meeting of 1864, where he won the Clearwell Stakes,
beating a field of twelve horses. He was kept sufficiently "shady,"
however, during the winter to enable his owner to make some
advantageous bets upon him, though it required careful management to
conceal his extraordinary powers. His training remains a legend in the
annals of the stables of Royal-Lieu, where the jockeys will tell you
how he completely knocked all the other horses out of time, and how two
or three of the very best put in relay to wait upon him were not enough
to cover the distance. Fille-de-l'Air herself had to be sacrificed, and
it was in one of these terrible gallops that she finished her career as
a runner. Mandarin alone stood out, but even he, they say, showed such
mortal terror of the trial that when he was led out to accompany his
redoubtable brother he trembled from head to foot, bathed in sweat. In
1865, Gladiateur gained the two thousand guineas and the Derby at
Epsom, and for the first time the blue ribbon was borne away from the
English. "When Gladiateur runs," said the English papers at this time,
"the other horses hardly seem to move.
Pages:
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195