£40,000 for a Horse.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 10 April 1914, Page 2

£40,000 for a Horse.

THE WHITE KNIGHT SOLD TO GO ABROAD.

The famous horse, The White Knight, has been sold to a foreign buyer. The purchase price is said to be about £40,000.

This enormous price, at which racehorse owners of a generation ago would have gasped with astonishment, shows the magnitude:of the present boom in the value of British blood stock. There was never a time in the history of the world when highly bred horses fetched anything like the price they do now.

Rock Sand, the Derby winner of 1903, w<ho was sold for £25,000 to go to the United States, was bought back last year by a syndicate of American owners racing in France, for £50,000. Cyllene was sold to go to the Argentine Republic for £31,500. Flying Fox, the Derby winner of 1899, went to France for 37,500 guineas.

The White Knight was one of the greatest stayers of the last decade. He ran unplaced in the memorable Derby won by Spearmint in 1906, but his subsequent triumphs included the Ascot Gold Cup twice, the Goodwood Cup, and the Coronation Cup, and the Coronation Cup at Epsom.

One of the best performances was in the Cesarewitch of 1907, when, carrying the heavy burden of 9st. 121b., he ran second to Mr. William Clark's Demure.

The White Knight was owned jointly by Mr. W. R. Wyndham, a nephew of Lord Rosebery, and the late Colonel Tom Kirkwood, a famous Irish sportsman. Since his retirement from the turf he has been at the stud in Co. Limerick.

So far this season The White Knight's stock have won £1333: His winners have been White Pawn (twice), Magheen (twice), Knight's Key (twice), and White Ruby.