DERBY DAY SENSATIONS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2171, 2 September 1920, Page 4

DERBY DAY SENSATIONS.

Seldom has it horse’s chance of victory seemed more impossible than that of Phosphorus, Lord Berner’s coll, in the Derby of 1837. All the knowing Turf-men confidently asserted that the odds againsl him were “all Lombard Street to an orange"; .although one poetic tipster spotted him in the following anticipatory couplet: — ’Tis over; the trick for the thousands is done; George Edwards on Phosphorus the Derby has won.

A still greater surprise awaited the spectators of the next year’s race; for the winner, Sir Gilbert Ileathcole’s Amato, was an utterly unknown horse on the racecourse. The “coughing pony," as he was contemptuously called, although he stood 15i hands high, had never appeared in public; and although a few residents of Epsom who had seen the horse in training backed him for small amounts,“his chances seemed so microscopic that a few weeks before the race odds of 100 to 1 were laid against him, and he actually started at 100 to 3. In the race, however, Amato won with comparative ease. Singularly enough, this was not only his first, it was also his last public appear-

ance. The Derby of 1830, which was won in a snow-storm, proved a curious repetition of Amato's sensational victory; for the winner, Bloomsbury, had never previously run in a race, and started at the odds of 30 to 1. There was, 100, a dispute ns to Ids pedigree, which resulted in a lawsuit; and altogether Bloomsbury caused considerable stir I)v his victory.

Never was there a more hopeless outsider than Black Tommy, who ran second to Blink Bonny in the Derby of 1857. So badly was he thought of that .odds of 200 to f were ottered against him, and few were venturesome enough to take them. It is even said thal-on? daring bookmaker laid his owner, Mr Drinkald, the extraordinary wager of £20,000 to a coat, waistcoat, and lial! So splendidly did the despised colt aepnit himself in the race that he was only beaten by a neck for the first place. Forty to one were the odds ottered against Caraclacns for the Derby of 18(52, and the odds seemed amply just died, for I lie public knew practically nothing of Mr Snewing's coll. There was hardly a soul, however, in the neighbourhood of his stable who hadn’t invested his money on tho horse. In fact, so great was the faith in his ability to win that, it is said, “tin* pawnbrokers' shops for miles round were full of goods pledged to. back (,'araelacus.” There were thirty-four runners, including The Manpiis, winner of the Two Thousand, and Mr Merry's Buckstone, who finished second and third respectively; but Caraclacns beat them all, and. amid a scene of the wildest excitement, won by a neck, a length and a-half separating The Maivpiis and Buckstone.

When Hermit shirk'd for the Derby of lSU7.be hud broken a bloodvessel not ninny dnys earlier, and presented a most forlorn and pitiable spectacle. How he started at 1,000 to 15 against him and won by a neek one of the most thrilling raves ever known, and all the tragic consequences that followed his victory, are well remembered. Only the day before the race the .. Duke of Hamilton was lucky enough to get a bet of £IBO,OOO to £O,OOO against Hermit declared “off.'’

More recent races have provided sensations almost as great, as when Jeddah, Signorietta, and Aboyeur won the ‘'Blue Ribbon" at the amazing odds of 100 to 1, thus rewarding their backers with £I,OOO for every £lO thev risked on them.