LOTTERY OF THE TURF.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2343, 10 July 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOTTERY OF THE TURF.

"Caller On" in the Napier Telegraph says ;—The marked success" of the scions of Stockwell and his progeny at the Newmarket meeting induces one to read the curious story of Echidna, the dam of Tim' Baron, liy Irish Birdcatcher, for which,l am indebted to the Bird.,; o' \ Freedom. This story shows by what a mere chance this groat ancestor of se many of the most illustrious aniroals.in racing history was sent' to the stud, Had " bis rivirenco" opened his heart to the tune of another tenner The Baron would not have been ,borne, and consequently itockwelland R. Taplin would have had no existence. " Echidna," the dam of The Baron, Stockwoll's sire, belonged to the well-know Mr Watts, of Jockey Hall, Curragh, and baring been tried and found useless for racing purposes, was sent by her owner lo bis friend the neighboring priest, who, he knew, wanted such an animal to carry him the rounds of his somewhat extensive parish. Father Murtagh, the priest, in question, declined her at £'2o. the price asked, but offered to take her at half the money, viz., £lO. This Mr Watts refused, and the mare was sent the following 'spring to Irish Birdoatcher, who stood closeby, theproduce, her first foal, being The Baron, who, after winning the St, Leger, Oesarewitch, and other good races, beoame the sire of Stockwell, the Emperor of stallions, from whom Ormond, Minting, and Saraband are each descended. When we consider that' .Rataplan was Stookwell's brother, Lord Lyon and Doncaster were his sons; that Caller On and Achievement were two of his famous daughters; that three years in succession, and six times in eight years,his stock won the St. Leger; that to him we owe such names as Silvio, Bend Or, Craig Millar, Prince Charlie. Gang Forward, besides such hosts of other good ones, it makes one recall this romantic little story of the priest and the cast off of Jockey Hall, and marvel at the extreme lottery of everything appertaining to the turf and its surroundings, the eccentricities of the fates in regard to all these matters, and the wonders they have in store tor some of the more lucky among