THE MARQUIS OF HASTINGS’S STUD.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XII, Issue 828, 8 February 1868, Page 3

THE MARQUIS OF HASTINGS’S STUD.

The racing season having ended badly for the Marquis of Hastings, it was announced that the whole of his lordship’s stud, fifty in number, would be submitted to the hammer by Messrs Tattersall on Stockbridge race-course, to which place a special train was provided for intending purchasers, and where a champagne luncheon was prepared for their refreshment before the business of the day began. The yearlings, twenty-one in number, had most of them been purchased at Middle Park, Hampton Court, and Doncaster, for sums which they failed to realise on Saturday They averaged but 447 guineas each—939o guineas in all; Lady Cecilia, by Stockwell out of Bay Celia, fetching the highest price—l6so guineas. The horses in training were then brought forward. They had been engaged so deeply and wildly that many of them would have failed to find purchasers at any price had they been sold with their engagements. But Mr Tattersall announced that their sale would take place under what are called the Marquis of Exeter's conditions—viz., that the purchaser shall only have to pay for the stakes he elects to run for—one-third of which are to go to the original owner if the horse wins —the latter being responsible for the forfeits. The first ten lots—three-year-olds and upwards—averaged 611 guineas each — 6110 guineas; Challenge, by Trumpeter, out of Princess Alice, being knocked down for 2000 guineas. Lastly, nineteen two-year-olds were knocked down at an average of 1150 guineas each—2l,B6o guineas; The Earl, a bay colt, by Young Melbourne, out of Bay Celia, for 6100 guineas ; and Lady Elizabeth, by Trumpeter, out of Miss Bowzer, for 6500 guineas. If all the animals had really been sold, the total proceeds of the sale would have amounted to about £35,000. But as the sale was nob a sale without reserve, it soon transpired that many of the best animals had been bought in, and that Lady Elizabeth, The Earl, Athena, Lecturer, and Challenger, still remain the property of the Marquis of Hastings. On such a cold day as it was, it seems to have been almost a mauvaise plaisanterie to entice people down to such a bleak spot as Stockbridge race-course to bid for horses that were not to be sold.