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Lily Agnes
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During her long life Lily
Agnes was a great racemare, and an
even finer broodmare. Her mother, Polly Agnes, was a
product of the famed Sledmere Stud, but she had been such
a tiny and weak foal, that Sir Tatton Sykes, the owner of
the stud, gave her to his stud groom, James
Snarry. The catch was that Sir Tatton wanted the scrawny
filly removed immediately from his property. Little Polly
Agnes was kept as a broodmare by her new owner, and he
sent her to Macaroni, a Derby winner. The result was Lily
Agnes.
Not
much was expected of Lily Agnes as a racer, described as a "...light-fleshed,
ragged-hipped, lop-eared filly." During her turf
career she developed into a roarer, but that did not
prevent her from winning. In training from two through
the age of five, she won 19 races at distances ranging
from five furlongs to three miles. Among the races she
captured were the Northumberland Plate, the Great Ebor
Handicap, and the Doncaster Cup.
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Snarry was
ambitious when it came to finding a mate for his prize
filly when it came time to send her to the breeding shed, and booked her to the Derby winner Doncaster, standing at the
Duke of Westminster's Eaton Stud.
Eaton stud manager Richard Chapman later recollected, "Lily Agnes, when the property of
Mr. Snarry, of Malton, came here on a visit to Doncaster.
I liked her so much that I urged the Duke to buy her. His
Grace had not, however, made up his mind to adopt my
suggestion by the time the mare was ready to go back
home; but a few weeks later he sent me to Malton to
examine and report upon her. Eventually the Duke decided
to buy her, but he made the stipulation with Snarry that
nobody, apart from themselves, should know how much he
had paid. It was not until after Ormonde had won the St.
Leger that I learned that the Duke gave for Lily Agnes
£2500 and two free subscriptions to Bend Or, whose fee
was then 200 guineas. The Duke afterwards bought Lizzie
Agnes, sister to Lily Agnes, and dam of Orwell (third to
Sainfoin in the Derby)."
The price for Lily Agnes proved a
bargain for the Duke. Lily Agnes foaled a colt by Doncaster named
Rossington, for Snarry, and then, for the Duke, to the cover of
Doncaster, she produced a filly. Named Farewell, she later
captured the One Thousand Guineas. Mated next to Bend Or,
Lily Agnes produced the Duke's unbeaten Triple Crown
champion, Ormonde, considered one of the great racehorses
of all time. Subsequent matings with Bend Or yielded the
fine colt Ossory, winner of the St. James Palace Stakes
and the Prince of Wales Stakes, and the filly Fleur de
Lys, winner of the Kempton Park Champion Nursery
Handicap. In 1887 came Ornament, badly beaten in her only
racetrack appearance, but the dam of the immortal
Sceptre, winner of every classic race of 1902, except the Derby.
Lily Agnes was a
roarer, and it is believed she passed this wind infirmity
on to many of her offspring. Certainly Ormonde was
affected, as he developed breathing problems prior to his
four year old season.
Lily Agnes had no
more recorded foals after the birth of a colt named
Orelio in 1894. She died in 1899 at the age of 28, and
was buried at Eaton. That same year, two of her
celebrated paddock mates also died -- Shotover and
Angelica, the dam of Orme. 1899 also saw the
death of the Duke of Westminster himself. It was the end
of an era.
--Dorothy Kirby
and revised by Elizabeth Martiniak
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