The stud owner who is willing to give £4305 for a two-year-old colt deserves success.
The Primley Stud
At the Dunsmore Sale on February 14, 1907, Mr. W. Whitley purchased Dunsmore Fuchsia (by Jameson), the London Cup winner of 1905 and 1906, for 520 guineas, also Quality by the same sire, and these two won second and third for him in London the same month, this being the first show at which the Primley shires took honours.
The purchase of Tatton Dray King, the Champion stallion of 1908, by Messrs. W. and H. Whitley in the spring of 1909 for 3700 guineas created quite a sensation, as it was an outstanding record, it stood so for nearly four years.
One of the most successful show mares in this—or any—stud is Mollington Movement by Lockinge Forest King, but the reigning queen is Lorna Doone, the London and Peterborough Champion of 1914, purchased privately from the Tring Park Stud. Another built on the same lines is Sussex Pride with which a Bucks tenant farmer, Mr. R. H. Keene, won first and reserve champion at the London Show of 1913, afterwards selling her to Messrs. Whitley, who again won with her in 1914. With such animals as these Devonshire is likely to hold its own with Shires, although they do not come from the district known to the law makers of old as the breeding ground of “the Great Horse.”
The Pendley Females
One of the most successful exhibitors of mares, fillies, and foals, at the shows of the past few seasons has been Mr. J. G. Williams, Pendley Manor, Tring. Like other exhibitors already mentioned, the one under notice owes much of his success to Lockinge Forest King. In 1908 Lord Egerton’s Tatton May Queen was purchased for 420 guineas, she having been first in London as a yearling and two-year-old; Bardon Forest Princess, a reserve London Champion, and Barnfields Forest Queen, Cup winner there, made a splendid team of winners by the sire named. At the Tring Park sale of 1913 Mr. Williams gave the highest price made by a female, 825 guineas, for Halstead Duchess VII., by Redlynch Forest King. She won the Royal Championship at Bristol for him. One of the later acquisitions is Snelston Lady, by Slipton King, Cup winner and reserve Champion in London, 1914, as a three-year-old, first at the Royal, and reserve Champion at Peterborough. Mr. Williams joined the Shire Horse Society in 1906, since when he has won all but the London Championship with his mares and fillies.
A New Stud
After Champion’s Goalkeeper was knocked down Mr. Beck announced that the disappointed bidder was Mr. C. R. H. Gresson, acting for the Edgcote Shorthorn Company, Wardington, Banbury, his date of admission to the Shire Horse Society being during that same month, February, 1913. Having failed to get the popular colt, his stable companion and half brother, Stockman III., was purchased for 540 guineas, and shown in London just after, where he won fourth prize. From this single entry in 1913 the foundation of the stud was so rapid that seven entries were made at the 1914 London Show. Fine Feathers was the first prize yearling filly, Blackthorn Betty the second prize two-year-old filly, the own bred Edgcote Monarch being the second prize yearling colt. After the show Lord Rothschild’s first prize two-year colt, Orfold Blue Blood, was bought, together with Normandy Jessie, the third prize yearling colt; so with these two, Fine Feathers, Betty, Chirkenhill Forest Queen, and Writtle Coming Queen, the Edgcote Shorthorn Co., Ltd., took a leading place at the shows of 1914. In future Edgcote promises to be as famous for its Shires as it has hitherto been for its Shorthorns.