3-052-701 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Bend Or, the winner of the Derby, 1880. 'In many respects Bend Or's Derby must always rank as one of the most noteworthy on record. The course has never been so frightfully hard; in fact, the "going" in the Strand or Fleet-street would scarcely have been worse...he stood out as incomparably the best two-year-old performer of last season, his five victories being unsullied by a single defeat...Bend Or, who was bred by his present owner, the Duke of Westminster, is by Doncaster from Rouge Rose, a daughter of Thormanby; and thus the Duke's purchase of Doncaster for the unprecedented sum of 14,000 gs. has already been richly repaid. He is a chestnut colt, standing very nearly sixteen hands high, though he is so thoroughly well proportioned and put together that he looks considerably smaller than he really is...It has transpired...that Bend Or was shod on an American principle, with a layer of gutta-percha between the hoof and the shoe, this plan being tried with a view of lessening the tremendous concussion on the hard ground. In the course of the race he twisted the plate on his off fore foot, and this must have interfered with him considerably...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.