IC-NRLF THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID . OF SPORTS AND PASTIMES EDITED BY HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BEAUFORT, K.G ASSISTED BY ALFRED E. T. WATSON RACING AND STEEPLE- CHASING PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE LONDON RACING AND STEEPLE-CHASING RACING EARL OF SUFFOLK AND BERKSHIRE, AND MR W. G. CRAVEN WITH A CONTRIBUTION BY THE HON. F. LAVVLEY STEEPLE-CHASING ARTHUR COVENTRY AND ALFRED E. T. WATSON i ^_, ^^'Irl^^-^^-' NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS by J. STURGESS LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1886 All rights reserved DEDICA TION TO H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES. BADMINTON : October 1885. HAVING received permission to dedicate these volumes, the BADMINTON LIBRARY of SPORTS and PASTIMES, to His ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE OF WALES, I do so feeling that I am dedicating them to one of the best and keenest sportsmen of our time. I can say, from personal observation, that there is no man who can extricate himself from a bustling and pushing crowd of horsemen, when a fox breaks covert, more dexterously and quickly than His Royal Highness ; and that when hounds run hard over a big country, no man can take a line of his own and live with them better. Also, when the wind has been blowing hard, often have I seen His Royal Highness knocking over driven grouse and partridges and high-rocketing pheasants in first-rate M370229 vi D ED 1C A T1ON. workmanlike style. He is held to be a good yachtsman, and as Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron is looked up to by those who love that pleasant and exhilarating pastime. His encouragement of racing is well known, and his attendance at the University, Public School, and other important Matches testifies to his being, like most English gentlemen, fond of all manly sports. I consider it a great privilege to be allowed to dedicate these volumes to so eminent a sportsman as His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and I do so with sincere feelings of respect and esteem and loyal devotion BEAUFORT. PREFACE. A FEW LINES only are necessary to explain the object with which these volumes are put forth. There is no modern encyclopaedia to which the inexperienced man, who seeks guidance in the practice of the various British Sports and Pastimes, can turn for information. Some books there are on Hunting, some on Racing, some on Lawn Tennis, some on Fishing, and so on ; but one Library, or succession of volumes, which treats of the Sports and Pastimes indulged in by Englishmen and women is wanting. The Badminton Library is offered to supply the want. Of the imperfections which must be found in the execution of such a design we are con- scious. Experts often differ. But this we may say, that those who are seeking for knowledge on any of the subjects dealt with will find the result of many years' experience written by men who are in every case adepts at the Sport or Pastime of which they write. It is to I viii PREFACE. \ point the way to success to those who are ignorant of the sciences they aspire to master, and who have no friend to help or coach them, that these volumes are written. To those who have worked hard to place simply and clearly before the reader that which he will find within, the best thanks of the Editor are due. That it has been no slight labour to supervise all that has been written he must acknowledge ; but it has been a labour of love, and very much lightened by the courtesy of the Publisher, by the unflinching, indefatigable assistance of the Sub- Editor, and by the intelligent and able arrangement of each subject by the various writers, who are so thoroughly masters of the subjects of which they treat. The reward we all hope to reap is that our work may .prove useful to this and future generations. THE EDITOR. CONTENTS. RACING. CHAPTER PAGE I. HISTORY OF HORSE-RACING 3 HORSES OF ANCIENT BRITAIN .... 7 II. THE PROGRESS OF THE SPORT .... 42 III. HISTORY OF THE JOCKEY CLUB 56 IV. RACING OFFICIALS 61 CLERK OF THE COURSE 62 THE STARTER 63 THE JUDGE 64 THE CLERK OF THE SCALES .... 66 THE HANDICAPPER 68 THE STAKEHOLDER . . . . . Jl THE STEWARDS Jl V. NEWMARKET 74 VI. RACING IN THE 'PROVINCES' 90 VII. RACING SERVANTS : OLD STYLE AND NEW . . 98 VIII. BREEDING 112 IX. TREATMENT OF YEARLINGS 121 X. EARLY TRIALS 131 x CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE XL THREE-YEAR-OLDS 154 XII. OVER A DISTANCE OF GROUND 180 XIII. UPON TRAINERS 193 XIV. UPON JOCKEYS . . . ... . . . 220 XV. BETTING 246 5 TEEPLE- CHA SING. I. THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF STEEPLE- CHASING 275 II. THE SELECTION OF THE CHASER . . . .287 III. SCHOOLING 296 IV. FENCES AND FENCING 307 V. RIDING THE RACE 318 VI. HURDLE-RACING . 333 VII. LOCAL MEETINGS . . . . . . . . 340 VIII. FAMOUS CHASERS AND THEIR RIDERS . . -35 APPENDIX 373 INDEX . ... 409 ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOHN STURGESS. (EXECUTED BY G. PEARSON.) PAGE TROUBLESOME YOUNGSTERS ....... Front. (Vigjiette on Title Page.) COMING FROM THE BIRDCAGE, NEWMARKET . . . . . 3 HERDS OF HOUSES 9 BITS FOR TROOPS: SNAFFLES FOR DISPORT 18 WEAKNESS AND STRENGTH ........ 36 A LONG JOURNEY BY ROAD . . . . . . . . 42 ELIS ON THE ROAD TO DONCASTER 44 TOO MUCH ON THE TURN . . 51 THE INFANT PHENOMENON 53 EXERCISE GROUND, NEWMARKET . . . . . 59 CHANCE OF BEING KNOCKED DOWN ...... 64 A CROSS 66 TAN GALLOP AT NEWMARKET . . . . . . .74 RACING ON HORSEBACK . . 76 ' IT'S ALL FORDHAM'S KID ! ' 80 THEN HE is STEADIED 84 THE FORLORN DIVISION 86 JUBILANT STABLE-BOYS 88 HORSE CLOTHING : OLD STYLE AND NEW ..... 101 GROUND PLAN OF NEW STABLES, CHETWYND HOUSE, NEWMARKET no ELEVATIONS OF DITTO m CHILDREN OF THE DESERT j,^ STALLIONS AT EXERCISE II9 YEARLINGS ON THE ROAD ........ i 2 xii ILL US TRA TIONS. PAGE 'THEY FIGHT LIKE BULLDOGS ' I2J DRIVEN WITH LONG REINS 127 SLOUCHES SULKILY ALONG . , 148 'GET OFF AS BEST THEY CAN 5 165 RIDING THEM OUT 183 TRAINED LIGHT AND RUNNING BIG ...... 207 'MANY A FOAL WORE ALL THE APPEARANCE OF A YEARLING 5 . 215 FANTASTIC TRICKS . . 223 PATERNAL INSTRUCTION 227 ENERGETIC AND QUIET STYLES 233 How THE DERBY is GENERALLY WON 235 WITHOUT WHIP OR SPUR 240 FIRST AT THE POST 241 CAREFULLY LOOK IT OVER IN THE PADDOCK . . . 260 ' SOMETIMES THE HORSE CARRIES THE HURDLE AWAY WITH HIM ' 270 A CHASER 288 A STEEPLE-CHASER . . . 295 'DWELLING' AND 'GETTING WELL AWAY' 2Q7 A CLUMSY RIDER 303 'STEADYING' AND 'DRIVING' ....... 309 AN OPEN BROOK 311 BADLY BEATEN 318 A CAREFUL EYE OVER THE HORSE 321 LET GO ONLY TO BE PULLED UP 323 FIGHTING FOR HIS HEAD 325 REFUSING 327 JUMPING SIDEWAYS 329 FINISHING 330 ' HE TOOK UP HIS WHIP AND STOPPED HIS HORSE' . . . . 331 GLIDING OVER 335 'BEAT HIMSELF JUMPING' 338 CLEARING THE WAY . . 361 SHARING HIS LEADER'S ACCIDENT 363 RACING BY THE EARL OF SUFFOLK AND BERKSHIRE AND W. G. CRAVEN WITH A CONTRIBUTION BY THE HON. F. LAWLEY CHAPTER I. HISTORY OF HORSK-RACING. Coming from the Birdcage, Newmarket. BOOK on the subject of horse- racing can well exclude some more or less brief comments on j the history of the sport ; and here it is obvious that the writer has no al- ternative but to go over ground which has already been traversed. No more difficult, more well-nigh impossible task could be assigned, even to those who have the greatest modern experience of horse-racing and its congener horse-breeding, B 2 4 RACING. than that of compiling a volume on these subjects which shall contain even a small portion of original matter in that part which relates to turf history. We are necessarily driven to research in old writings, and here we are bound to accept the outlines, whatever amount of credence we may accord to the minor details. So far, there- fore, as history goes, it is our intention to confine ourselves to extracting such information from other authors as has received some sort of confirmation, or is at least reason- ably possible. The bare history of the turf is not so very recondite, for the introduction into this country of the various strains of blood which have parented our present thoroughbred stock is duly recorded in works the majority of which were written by men of high position ; but when we come gravely to consider what we are asked to believe as to the feats accom- plished by horses even one hundred years ago, the spirit of distrust grows strong within us. If anyone should exclaim against such incredulity, let him, if at all posted up in turf matters, read for one week his contemporary racing literature and reflect thereon by the light of his own knowledge ; then let him try to imagine himself his own great-grandson, perusing some century hence the statements of to-day, and he will readily arrive at the conclusion that his illustrious descendant will do well to accept with some reservation the published accounts of ancestral sporting performances. We do not think that we shall unduly tax the credulity of readers when we come to contemporary affairs, and after the legends of the turf have been summarised we may unhesitat- ingly promise matter which at least has the claim to absolute freshness. Through the kindness of the owners and trainers of several of the most famous horses that have run during recent years, we are able to afford readers peeps behind the scenes, which we hope and think can scarcely fail to prove instructive ; for what these famous horses were asked to do at home, and how the capacity which they publicly displayed was privately gauged, will be set forth. Readers will see how some- HISTORY OF HORSE-RACING. 5 times horses ran up to their trials and how sometimes they failed to do so ; and if no other explanation be deducible, at least a lesson as to the uncertainty of the turf may be learnt. When we come to discuss the breeding of racehorses, we are once more beset with difficulties. For there seems in very truth, as far as the science has gone at present, to be no ' royal road ' to breeding. All men who have devoted themselves to this study have their individual hobbies. Many preach what they do not practise ; while others who put their theories into practice do more harm than good, the theories relating rather to the immediate pecuniary advantage to be derived from sale than to ultimate improvement in the quality of the stock. It is the study of every breeder to find that ' nick ' of blood which will produce winners ; and after infinite care, thought, study, and experience the 'nick' is sometimes found and the winner produced. The breeder rejoices. His toil seems to be rewarded. His calculations have proved accurate. In the youngsters the faults of the sire have been, let us say, corrected by the dam. His stamina joined to her speed results in the appearance of a racehorse far removed from the common. Eagerly the breeder tries the combination again, and what is the result ? Almost as often as not a worthless animal. The union of Dutch Skater and Cantiniere gave birth to that excellent mare Dutch Oven. The combination looked promising and proved notably successful ; but the next child of these well-mated parents was Prince Maurice, a handsome colt truly, and thoroughly sound throughout his career, but unable to gallop and valueless as a racehorse. Again, the result of sending Devotion to Hermit was Thebais, a mare of the first class, winner of the One Thousand and Oaks, possessed of speed and exceptional stoutness. Devotion visits Hermit again and gives birth to St. Marguerite, a delicate mare which never- theless wins the One Thousand Guineas. Clairvaux, a wonder- fully speedy colt, is another success so long as he can be trained. Again a foal is born to these two, a colt, St. Honorat, which is bought for 4,000 guineas and reluctantly parted with ; but he 6 RACING. proves worth less than 4,000 pence for racing purposes. Similar instances might be multiplied. We are, however, not without hope that by the careful study of the Stud Book, jointly with the Calendar, some few facts may yet be gleaned tending to throw a light on this vexed question. A comparison must also be instituted between the ancient and the modern systems of racing, though, in endeavouring to lay before our readers what we believe to be the truth, we must confess that we approach a delicate subject with considerable misgivings ; for, in order to adequately describe the racing of our present time, we must freely express our views, not only on the sport itself, but also on all the influences, good, bad, or in- different, which are brought to bear upon it, and during this process we may chance to tread upon toes more used to administer kicks than to feel admonitory pressure. We had begun by ransacking old volumes and by having recourse to the shelves of the British Museum, but when we had already gone far into our subject, our attention was called to a work, written, so far as history is concerned, in much the same strain as that which we proposed to adopt. Our space being limited, we shall be forced to abridge much of the detail which those who care to peruse will find in the ' History of the British Turf,' by James Christie Whyte, published in 1840, a book which gives a complete record up to that date of matters connected with racing in this country. The author has compiled a mass of interesting material from ancient writers, and we propose to borrow largely from his facts and occasionally to quote his ideas thereon. Like Mr. Whyte, we feel that we cannot better begin our essay than by taking the historical record which appeared in the ' Sporting Magazine ' of 1792. The conciseness of the article will be readily ap- preciated. It runs in the following strain : HISTORY OF HORSE-RACING. HORSES OF ANCIENT BRITAIN. Before the time of Julius Caesar, the inhabitants of these islands certainly had horses which served as beasts of burden and also drew them in their chariots ; but history does not furnish us with any account of them in these early years. We are informed by the Venerable Bede that the English began to saddle their horses about the year 631, and he has remarked that at this period the people of rank first distinguished them- selves by appearing frequently on horseback. "Whyte says on this subject, * However this may be, we find on Caesar's in- vasion of Great Britain that the landing of the Roman troops (B.C. 55) was opposed by bodies of horsemen, besides chariots and infantry ; and as the fact is well established by the testi- mony of many Roman historians, we are inclined to take it in preference to what is advanced by Bede, who assigns the year 631, in the reign of Edwin the Great, as the earliest period at which the English used saddle-horses. In the reign of Athelstane horses were held in high esti- mation, and those bred in England were supposed to be so much superior to those of other countries, that a law was made to prohibit their exportation. It is remarkable also that in this reign horses were imported into England from the Conti- nent. Whyte says, 'The earliest mention of racehorses or, as they were called in those days, running-horses, in our national annals, are those of the ninth century (' Malms, de Gest. Reg. Angl.' lib. ii. cap. vi.), sent by Hugh, founder of the Royal House of Capet, in France, as a present to King Athelstane, whose sister, Ethelswitha, he was soliciting in marriage. When William the Norman conquered this country the breed of horses was considerably improved. Many were brought from Normandy and other countries. Roger de Belesme, Earl of Shrewsbury, in particular, rendered this nation essential services by introducing the stallions of Spain into his 8 RACING. estate in Powisland. From these a breed was cultivated whose perfections have been celebrated by Giraldus Cambrensis and Drayton. This race was calculated for the purposes of war and for pageantry or grand solemnities. In the reign of Henry II. tournaments and horse-races began to be frequent exhibitions; and Smithfield, which was the first market in England for every denomination of horses, was the theatre of these sports and exercises. FitzStephen, the chronicler of this time, says : * When a race is to be run by this sort of horses and perhaps by others which in their kind are also strong and fleet, a shout is immediately raised, and the common horses are ordered to withdraw out of the way. Three jockeys, or sometimes only two, as the match is made, prepare themselves for the contest. . . . The horses, on their part, are not without emulation ; they tremble and are impatient, are continually in motion. At last, the signal ones given, they start down the course, and hurry along with un- remitting swiftness. The jockeys, inspired by the thought of applause and the hope of victory, clap spurs to their willing horses, brandish their whips, and cheer them with their cries.' by no means, we may add, the modern idea of an artistic finish. Again in Richard I.'s reign the popularity of racing was no doubt very great, and Sir Bevys of Southampton, in his ' Metrical Romance,' thus describes the sports in the Easter and Whitsuntide holidays : In somer time at Whitsontyde, When knights most on horsebacke ryde ; A course let they make on a daye, Steedes and palfreye, for to assaye ; Which horse, that best may run, Three myles the cours was then, W 7 ho ttiat might ryde him shoulde Have forty pounds of redy gold. In a romance written to celebrate the deeds of Richard I. we find that swift running-horses were much esteemed by the heroes who figure in it. Speaking of races in the camp ; HISTORY OF HORSE-RACING. Two steedes fownde King Richard, That Von Fazell, that other Syard, Yn this worlde they hadde no pere ; Dromedary, rabyte, ne cammele Goeth none so swifte without fayle, For a thousand pounde of golde He shoulde the one be solde. Edward II. was particularly fond of horses, and the war- like genius of Edward III. induced him to procure supplies of them from distant countries. Historians inform us that this valiant prince was at one time indebted to the Count of Hain- ault 25,000 florins for horses which he had furnished. Edward III. bought 'running-horses ' at the price of 137. 6.?. &d. each equal to 1 6o/. in money Herds of horses, of the present day. He received a present of two fencing horses from the King of Na- varre, and gave 100 shillings to the person who brought them. In this age horses were divided into the managed, or those disciplined for war, and into coursers, amblers, palfreys, nags, io RACING. and ponies. When chivalry prevailed, no knight or gentleman would ride a mare it was thought dishonourable and disgrace- ful. No satisfactory reason has ever been assigned for this absurd prejudice, but some imagine it was because the clergy had in some measure appropriated the use of mares from a pretended principle of humility, as they were less spirited than horses. In the reign of Henry VII. the English had large herds of horses in their pastures and common fields, and when the harvest was gathered in, the cattle of different proprietors fed promiscuously together, on which account the horses were castrated. This was therefore the age of geldings ; for the entire horses which were kept for breeding were confined in stables or on lands which were enclosed. Under the succeeding Prince particular attention was paid to the raising of a strong breed of horses, and laws were in- stituted to enforce the completion of that design. To secure size and strength in the progeny, it was thought necessary to select the sires and dams of a certain proportion, size, and mould, and not to permit any mare or stallion to breed except under these restrictions. A law was accordingly pro- mulgated for that purpose. The Act ran thus : 'By the 32 Henry VIII. c. 13 it is enacted that no person shall put in any forest, chase, moor, heath, common, or waste (where mares and fillies are used to be kept) any stoned horse above the age of two years, not being fifteen hands high, within the shires and territories of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, Buck- ingham, Huntingdon, Essex, Kent, South Hampshire, North Wilts, Oxford, Berks, Worcester, Gloucester, Somerset, North Wales, South Wales, Bedford, Warwick, Northampton, York- shire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Lancashire, Salop, Leicester, Hereford and Lincoln ; nor under fourteen hands in any other county on pain of forfeiting the same.' But by the 21 James I., c. 28, f. 12, Cornwall is excepted. By the 8 Elizabeth, c. 28, the statute of 32 Henry VIII. shall not extend to the marshes in the counties of Cambridge, HISTORY OF HORSE-RACING. 11 Huntingdon, Suffolk, Northampton, Lincoln, and Norfolk ; provided that the horses be of thirteen hands. By the statute of 32 Henry VIII. c. 13, 'Any person may seize any horse of under-size, in manner following : he shall go to the keeper of such forest, or (out of such forest) to the con- stable of the next town, and require him to go with him, to bring such horse to the next pound ; there to be measured by such officer, in the presence of three other honest men, to be appointed by the officer, and if he shall be found contrary to what is above expressed such person may take him for his own use. And any such keeper, constable, or other of the three persons who shall refuse to do as aforesaid shall forfeit 405.' Also by the same statute : ' All such commons and other places shall, within fifteen days after Michaelmas, yearly, be driven by the owners and keepers, or constables respectively, on pain of 40^., and they may also drive the same at any other time they shall meet. And if there shall be found in any of the said drifts any mare, filly, foal or gelding which shall not be thought able, nor like to grow to be able to bear foals of reasonable stature, or to do profitable labours, by the discre- tion of the drivers, or the greater number of them, they may kill and bury them.' Even infected horses are prohibited from being turned into such commons by the same Act, whereby it is enacted that ' No person shall have nor put to pasture any horse, gelding, or mare infected with the scab or mange, in any common or common fields, on pain of IDS., and the offence shall be en- quirable in the leet, as other common annoyances are, and the forfeiture shall be to the Lord of the Leet.' This statute had the effect which might naturally be ex- pected, and furnished the kingdom with many stout and useful horses. Carew, in his ' History of Cornwall,' supposes this Act of Parliament to have been the occasion of losing almost entirely the small breed of horses which were peculiar to that county. It is also known to have had the same effect in the Principality of Wales, where the little breed once so abundant \t RACING. is now extinct ; its scarcity is proof of the astonishing changes which air, food, and a mixture of blood can produce in the animal world. The loss, however, of these pigmies which Mr. Carew regrets was well repaired by a race of larger and more able- bodied creatures ; for the small animals, however pleasing and useful in their own craggy mountainous country, could not extend their merit beyond its boundary, being inferior for the task of war, the swiftness and fatigue of the chase, the splen- dour of tournaments, and the magnificent pageantry of the times, which, particularly in the reign of Henry VIII., all writers agree was excessive. Henry VIII. , from his excessive fondness of pomp and ostentation, even obliged under penalties all orders of men to keep a certain number of horses in proportion to their rank and circumstances. The archbishop and every duke were enjoined to keep seven trotting stone horses for the saddle, each of which was to be fourteen hands in height. Every clergyman possessing a benefice to the amount of one hundred pounds per annum, or a layman whose wife should wear a French hood or a bonnet of velvet, was to keep one trotting stone horse, under the penalty of twenty pounds ; and there were other regulations equally singular and minute. Henry VIII. did not confine his attention merely to the establishment of a generous and serviceable breed of horses ; he was solicitous to provide from different countries skilful and experienced persons to preside in his stables, in order that by their means the rules and elements of horsemanship might be circulated throughout the nation. In Sir N. H. Nicolas' work, entitled ' Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII.,' we find items to the keeper of the ' Barbary horse' for his board for so many weeks ; to the same keeper again by 'way of reward,' with a reward also ' to the boye that ranne the horse,' with other charges, including ' a bath for the horse.' HISTORY OF HORSE-RACING. 13 A nobleman's steed about this time is described in Whyte, and is taken from the regulations and establishments of Algernon Percy, the fifth Duke of Northumberland, in 1512. ' This is the order of the chequer roul of the nombre of horsys of my lordys 'and my ladys that are appointed to be in the charge of the hous yerely, as to say, gentill horsys, palfreys, hobys, naggis, clothsek hors, male hors. ' First, gentyll horsys, to stand in my lord's stable, six. Item, palfreys of my ladis, to wit, oone for my lady, and two for her gentillwomen, and oone for her chamberer. Four hobys and nags for my lordys oone saddill viz. oone for my lorde, and oone to stay at home for my lorde. ' Item, chariot hors, to stand in my lordis stable yerely. Seven great trottynge horsys to draw in the chariott, and a nag for the chariott man to ride, eight. Again, hors for Lord Percy, his lordship's son and heir. A gret doble trottynge hors, called a curtal, for his lordship to ride on out of townes. Another trottynge gambaldyne hors for his lordship to ride on when he comes into towne. An amblynge hors for his lordship to journeye on daily. A proper amblynge little nag for his lord- ship when he goeth on hunting and hawking. A great amblynge gelding,, or trottynge gelding, to carry his male.' ' Gentill ' horse was one of superior cattle and made the best chargers. ' Palfreys ' were an elegant kind, mostly small, and broken in to the use of ladies, and aged or infirm people of rank. ' Hobys ' were strong active horses of small size, and are originally supposed to have come from Ireland. This breed, being at one time in high repute, gave origin to the phrase by which any favourite object is termed a man's ' hobby.' The ' clothseck,' or male horse, was one that carried the cloak-bag, or portmanteau. * Chariot ' horses (derived from the French charette\ were waggon-horses. ' A gret doble trottynge horse ' was a heavy powerful horse, whose pace was a trot, being either too unwieldy in itself or carrying too great weights to gallop. 14 RACING. So says Whyte, but ' double ' in French is often used for an ' entire ' horse as against 'ongre,' which signifies gelding. At the same time a cob is often called a * double pony,' though not entire. A ' curtal ' was a horse whose tail was cut or shortened. A ' gambaldyne ' horse was one of show or parade from gambol, which is derived from the Italian ' gamba ' (leg). An ambler is called a pacer now-a-days. An ' amblynge ' horse was one of much the same descrip- tion, but whose more quiet ambling pace adapted him especially to the use of ladies. 1 Edward VI. , convinced that horses were now become more valuable than they had been, was the first to make the stealing of them a capital offence. By the i Ed. VI. c. 12 it is enacted that ' No person convicted for feloniously stealing of horses, geldings, or mares, shall have the privilege of the clergy.' The deficiency of this statute being observed, inasmuch as it ran only in the plural to wit, horses, geldings and mares, a doubt arose whether a person convicted of stealing one only of each was not entitled to his clergy ; but in order to remove this doubt, 'the statute of 2 & 3 Ed. VI. was promulgated, wherein it is enacted, that ' all and singular person and persons feloni- ously taking and stealing any horse, gelding, or mare, shall not be permitted to enjoy the benefit of clergy, but shall be put from the same.' Both these Acts of Parliament are therefore still in force, the latter being only supplemental to the former. Till towards the termination of the reign of Elizabeth, only saddle-horses and carts were used for the conveyance of persons of all distinctions. Elizabeth rode behind her Master of the Horse when she went in state to St. Paul's ; but this practice was discontinued when Fitz-Alan, Earl of Arundel, introduced 1 There is no record of our ancestors having known that tying the fore and hind leg on the same side teaches horses to amble or pace, though when turned out on commons it may have been in use as a system for checking horses. HISTORY OF HORSE-RACING. 15 the use of coaches, an innovation which then created an enormous demand for horses. It is also to be observed that the use of gunpowder, making heavy armour unnecessary, occasioned a demand for light and active horses, instead of those stately animals which had been employed in war and ex- hibition. As far as racing is concerned, it ceased to be a great public amusement during this reign. No mention is made of the sport as forming part of the amusements which were provided for the Sovereign during her visit to Lord Leicester at Kenilworth, and Commenino says that in 1590 tilting or quintain is used, when a ring is struck with a truncheon, instead of horse-racing, which, he adds, is grown out of fashion. No doubt racing did not completely die out, as we find in Bishop Hall's 'Satires,' published about the same time, the following lines : Dost thou prize Thy brute beast's worth by their dam's qualities ; Say'st thou, this colt shall prove a swift -paced steed, Only because a jennet did him breed ? Or sayst thou, this same horse shall win the prize, Because his dam was swiftest Trunchifrice, Or Buncivall his syre : himself a galloway ? While, like a tireling jade, he lags half-way. It is remarkable that at this time there was such a lack of cavalry horses that when England was threatened by the Spanish Armada no more than 3,000 cavalry could be mus- tered in the whole kingdom. But in the reign of James I. horsemanship was still more practised and encouraged ; many improvements and refine- ments in that art were introduced by the different masters, who now taught it throughout Europe. Public races were about this time established, and such horses as had given proof of superior abilities became known and celebrated ; and their pedigree as well as that of their posterity (in imitation, perhaps, of the Arabian manner) pre- served and recorded with the minutest exactness. Garterly, 1 6 RACING. in the county of York, Croydon, and sometimes Theobalds or Enfield Chase, were then the usual places of exhibition allotted for the fleetest races. The races were then conducted upon the same principles, and nearly on the same rules, as at present, and the horses were prepared for running by the discipline of food, physic, airing, sweating, and clothing. The weight to be carried by each horse was also rigidly adjusted, and the usual weight of a rider was stated at 10 stone. The most respectable races throughout the kingdom were called 'Bell Courses,' the prize or reward of the conquering horse being a bell. It may therefore be submitted as a con- jecture, whether the phrase of 'bearing the bell,' l which implies being comparatively the best, is not more aptly deduced from this custom, and thus more forcibly applied, than from the method of tying a bell round the neck of the sheep which leads the flock, and is therefore supposed to be the best. James I. built ample stables at Newmarket, near the Palace. These were afterwards rebuilt by Charles II., and again in the middle of this century by the Rothschilds. These stables have been since occupied by many trainers of note, and of late years, before belonging to the Rothschilds, by Godding, whose em- ployersLord Uxbridge, Mr. Naylor, and Captain Little, all well known on the turf trained there such horses as General Hess, Carnival, Macaroni, and other equine celebrities. King James bought an Arabian horse of one Mr. Mark- ham, a merchant, for which he gave 5oo/. It was the first of that country which had been seen in England, though it seems surprising, considering the several expeditions to the Holy Land and other parts of the East, that none had even been imported before. The Duke of Newcastle, in his treatise on horsemanship, says he saw the Arabian above mentioned, and describes him as a small horse of a bay colour, and not very excellent with 1 Or from the French ' La Eelle,' the best of three games, as races were run in heats. ED. HISTORY OF HORSE-RACING. 17 regard to shape a description applicable to the famous horse since known as the Godolphin Arabian. Henry, Prince of Wales, the son of James, had an early and eager inclination to those exercises which tend at once to engage and employ the mind, form the body, and add grace to vigour and activity. He therefore cultivated horsemanship with industry, and the art would have found in him its greatest ornament and support, had not death prematurely deprived the world of this amiable Prince, and the manege of a pro- moter and protector. He was under the tuition of an ex- perienced horseman named Saint Antonius, and received his lessons in a riding-house in St. James's Palace. Several writers on the subject of horses speak of this young Prince's attachment to equestrian exercises, with regard to hunting as well as the manege and mention the hopes that were once conceived of the advantages the kingdom would derive from the studs which he had formed, and the races he had established. In this reign the merits of English horses began to be so evident that many were purchased and sent into France, where they continue to be much valued and admired. Bassompierre, in his Memoirs, gives us the following account of their first introduction into France : The Court (he says) being at Fontainebleau, it was the practice to play for large and serious sums ; and the circulation being ex- tremely brisk, the courtiers called the counters, which represented money, Quinterots, because they passed and repassed from one player to another with as much celerity as the English horses were known to run. These were called Quinferots, from the name of the person who had brought them into France the year before. He further observes : ' That English horses were so much admired for their speed that they have since that time been always employed in hunting and on the road a practice until then unknown.' Towards the conclusion of the reign of James I. it appears c i8 RACING. that the English method of keeping and managing their horses was thought so judicious that France and other neighbouring countries imitated and copied it. The reign of Charles I. was embroiled and distracted by scenes which prevented his attending to those arts and improve- ments which are the offspring of peace, and which must be nursed by leisure and tranquillity. This King was nevertheless very fond of the manege, and, according to the testimony of historians, a very judicious and accomplished horseman. As an instance of his attention to the art of riding, considered in a national and public light, he issued a proclamation in the third year of his reign, enjoining the use of bits instead of snaffles, which were used in the army at that time. This proclamation sets forth that His Majesty, finding by ex- perience that such horses as were employed in the service are more apt and fit to be managed, by such as shall ride them, by being accustomed to the bit than the snaffle ; he therefore strictly charges and commands that no person (other than such only as His Majesty in respect of their attendance on his Royal person, in; times of disport or otherwise, shall license hereunto) shall in riding use any snaffles but bits. Bits for troops : snaffles for disport. This was a judicious regulation, for bits are more becoming and better suited to the troops, as snaffles are in general fitter HISTORY OF HORSE-RACING. 19 for * times of disport ' by which it is presumed racing and the chase were meant, and for these they were reserved. The first races held at Newmarket took place in this reign, about 1640, although the round course was not made till 1807. In D'Urfey's collection of songs, supposed to have been written about this time, one called ' Newmarket ' runs thus : Let collies that lose at a race Go venture at hazard to win ; Or he that is bubbled at dice, Recover at cocking again. Let jades that are foundered, be bought ; Let jockies play crimp to make sport ; Another makes racing a trade, And dreams of his prospects to come, And many a crimp match has made By bubbing l another man's groom. Burton, in his ' Anatomy of Melancholy,' says : ' Riding of great horses, running at rings, tilts and tournaments, horse races, and wild-goose chases, which are disports of greater men, and good in themselves, though many gentlemen by such means gallop themselves out of their fortunes.' It is possible, Whyte says, that by wild-goose chases steeple- chases are meant, and would thus be mentioned for the first time, so far as he can find. But this is a theory which requires more confirmation. Whyte tells us that Mr. Place, so well known in sporting literature through his famous horse White Turk, was master of the stud to Oliver Cromwell ; but the civil war of the time, whilst it must have interfered with the sport, also caused a scarcity of record. It was during his exile in 1658 at Antwerp that the Duke of Newcastle wrote his ' Methode et Invention Nouvelle de Dresser les Chevaux/ originally written in French, and giving 1 Bribing. c 2 20 RACING. his views on the various breeds of horses which he knows. He praises the barbs, and talks of an old French nobleman, who served under Henry IV., having told him that he had often seen these upset the large Flemish horse in the tilt. He also mentions the solidness of the bone of the barb as compared with all others : ' Having a hollow scarcely large enough to insert a straw, while on the other hand in the same bone of a Flanders horse you may almost insert your little finger.' This is a fact as regards our thoroughbreds as compared with all other breeds in this country. When Charles II. was restored arts, sciences, and pleasures followed in his train, and were also restored to a nation from which the troubles of a preceding reign and Cromwell's inter- regnum had driven them away. The laughter-loving monarch greatly encouraged racing ; he gave public rewards and prizes, and delighted in being a spectator of the contests of the course. When he resided at Windsor the horses ran on Datchet Mead ; but the most distinguished spot for these spectacles was Newmarket, a place that from the firmness of the ground was first chosen and has ever since been devoted to these sports. The glory of this scene now burst forth in its grandest splendour. The King honoured the races with his presence, and established a mansion for his reception. He even con- descended to be a competitor, kept and entered horses in his own name, and by his attention and generosity added dignity, importance and lustre to the institution over which he presided. Bells, the ancient reward for swiftness, were now no longer given ; a silver bowl or cup, of the value of one hundred guineas, succeeded the tinkling prize. On this Royal gift the exploits of the successful horse, together with his pedigree, were usually engraved, to publish and perpetuate his fame. Several of these trophies are now to be seen in the possession of the descendants of sportsmen. The Duke of Newcastle informs us that Charles II. had much knowledge in horses, and was an able and experienced rider. HISTORY OF HORSE-RACING. 21 During this reign, about the time of the Rye House Plot, Newmarket caught fire, the palace being at the time occupied by the King, Queen, and Duke of York, and the damage done was estimated at 2o,ooo/. The fire broke out on the Suffolk side, but danger was apprehended to the Cambridge side, and notice was sent about i A.M. to the Vice- Chancellor at Cambridge that the Court would move there ; but about 3 in the morning Lord Grandison arrived and informed the Mayor that the Court had gone to Cheveley. In reality the King never moved from Newmarket till the Monday following that black Friday March 6, 1683. In Evelyn's Diary of September 23, 1683, we find : There was this day a collection for rebuilding Newmarket, consumed by an accidental fire, which removing His Majesty thence sooner than was intended, put by the assassins, who were dis- appointed of their rendezvous and expectations by a wonderful Providence. This made the King more earnest to render Win- chester the seat of his autumnal field diversions for the future, designing a palace there where the ancient castle stood ; infinitely preferable to Newmarket for prospects, air, pleasure, and provisions. The surveyor has already begun the foundation of a palace, estimated to cost 35,ooo/., and His Majesty is purchasing ground round it, to make a park. Sir Christopher Wren was the architect, and he worked hard till the King's death, after which the palace was turned into a prison, and in 1810 into the barracks. The celebrated ' Royal mares ' were imported from Tan- giers, in Africa, at this time. Besides these came Place's White Turk ; and it was from this time that we can fairly say that our improved breed of Eastern horses, now called thorough- breds, began to be highly valued, though it did not reach its full appreciation till later on. James II. has the honourable testimony of the Duke of Newcastle with respect to his being a good horseman ; but his reign was too short and troublous to permit him largely to 22 RACING. discover his sentiments and inclinations upon the subject of horses. He was a lover of hunting, and for that purpose pre- ferred English horses, of which he always had several in his stables after he became an inhabitant of France. When William III. ascended the throne he not only added to the plates given to different places in the kingdom, but rendered a more necessary and important service to the country. He founded an academy for riding, and invited from France a very able and experienced horseman Major Joubert to preside over his institution. Queen Anne continued the bounty of her predecessors, with the addition of several plates. Her Royal consort, George, Prince of Denmark, is said to have taken infinite delight in horse-racing, and to have obtained from the Queen the grants of several plates allotted to different places. During this reign the Darley Arabian was brought into England. Towards the close of the reign of George I. he discontinued the plates, and in lieu gave the sum of one hundred guineas. The statute 13 George II. c. 19, for the prohibition of races by ponies, forbids all matches for any plate or prize under the value of 5o/., and enacts that each horse which shall be entered to run, if five years old shall carry 10 stone ; if six, n ; and if seven, 12 stone. This Act of Parliament had a twofold intention, being framed not only to prevent the encouragement of a paltry breed of horses, but also to remove all temptation from the lower class of people, who constantly attend these races, to their very great injury and loss of time. It was thought expedient about 1785 to impose a tax upon running-horses ; accordingly the financier obtained a statute for that purpose in the 24th year of the reign of George III., c. 26, whereby it is enacted that : For every horse entered to start or run for any plate, prize or sum of money, or anything whatsoever, in addition to the duties of former and subsequent Acts laid upon horses, shall be paid the HISTORY OF HORSE-RACING. 23 further sum of il. 2s. And the owner of every such horse shall previously pay the sum of 2/. 2s. as the duty for one year to the clerk of the course or other person authorised to make the entry, which if he shall neglect or refuse to pay, he shall forfeit 2o/. We may here opportunely quote from the pages of Mr. J. C. Whyte, the work referred to in our introductory remarks. He says : The earliest historical record on which dependence can be placed of the performances of the English racehorse, and published in an authentic form, was a work of John Cheney, entitled, ' An Historical List of all the Horse-Matches run, and all Plates and Prizes run for in England and Wales (of the value of Ten Pounds or upwards) in 1727, &c. &c. ;' and to which is added a list of all Cock-Matches of the same year. From this book it would appear that the cities and towns in England where races were then held amounted to 112, and in Wales to five. The most correct set of racing records of the early history of the British turf are in the possession of Messrs. Weatherby, the proprietors of the 'Racing Calendar,' the nephews of James Weatherby, many years keeper of the match-book at New- market. This is a work which succeeded Cheney's, and is to be found in almost every country in Europe. These gentlemen, the Weatherbys, who are generally es- teemed for their urbanity and unblemished character, have likewise in their library an old work published at York in 1748, entitled an ' Historical List of all the Plates and Prizes run for on Clifton and Rawcliffe Ings ; also since they have been removed to Knavesmire, near the city of York ; likewise how the mares came in every year at Black Hambleton, &c. &c.' The earliest race mentioned in these works is one for a gold cup of 5o/. run on Clifton and Rawcliffe Ings, near the city of York, by horses 6 yrs. old, in Sept. 1709. So much had this great national amusement increased in favour with royalty towards the latter end of the reign of Queen Anne, that we find that Sovereign not only, as aforesaid, 24 RACING. increasing the number of royal plates, but actually running for them in her own name. For example : at York, in 1712, Her Majesty's grey gelding, Pepper, ran for the Royal Gold Cup, value ioo/. ; and again, Mustard, described as a nutmeg-grey horse, another of Her Majesty's racing stud, ran for the same stake in 1713. The last mention made of any racehorse belonging to the Queen is for a sweepstakes, or, as it was then called, stakes of 109^. with a plate of 4o/. added, run for over the same course near York, on Friday, July 30, 1714, the weight being ii stone. This was won by the Queen's bay horse Star in four heats ; for, according to the rules of racing at this time, the horse which had won the first and second heats was obliged to start for the third and to save his distance, in order to entitle him to the prizes. On the Monday following, during a race for a gold cup, value 6o/., with a sweepstakes of sixteen guineas, an express arrived with advice of the death of Her Majesty. Most of the nobility and gentry left the course and attended the Lord Mayor of York and Archbishop Dawes, who proclaimed His Majesty King George I. The fact of the non-existence of any authentic informa- tion as to the running of racehorses before the commence- ment of the year 1727 is further established by the following note in Mr. Cheney's work : 'During the six preceding years,' the author writes, ' there was no regular account kept how the horses, &c., came in, but as I have taken pains to inform myself in the best manner I could, I hope that what is published may be depended upon.' Among the names worthy of notice that we find mentioned in this work as owners of racehorses, are those of Mr. Childers, better known as the breeder of Flying or Devonshire Childers ; Mr. Curwin, who imported the barbs known by the names of the Curwin Bay Barb and the Thoulouse Barb ; Mr. Darley, the importer of the Arabian called by his name, the sire of Childers \ Mr. Darcy, who brought over the horses known in HISTORY OF HORSE-RACING. 25 the Stud Book by the names of Darcy's White and Yellow Turks, and the well-known Tregonwell Frampton. Of most of these patriarchs of the turf little is known beyond the benefit they conferred upon this country by the importation of Eastern horses, and testing the value of their produce by public racing. Tregonwell Frampton, Esq., of Moreton, Dorsetshire, was keeper of the running-horses at Newmarket to their Majesties William III,, Queen Anne, George I., and George II. He was styled for a great number of years ' the Father of the Turf/ died on March 12, 1727, aged 86, and was buried at New- market. This extraordinary character was born in the reign of King Charles I., when the sport of horse-racing commenced at Newmarket. He was owner of the celebrated horse Dragon, who ran several times there with great success \ but the account of it, and also that of his pedigree, have been for many years lost. The most remarkable event supposed to have occurred in the lives of this gentleman and of his horse Dragon is very pathetically depicted by Dr. John Hawkesworth, in No. 37 of the * Adventurer,' in the following words, supposed to be spoken by the horse in the Elysium of beasts and birds : It is true (replied the steed) I was a favourite ; but what avails it to be a favourite of caprice, avarice, barbarity ? My tyrant was a wretch who had gained a considerable fortune by play, but more particularly by racing. I had won him many large sums ; but being at length excepted out of every match, as having no equal, he regarded even my excellence with malignity, when it was no longer subservient to his interest. Yet I still lived in ease and plenty, and as he was able to sell even my pleasures though my labour was become useless, I had a seraglio in which there was a perpetual succession of new beauties. At last, however, another competitor appeared. I enjoyed a new triumph by anticipation. I rushed into the field panting for conquest ; and the first heat I put my master in possession of the stakes, which amounted to ten thousand pounds. 26 RACING. The proprietor of the mare that I had distanced, notwithstand- ing the disgrace, declared with great zeal that she should run the next day against any gelding in the world for double the sum. My master immediately accepted the challenge, and told him that he would the next day produce a gelding that should beat him. But what was my astonishment and indignation when I discovered that he most cruelly and fraudulently intended to qualify me for this match upon the spot, and to sacrifice my life at the very moment in which every nerve should be strained in his service ! As I knew it would be in vain to resist, I suffered myself to be bound. The operation was performed, and I was instantly mounted and spurred to the goal. Injured as I was, the love of glory was still superior to the desire of revenge. I determined to die as I had lived, without an equal ; and having again won the race, I sank down at a post in an agony, which soon after put an end to my life. The following is the opinion of Mr. John Lawrence, as given in his ' Philosophical and Practical Treatise on Horses,' as to the credit which ought to be attached to this cruel anecdote : Every sportsman I hope (writes that author) holds in equal detestation with myself the memory of the brutal and callous- hearted Frampton, who, dead to the soft feelings of compassion, and urged on by the sordid motives of gain, cut his favourite horse Dragon, and instantly ran him to death in his streaming blood. ... I never view the portrait of that savage sportsman without discovering in the hard lines of his face and the knowing leer of his eye all the treachery, cunning, and inhuman profligacy of the lowest blackguard retainer of the stable. . . . But common justice will not suffer me to refuse insertion to the following extract from a letter which I have lately received from Mr. Sandern, of Newmarket, a gentleman io whose kindness I also stand obliged for various points of interesting information : ' The abominable story which is told of Mr. Frampton having castrated Dragon, that he might immediately after run him as a gelding, and of the poor horse having instantly expired after the race, is entirely without foundation ; for I had an uncle who was well acquainted with Mr. Frampton, and who frequently assured me that no such circumstance ever happened ; and therefore, sir, I think you would do an act of justice to contradict it in your HISTORY OF HORSE-RACING. 27 publication, as cruelty was no part of the old gentleman's char- acter.' Thus far my respectable correspondent, whose opinion simply, situated and connected as he is, must have considerable weight. Sir Charles Bunbury also assured me that he was inclined to suspect the old anecdote of Mr. Frampton as a fabrication. There is at present no other authority for it, public or private, of which I am aware, than No. 37 of the 'Adventurer,' and Dr. Hawkesworth, in all probability, received it, as we do at this day, merely upon public tradition. . . . Farther, it may be fair to suspect that the cruel anecdote of the Father of the Turf and his horse Dragon is a pious fraud, invented by those who might think it a great merit in a religious way to cast a slander that would stick well upon the unholy exercise of horse-racing. On the per contra side (for I love to reason in all cases arithmetically, and whenever I suspect the omission of a fraction on either side I am never satisfied with the truth of my account) thus much may and ought to be said : the anecdote, how- ever barbarous, is strictly probable, and may be matched in too great a number of melancholy instances. The object in view was a very large sum of money, and perhaps the moral dialectics of the day differed not very greatly from that of a later period, in which present profit is supposed to constitute the essence of justice to ourselves and that ourselves are our nearest relatives. I really cannot conceive but that some such act perpetrated must have been the ground of that universal tradition, whether or not the person named was the perpetrator. Tregonwell Frampton, keeper of the running-horses at New- market to William III., Queen Anne, Georges I. and II., died in the year 1727, aged 86 ; he might, therefore, have been a pro- prietor of racers in the reign of Charles II. ; and the famous Dragon, who precedes our oldest racing annals, and of whom we know nothing but by oral tradition, may have flourished about that time. . . . The opinion of all the eminent veterinary surgeons we have consulted is in favour of the possibility of a horse being able to run a race immediately after castration ; and from the frequent occurrence of acts of cruelty to horses and other animals at the period in which Mr. Frampton lived, we think it highly probable that such a race may have taken place. 28 RACING. Another story is told of this remarkable character, from which we may perceive that blacklegs may justly lay claim to be considered part of the family of the Father of the Turf. Merlin l was matched for a considerable sum of money to run against a favourite horse of Mr. Frampton's at Newmarket. Immediately on its being closed there was great betting be- tween the north and south county gentlemen. After Merlin had been some little time at Newmarket under the care of one Heseltine, Mr. Frampton's groom endeavoured to bring him over to run the two horses at a private trial, at the weights and distance agreed upon in the match observing that by that means they might both make their fortunes. Heseltine refused, but in such a manner as to give the other hopes of bringing him over. In the meantime Heseltine took the opportunity of communicating by letter the proposed offer to Sir William Strickland, in Yorkshire, who was principally concerned in making the match. Sir William returned for answer that he might accept of it, and instructed Heseltine to be sure to deceive his competitor by letting Merlin carry 7 Ibs. more weight than that agreed upon, and at the same time laying a particular injunction on secrecy. Soon after Heseltine had received this hint he consented to the proposal ; but previously thereto Mr. Frampton had given his groom similar instructions. The two horses were prepared, started, and run over the course agreed to in the articles of the match, when Merlin beat his antagonist something more than a length of excellent running. This being communicated to each party by their secret and faithful grooms, who both rode the trial, flattered each with certain success. Merlin's friends observed that as he had beat the other with some pounds more weight, he would win his race easy. On the other hand, says Mr. Frampton, as my horse ran Merlin so near with seven pounds extra weight, he will win to a certainty. 1 Merlin, by Bustler (son of the Helmsley Turk). HISTORY OF HORSE-RACING. 29 Immediately after proposals were made on both sides to an enormous amount, and accepted ; and it has been asserted that there was more money betted upon this event than was ever before known, some gentlemen staking not only all the cash they were able to advance, but their property also. At length the important hour arrived for the determination of this great event, and each party was flushed with success ; the south county gentlemen observing to those of the north that ' they would bet them gold whilst gold they had, and then they would sell their land.' The horses started, and the race was won by Merlin, about the same distance as in the secret trial. In a short time after the truth became known. Merlin was ridden by Jerome Hare, of Cold Kirby, near Hambleton. In consequence of several gentlemen having been entirely ruined by the above event, a law was soon afterwards passed by the legislature against the recovery of any sum of money exceeding ten pounds, betted or laid between any parties for the future. A gentleman who visited Newmarket in the reign of Queen Anne, and afterwards published his remarks, gives the following account of the doings there in his day : Being there in October I had the opportunity to see the horse- races and a great concourse of the nobility and gentry, as well from London as from all parts of England ; but they were all so intent, so eager, so busy upon the sharping part of the sport, their wagers, their bets, that to me they seemed just so many horse- coursers in Smithfield ; descending the greatest of them, from their high dignity and quality, to the picking of one another's pockets, and biting one another with as much eagerness, as it may be said they acted without respect to faith, honour, or good manners. There was Mr. Frampton, the oldest, and, as they say, cunningest jockey in England. One day he lost 1,000 gs., the next he won 2,000, and so alternately. He made as light of throwing away 5oo/. or i,ooo/. at a time as other men do of their pocket-money, and was perfectly calm, cheerful, and unconcerned when he had lost a thousand pounds as when he won it. On the other side there was Sir F. Ragg, of Sussex, of whom fame says he has the most in him 30 RACING. and the least to show for it, relating to jockeyship, of any man there ; yet he often carried off the prize. His horses, they say, were all cheats, how honest soever their master was, for he scarcely ever produced a horse but he looked like what he was not, and was what nobody could expect him to be. If he was as light as the wind, and could fly like a meteor, he was sure to look as clumsy and as dirty and as much like a cart-horse as all the cunning of his master and the grooms could make him ; and just in this manner he hit some of the greatest gamesters in the field. This writer concludes his remarks with the following para- graph, worthy of note as affording a striking contrast to the latter end of nineteenth-century fashion : ' Pray take it with you as you go, that you see no ladies at Newmarket, except a few of the neighbouring gentlemen's families, who come in their carriages to see a race, and then go home again ! ' During the early periods of racing the best horses seldom ran more than five or six times, and some not so often, there being scarcely any plates of note except Royal ones ; and very few sweepstakes or matches were made, except at Newmarket, till about the year 1760. The great subscriptions at York did not commence till the year 1751, and were run for by five-year-olds, iost.,four miles, on the Wednesdays ; 9 St., two-mile heats, on the Fridays. Each subscriber paid io/. yearly, for which he was allowed two silver tickets viz. one for each stake, and the tickets were transferable. Non-subscribers were admitted on paying 20 gs. for each horse entered, and the City of York gave 5o/. to each day's race. These races were continued for seven years, when they were renewed with Thursday subscriptions for six- years-old and aged horses, &c. Four-mile heats and matches were also begun at York about the year 1750, and after that time they became general. At Newmarket till the year 1744 there were only two plates run for in October viz. the King's plate and the town plate ; HISTORY OF HORSE-RACING. 31 but in 1744 the trading inhabitants of Newmarket raised two plates of 50 gs. each, one for five-year-olds, 9 St., and the other free for any horse, &c., 9 St., four-mile heats ; there was also 50 gs. raised by the contributions of persons of property for four-year-olds, 8 st. 7 Ibs. each four miles. At this period there were only two meetings at Newmarket, viz. the first in April, and the other in October; but in 1753 there was a second spring meeting added, in which two Jockey Club plates and several matches were run for. In 1759 the weights and scales plate was begun ; in 1762 a second October meeting commenced of sweepstakes and matches; in 1765 the July meeting ; in 1770 the Houghton meeting ; and in 1771 the Craven meeting, with a subscription of 5 gs. each, 21 subs. called the Craven Stakes, for all ages, from the ditch to the turn of the lands, which stakes were won by Mr. Vernon's Pantaloon, beating thirteen others. In 1727 there were only eleven Royal plates run for in England viz. one at Newmarket in April for six-year-old horses, &c., 12 st. heats, the Round Course (first called the King's Plate Course) ; one for five-year-old mares, 10 st., one heat over the Round Course ; one in October for six-year-old horses, 12 st. heats, the Round Course ; one at York (which commenced in 1711) for six-year-old horses, 12 st., four-mile heats ; one at Black Hambleton, Yorkshire (this was a very ancient plate, but no regular account of it was kept until the year 1715), for five-year-old mares, 10 st., four miles, to be run for on the Saturday preceding the York August meetings, one at each of the following places viz. Nottingham, Lin- coln, Guildford, Winchester, and Lewes, for six-year-old horses, 10 st., two-mile heats ; but in 1744 they were altered to two- mile-and-a-quarter heats, and in 1750, for four-year-olds, 9 st., two-mile-and-a- quarter heats. In 1723 His Majesty gave a plate to Salisbury for six- year-old horses, 12 st., four-mile heats ; in 1748 one to Lich- field for five-year-old horses, 10 st., two-mile heats ; in 1753 one to Newcastle for five-year-old horses, 10 St., three-mile 32 RACING. heats; in 1755 one to Burford for five-year-old horses, 9 St., three-mile heats (in 1767 the latter was altered to 10 St., three- mile heats), and in 1763 one to Carlisle for five-year-old horses, 8 st. 7 Ibs., three-mile heats. The first account of the Royal plate at Edinburgh was pub- lished in 1728, when it was run for by six-year-old horses, 12 st, four-mile heats ; but as very few horses of any note ran at Leith, it was not regularly inserted in the Racing Calendars, as were those run for in England. In 1752 it was altered, and ordered to be run for by four-year-olds, 8st. 4 Ibs. ; 5 yrs., 9 st. ; 6 yrs., 9 st. 10 Ibs., and aged, 10 st. 3 Ibs., four-mile heats, except in the years 1756-57-58 and 60, when His Majesty's plate of 100 guineas was divided into two plates, 50 guineas each, and run for as such. Reverting to the pages of the 'Sporting Magazine,' 1792, we find it stated that : The Scots nation had a breed of horses which they much es- teemed, and which were held in so much repute by other countries, that it became necessary to restrict their exportation. That coun- try now encourages a fleet breed of horses, and the nobility and gentry have many foreign and other stallions of great value in possession, with which they cultivate the breed and very judiciously improve it. Like the English they delight in racing, and have a celebrated course at Leith, which is honoured with a royal plate given by his present Majesty. The nobility and gentry have like- wise erected a riding-house in the city of Edinburgh at their own expense, and a fixed salary upon a person who has the direction of it. Scotland has been famous for breeding a peculiar sort of horses called Galloways. . . . Here follows a somewhat apocryphal account of the origin and breeding of the said Galloways ; in these days, however, the name seems only to survive as a vague description of animals of a certain size. If the Scotch as a nation ever 'delighted in racing,' they must in a great measure have out- lived their passion, for the prizes at what may be termed purely Scotch meetings are now almost invariably carried off by the very worst drafts from English stables. HISTORY OF HORSE-RACING. 33 But if Scotland has deteriorated in the matter of horse- breeding, Ireland would appear to have come on in equal ratio, or her climate must have considerably improved since the year 1792, when our old authority wrote thus : The nobility and persons of fortune (in Ireland) have stallions of great reputation belonging to them, but prefer breeding for the turf to other purposes ; for which, perhaps, their own country is not so well adapted, from the moisture of the atmosphere occa- sioned by excessive rain and other causes, which hinder it from imparting that elastic force and clearness of wind so necessary for the exertion and continuation of extraordinary speed, and which are solely the gifts of a dry soil and an air more refined and pure. This country, nevertheless, is capable of producing fine and noble horses, if aided by care and other requisites which its in- habitants are very able to bestow. Now the foregoing paragraphs are in almost exact contra- diction to our modern ideas about Irish-bred horses. We do not consider them deficient in ' elastic force or clearness of wind,' &c., and we do not regard the inhabitants as a rule ' very able (or willing) to bestow care and other requisites ' on their equine produce. Horsemanship may possibly be the one item in which every Englishman does not regard himself as necessarily superior to his ancestors ; he may at any rate think that, if not pejor avis, he is only the worthy descendant of an immemorial line of Centaurs. Such humble individual it may comfort or astonish to hear that our friend of the ' Sporting Magazine ' deems that the Duke of Newcastle's treatise was the first ray of light shed on the art of riding in England, and that it was only in the reign of George III. that the science began to be really un- derstood or appreciated. Poor Whyte Melville ! and you de- scribed Humphrey Bosville as a horseman equal to yourself. As a slight clue to the means and facilities for horse- breeding at the time of which we have been writing we append a list of stallions advertised to cover in 1794, with their prices : D 34 RACING. STALLIONS ADVERTISED TO COVER IN 1794. Groom Groom Gs. 5. d. Gs. .y. d. Alexander . 15 IO 6 Buzaglio . 2 2 6 Aurelius 5 5 o King Fergus . 20 IO 6 Balloon 3 5 o Apollo 3 5 o Clay Hall . 5 10 6 Le Boo i 2 6 Diomed . 10 10 6 Noble . 5 5 o Dubskelper . . 2 5 Phenomenon 2 5 Dragon . 20 21 o Saltram . IO 21 o Fidget 5 IO 6 Satellite . IO IO 6 Mufti . 3 10 6 Cormorant . 5 5 o Dungannon 15 21 o Spectre 3 5 o Volunteer . . 10 10 6 Tommy 2 3 6 Anvil . . 10 10 6 Traveller . 5 5 Vertumnus . 5 5 o Trumpeter . J 5 Young Pharamond 3 5 Woodpecker . 12 21 Gunpowder . 5 5 Precipitate . . 12 21 Erasmus 3 5 Driver 5 10 6 Escape . 10 10 6 Young Mercury . 2 5 Drone . 5 5 Curricle 2 5 Flying Gib . . 2 5 Young Marske . . 20 21 Fortune 2 5 Black Prince 5 5 Javelin 15 21 One famous stallion, Hermit, stands at 250 guineas at the time of writing. This was a time of general poverty, and the few following lines, from the 'Sporting Magazine' of November 1793, will show what the tone as to horse-racing then was : Our predictions upon the declining state of the turf become every way truly verified ; whether from the present sterility of adventure, a palpable pecuniary scarcity, or the transpiration of sporting integrity that has involved so many in irretrievable wretchedness, it is not at present the purpose to investigate. But, to some of those causes we presume it may be justly attri- buted that we observe that there is now announced for sale at Cannon's, near Edgware, forty-six brood mares, sixteen foals, eight yearlings, and a two-year-old. At Impington, near Cambridge, seventeen brood mares, ten foals, and three yearlings. Mr. Croke also, who has removed from Bristol to Egham, from there an- nounces for sale blood horses, mares, colts and fillies of all descrip- tions ; from the aggregate of which information may be fairly inferred a most unpromising prospect of turf achievements at HISTORY OF HORSE-RACING. 35 least for some years, until the present dreary gloom of camps, campaigns, and national disquietude has given place to a renova- tion of former splendour and commercial prosperity. A century has elapsed since the writing of the above-quoted extracts, and many of the ideas therein contained may seem strange to modern lovers of horses notably the theory to which we have already alluded that Ireland, owing to its damp climate, cannot produce as good horses as England. Until fifteen years ago (if not up to the present moment) the very best class of horses used for hunting hailed from the Emerald Isle, and would still do so, but for three intervening causes : First and foremost, the poverty of the land, which it is not our province to discuss ; secondly, the enormous export of our best brood mares from every part of Great Britain and Ireland ; and, thirdly, the superabundance of thoroughbred stallions. Added to these causes, a very considerable quantity of soft bad blood has been imported into the country since the Crimean war in the shape of draught animals, the mares of which sort have been largely crossed with thoroughbred sires, with the result of completely annihilating that strong, active, and courageous half-breed of horses which, whether employed for the saddle or for harness, was for general purposes second to none that has ever been produced. The ' Cock-tail,' as this breed was commonly called, was even employed in racing ; and at the beginning of the century it would have been considered as great a crime to name a thoroughbred horse for a cock-tail contest, in which the com- petitors were required to possess an impure pedigree, as to pull a horse in a race. Not only in Ireland, but in England also, and perhaps more especially in Yorkshire, gentlemen were most proud of their half-breeds ; and when clean-bred mares were mated with the entire horses of this blood the results as to shape and quality were excellent. D 2 36 RACING. Forty years ago the great breeding counties of England, such as Shropshire, Yorkshire, the Eastern Counties, and Wales, possessed many of these cock-tail stallions, who travelled the country and propagated the class of horse now so nearly extinct viz. the well-bred fifteen-stone hunter, an animal which is now for the most part travestied by the produce of a bad thoroughbred stallion and a cart or foreign mare. To this the faint heart, short pasterns, drooping croup, and short thick neck bear witness. There are a few rare excep- tions, no doubt, and occasionally the pure-bred horse who, _^^ M .^'>, 5-^s Weakness and strength. either from lack of speed or other reason, has been early gelded, may grow into the requisite article for carrying a heavy weight over a country. But the secret of weight- carrying, without tiring, lies in large arms, and second thighs, supporting a strong back and a strong neck for it is there a horse first tires, whether racing or hunting. The combination is very rare amongst horses not at the top of the tree as racers. This class naturally remains in racing circles, and does not indulge the * lower orders ' with its favours. To return to Ireland. Thence during the past few years HISTORY OF HORSE-RACING. 37 most of our best steeple-chasers have hailed not of the old half-bred sort, but clean-bred horses, whose schooling is far better understood in that country than in England ; and in addition to these a few flat-racers have come over to us, and held their own with, if not defeated, our chosen champions ; Barcaldine by Solon out of Ballyroe, and Bendigo by Ben Battle out of Hasty Girl, are amongst the latest and perhaps the best specimens which have crossed the water. Of Barcaldine indeed it may be said that through Tristan, whom he easily defeated, he has beaten all the best horses in Great Britain and France no mean feat for one hailing from a country which is stigmatised by a writer at the end of the last century as incapable of breeding horses ! Furthermore, a quotation from a work by Mr. Osborne, published in 1 88 1, and entitled 'The Horse-breeder's Hand- book ' (a valuable addition to the breeder's library), will show the reader that the Sister Isle has had its fair share in pro- pagating our best blood. Mr. Osborne says : For the fine horses that now dominate the British turf we are principally indebted to Touchstone, Birdcatcher, and Harkaway. Passing aside the doings of the former at the stud, so well known to every breeder in the United Kingdom, I may here relate some particulars not generally known respecting Echidna, and how Birdcatcher came to be mated with her a union the result of which was The Baron, who begat Stockwell, the most successful sire of all time. For The Baron, as well as his dam, the British stud is indebted to the excellent judgment of Mr. Watts, of Jockey Hall, Curragh, a Devonshire gentleman who, early in the century, settled in Dublin, where he practised the veterinary art with great success, and soon enjoyed a degree of popularity never previously awarded to any member of his profession. Though born in the sunny south, Mr. Watts might have hailed from Yorkshire, so great was his love for the thoroughbred ; and being in the enjoy- ment of the friendship of many of the leading patrons of the turf, he soon commenced breeding racing stock at first in conjunction with Mr. Robert Gore, and subsequently on his own account, when so great was his success that the ' all scarlet ' soon became one of the most popular colours at the Curragh. Mr. Watts imported 38 RACING. many sires from England, the most notable of them being the horse to whom I have already alluded Young Blacklock. When making a tour of the breeding establishments in England, he was more impressed with the appearance of Blacklock than of any other horse he had seen, and the recollection of the grand appear- ance of the ' Bishop Burton celebrity,' barring his fiddle head, subsequently induced him to buy Young Blacklock, who was first called Navarino. Mr. Watts' object in buying this horse was the suitability of his blood to mate with The Kitten and Spermaceti, two Waxy mares he had purchased from Lord Sligo, both of whom were very light of bone, a fault he hoped to correct in their progeny by putting them to Y. Blacklock, who was a dark bay horse of great power and extraordinary bone. And the result showed the excellence of Mr. Watts' judgment, as The Kitten produced Whitefoot, Blackfoot, and Magpie, three first-class horses, while Spermaceti bred Apollo, a horse of very good form. The success of these horses snowed how appropriate was the cross of 'Blacklock on Waxy,' and was a great triumph for Mr. Watts, who, however, a year or two subsequently won greater honours by breeding The Baron, who came from the crossing of ' Waxy on Blacklock.' How his breeding The Baron came about is a strange eventful story. Captain Gamble, a Westmeath gentleman, while serving with his regiment in Yorkshire, picked up Miss Pratt by Blacklock out of Gadabout by Orville, with whom he won some regimental races. This mare was low in stature, being under 1 5 hands in height, but very thick, with good bone and great length, in fact a picture to look at, being all quality, which she doubtless derived from Orville, the sire of her dam. Captain Gamble on retiring from the army brought her to his seat at Westmeath and bred from her some indifferent horses, and her name would never have been enrolled among the grandes dames of the ' Stud Book' had her owner not been rather suddenly called over to the majority in 1837. This happened about the Curragh April Meeting, from which the pleasant countenance of Mr. Watts was missed, and many were the surmises respecting the cause of so strange an incident. But Mr. Watts was engaged quite as much to his liking, for he had gone to attend the auction of Captain Gamble's effects with the object of buying Miss Pratt, which he succeeded in doing for 120 gs. On her arrival at the Curragh she was put to Economist, the sire of Harkaway, a very large mottled bay horse, possessing far more power than quality, with the result of breeding Echidna, HISTORY OF HORSE-RACING. 39 the dam of The Baron. I happened to be at Jockey Hall on the afternoon that this event took place, and was present with Mr. Watts. The birth was not an easy one, the foal being large and leggy, with a great fiddle head, the chief characteristic of the Blacklock family. The foal was in fact a monster in more respects than one, but Mr. Watts was not disconcerted at her appearance, but rather the contrary, as it afforded another convincing proof 'how like begets like.' Mr. Watts there and then vowed he'd never put a saddle on her back, but keep the big-headed one, whom he named Echidna, to breed from. This promise he sacredly kept, and when three years old, still sticking to the Waxy blood, he put her to Birdcatcher, with the result of breeding The Baron. Happily Echidna did not transmit her frightful frontispiece to her first-born son, but nevertheless his head was not handsome, being of the ' Roman ' type, a characteristic he bestowed upon many of his progeny ; but The Baron, who was a dark chestnut with a small star in his forehead, was in every other respect the beau ideal of the English thoroughbred. The Baron's doughty deeds, both on the turf and at the stud, are too well known to require notice here, but I may mention that Mr. Watts continued to mate his dam to the descendants of Waxy and Blacklock with the same good fortune that attended him from the first, as Echidna bred Ellen to Y. Blacklock, The Countess to Birdcatcher, Mar- chioness D'Eu to Magpie, &c. a fact that ought to convince stud- masters that selection, not chance, should guide them in the mating of their mares. Mr. Watts more than once pointed out to me that the reason of the Blacklock blood ' nicking ' so well with that of Waxy was that the latter was got by the famous PotSos, while there are two close crosses of that Eaton celebrity to be found in the dam of Blacklock. No less instructive to stud-masters are the strange chances that led to Harkaway being raised on Irish soil a horse whom it is now my intention to show was not only the most in-bred, but the grand- est and best ever foaled. Descended on his sire's side from Eclipse through PotSos, Waxy, Whisker, and Economist, Harkaway could also on his dam's side claim alliance with Herod, who in 1777 be- gat Tom Tug, the sire of Commodore, whose son Rugantino (own brother to Irish Escape) was the sire of Nabocklish, who begat Fanny Dawson, the dam of Harkaway. Thus this great horse sprang from the union of the Eclipse and Herod blood, which was 40 RACING. regarded to be the ' orthodox cross ' in that time. To Ireland the British Turf is indebted for the preservation of the Tom Tug line of the famous Herod. He was in the year above named, bred by Mr. Shafto, who sold him to the Duke of Grafton, in whose colours, and under the name of Rover, he was only once successful ; but on being sold to Mr. Clarke he won no fewer than nine prizes, thus winning ten races out of the twenty-five for which he ran. He was then sold into Ireland, where, under the name of Tom Tug, he became a famous sire, getting besides Commodore, several other King's Plate winners at the Curragh. Commodore, who was perhaps Tom Tug's best son, was bred by Mr. Edwards, a York- shireman, who had settled some two or three years previously at the Curragh, and with him he won, in 1796, the Lumm Stakes, then a prize of considerable value, and in the two following years six King's Plates. In 1799, after winning a heat of the King's Plate at Downpatrick, he broke down, and was in the following year put to the stud, where he acquired great fame as the sire of Irish Escape, Buffer, Rugantino, &c. The latter, who was bred by Mr. Whalley, was a hollow-backed horse, and only an indifferent performer. He was successful four times, winning when three years old the King's Plate over the four-mile course, but when he subsequently attempted to give away his year to Slug for the King's Plate for five-year-old horses, three-mile heats, he was defeated, although he won the first heat. He ran twice afterwards, being second to Jumper and fourth to Mr. Hampton's Nooney by Swind- ler, the best mare of her day at the Curragh. At the stud, Rugan- tino was rather a failure, Nabocklish being the only one of his progeny whose name has been handed down to the present time. Nabocklish was bred by Mr. Kirwan of Castle Hackett, and ran for the first time at the Curragh June Meeting, 1815, when he was second for the King's Plate for four-year-olds, won by Mr. Knevett's Whitewall by Camillus. This horse had been twice successful during the previous year in England, and was an excellent impor- tation ; for although, owing to an accident, he never ran afterwards, he proved to be an excellent sire. The subsequent turf career of Nabocklish was rather distinguished, for he won four King's Plates and ran second for three others. He was then purchased by Lord Cremorne, and stood at his seat in the County Monaghan. Miss Tooley was imported into Ireland in 1811. She was bred by Lord Derby in 1808, and was by Teddy the Grinder out of Lady Jane (sister to the famous Hermione, winner of the Oaks in HISTORY OF HORSE-RACING. 41 1794 and twenty other races) by Sir Peter, &c. Relative to her purchase a good story is told. Mr. Jason Hassard, a large land- owner in the County Fermanagh, freighted a vessel at Newry, in which he shipped a cargo of bullocks for the Liverpool market. For these he very soon found purchasers, and then proceeding to Knowsley with the proceeds bought Miss Tooley, who, besides her owner, the captain, and crew, was the only freight of the ' Lively Nancy' on her return voyage to Ireland. The landing of this light cargo in lieu of the heavy one with which Mr. Hassard set out provided an amusing story for the good folk of Newry, and one that soon spread throughout the north of Ireland. Miss Tooley, prior to her running in public, was bought by Mr. Dawson, a relative of Lord Cremorne, and she ran on four occasions. Her first race was for the King's Plate at Londonderry in 1812, which she won easily ; and the same year she won the King's Plate at Down- patrick. In 1813 Miss Tooley started for the Mares' Plate at the Curragh, for which she ran second to Lord Rossmore's Giantess, beating four others. She was then purchased by Lord Cremorne, who won the Mares' Plate at the Curragh with her in 1815, after which she was relegated to the stud ; and, when mated with Nabocklish, the produce was Fanny Dawson, the dam of Harkaway. This famous horse was a rich chestnut with a small blaze in his face, and his off hind leg white. He stood i6h. 2 in. in height, with splendid shoulders, and tremendously deep brisket. His legs and arms, considering his immense size, were rather slight, though muscular ; but he had a splendid back, with immense propelling power, and was a grand galloper, although he went very wide be- hind. He was equally good at all distances, and from his docile temper was easily ridden. His pedigree is the most extraordinary inbred to be found in the ' Stud Book,' and he doubtless owed his excellence to the immense quantity of the blood of The Godolphin to be found in his veins, as on the side of his sire, Economist, he in- herited twenty-three crosses of that famous Eastern sire's blood, while on the side of his dam, Fanny Dawson, he had no fewer than twenty-seven crosses of the same blood need more be said to advocate in-breeding ? 42 RACING. CHAPTER II THE PROGRESS OF THE SPORT. HE influence brought to bear upon racing, and the changes wrought thereon by time, fashion, and oc- casionally by the in- domitable energy of some master mind, have been so mani- fold, that little more than an outline of the progress of the sport can be attempted in these pages. When racing first became a popular amusement through- out Great Britain, the means of locomotion were so limited com- pared with those of the present day, that competition was more local than general, and it was necessary for an owner to possess a very superior horse before incurring the expense and risk of a long journey by road to compete with a distant champion. A long journey by road. THE PROGRESS OF THE SPORT. 43 Horses had followers who, partly from lack of information, partly from some remnant of feudal sentiment, pinned their faith to the man and horse who represented their own district or country. Gangs of Tykes would always follow a Yorkshire horse to Newmarket ; and this esprit de corps doubtless still exists, and still manifests itself whenever two rivals from the North and South, foemen worthy of each other, meet in the lists at Epsom or Doncaster ; though this spirit has not been sharply stirred since Apology won the St. Leger. A more favourable climate, and the fact of Newmarket with its hundreds of horses being situated in the South, supply the chief causes which have militated against the success of the Northern division, though the annual sales at Doncaster and till very recently at York prove that breeding is carried on with as much energy as ever. It was not till about 1840 that horses were conveyed by rail, and up to a certain date Derby winners, if trained in the south, had to encounter the various perils of a walk to Don- caster when about to take part in the Leger. Witness the case of Plenipotentiary, who was first favourite for that race, and whose private training quarters were in the neighbourhood of Saffron Walden. Touchstone won and Plenipo' was nowhere. Much unpleasant feeling was created, and Mr. Batson, than whom no more honourable man existed, was the butt of every scribbler of the day. He never deigned to answer the allegations made against him, but it is stated on good autho- rity that when Plenipo' left Horseheath, he was as fit as hands could make him, and it was not till long after that the secret of this sudden deterioration oozed out. While passing through Saffron Walden he was frightened by a van or cart, and bounding on to a stone-slabbed footpath some feet higher than the road, he slipped and fell back. As he rose apparently un- injured, his attendant, fearing reproof, said no word of the mishap for some months, by which time Mr. Batson had been roundly accused of being guilty of foul play. We may add that 44 RACING. we are indebted to the oldest tenant on Mr. Batson's estate for this story. 1 In these days the very birds of the air would carry the news of such an accident, and the owner would assuredly read of it in his newspaper the following morning. Elis is the first recorded instance of a racehorse being vanned. This was in 1836, when he won the St. Leger. Lord Elis on the road to Doncaster. George Bentinck being dissatisfied with the odds five to one offered against Elis, announced his intention of not sending the horse to Doncaster unless the odds of ten thousand to one thousand were forthcoming. At the last moment, and when it was considered impossible for the horse to reach the scene of action in time, the bet was laid. Lord George, ready for any emergency, had borrowed from Lord Chesterfield a large van 1 It is stated, on what appears to be good authority, that, besides having met with the accident described, Plenipotentiary was 'got at' i.e. poisoned in Sir W. Cook's stable, near Doncaster, the day before the St. Leger. The horse was stabled there for safety. ED. THE PROGRESS OF THE SPORT. 45 which had been constructed for the purpose of carrying show cattle. The wheels were not more than eighteen inches high, and in this lumbering van, drawn by four post-horses, Elis was safely conveyed from Danebury to Doncaster, to the consternation of the ring, and the no small advantage of his owner, Lord Lichfield, whose horses were managed by Lord George. 1 A more commodious conveyance was afterwards built, in which Crucifix and Sal-volatile were vanned in July 1837 from Danebury to Newmarket, where the former, after winning the July, ran a dead-heat for the Chesterfield Stakes. W. Day and W. Goater were the attendant lads. Now-a-days many owners possess private horse-vans on railways. Precise chronology in turf matters is not always possible, but speaking broadly, the year 1860 saw the dawn of a new era. The primary cause of this change was the expansion of the railroad and telegraph system, giving, as it did, increased facilities to the Press for enlightening the public as to the doings of studs and stables all over the kingdom, and that treatise on 'racing' would indeed be a meagre one which failed to show in some degree the influence for good or evil exercised on its destinies by the Press. About the above-mentioned date, sporting correspondents, covering themselves with the plea of 'public utility,' began to penetrate everywhere, and partly by toadying those who liked to see their names in print, partly by holding satire in terrorem over weaker natures, for some time assumed a position most annoying to owners of racehorses. Part of this phase of ' espionage ' has now passed away, and many of those employed on such business have received a rough conge from most of the respectable stables, though there are still some owners, luckily few and far between, who are pleased with the fulsome praise bestowed on them by this order of reporters. The touting system is now more generally practised on racecourses, where stable-boys and jockeys are 1 As Lord Winchilsea once pithily observed, 'It is difficult to say what Lord George Bentinck and relays of post-horses could not have done. ' 46 RACING. bribed in every way for information respecting the horses they have ridden in trials, or which are under the charge of their employers. No trick is too low for these touts, and their footing being established, it is not easy to see how they can be eliminated from the racing community by any edict of the authorities, more especially while the heedlessness ot owners continues to foster the evil. Furthermore, companies of bookmakers have started sporting journals, attached to the staff of which are local touts, i.e. men who reside in the prox- imity of every training stable in England, and whose business it is to report on the daily work done by the horses in training, though these reports are often so highly imaginative as to appear hardly worth paying for. The plea of justification for the system is, of course, that the enormous number of people who take an interest in the betting business of the turf 'require the information' that ' racehorses, like statesmen, are public property,' &c. &c. ; but when these reports are often so completely and utterly mis- leading, when we see a horse which has not been out of the stable for weeks quoted as having galloped over distances vary- ing from six furlongs to two miles, and that, all this notwith- standing, the inner circle of the betting-ring are informed as to the true state of the case as well as, if not better than, the actual owner, how can it be argued that the journals which publish these reports are worked as much for ' public utility ' as for a special gang of speculators who ignore the false state- ments, provided they themselves are properly informed ? Complaints have been rife for some years past of the false prices quoted in these journals, and there can be little doubt that in many instances the prices are false. Ask any leading and independent bookmaker the meaning of these long quota- tions weeks before a big race, the answer will almost invariably be, * There has been hardly a bet made on the race.' But though no bets may have been made by any person acquainted with racing, these quotations do undoubtedly serve to tempt the ignorant to invest money on horses they believe to be backed, THE PROGRESS OF THE SPORT. 47 but which are often not even intended to start, and are well- known by the advertising bookmakers not to be even probable competitors. Some newspapers there are whose editors, fearing to come within actual reach of Jockey Club law, sail as near the wind as possible, e.g. they state that on such and such a morning three or four horses had a rattling gallop stripped, and name them in the order in which they finished in the illegally watched trial a consigne thoroughly understood by the initiated ; but surely it is an oversight on the part of the Stewards of the Jockey Club to allow their rules, which forbid the publication of trials, to be thus clumsily overridden. Delicate and difficult indeed is the task of attacking this side of the Press system ; for the Press can do, and does, much good to the turf, and would do much more were all the writers above the suspicion of being inspired by betting men, or by motives of personal interest. All honour to those who write faithful criticisms on the running of horses, or the conduct of owners, and who are swayed neither by the result of speculations on the former, nor by the amount of ' information ' they have received from the latter. A turf writer should be first capable of observing, and then of writing what he observes, instead of recording the whims and fancies of others, by which means some of our modern soothsayers, who profess to have at heart the welfare of the turf, have brought upon it unmerited odium, and on themselves well-deserved ridicule. These two results may seem hardly compatible, yet that they are so it is not very diffi- cult to prove. By those behind the scenes, the ' flying words ' of the ignorant or malicious scribe are, as a rule, treated with silent contempt. Seldom is an answer attempted ; for such answer would either not be published, or by an editorial sneer, or by clever manipulation of words in a leading article, the un- learned would be satisfied that the refutation was unsatisfactory, and the original strictures quite justifiable ; while those of the outside public who do not speculate, but who read racing lore from love of horses, or from a friendly interest in some owner 48 RACING. of racehorses, arrives sadly at the conclusion that the turf is little better than a huge swindling machine. And yet by racing, and by private enterprise in racing only, can our breed of horses be maintained ; for since the reign of Queen Anne no Act has been passed which in any way promotes this object, and a few Queen's plates are the only assistance vouchsafed by Government. The absolute right to claim information from trainers, put forward by some sporting writers, is shown clearly enough in the following extracts from a newspaper published in January 1884: The classes of trainers with whom the Jockey Club have no sympathy have never within my experience been of any service to sporting writers either by word or deed, and I could give abun- dant proof of this if I cared to enter further into the subject. By this remark I do not intend to insinuate that turf writers care one iota for any information that can be afforded by a trainer as to the merits or demerits of racehorses under their care ; for in many cases the experienced scribe may know more than even the trainer himself particularly as to the intentions of owners but there are scores of little matters about which a good man in the calling may open his mouth without at all interfering with the interests of his employer. I am quite willing to believe that much which is repre- hensible in trainers, and perhaps in some jockeys, belongs to the evil circumstances of the day, and the position in which these most prominent men in connection with the turf find themselves placed ; but it is their right and duty to govern themselves, and not to be ruled by others, when the question involved is to act honourably with the public. It is all very well to say that, ' It is every man's business to take care of himself,' but he cannot do this at the ex- pense of honour if he wishes to long survive on the turf. A trainer who surrounds his horses and most of his dealings with mystery is an abomination to straightforward and honourable racing men, as mystery is but another name for falsehood, and its very breath in- fects the independence and sterling value of truth. Now the above was aimed at a trainer who, although he had attained an unpleasant notoriety, had one great merit as a paid servant : viz. he knew how to hold his tongue ; yet here, THE PROGRESS OF THE SPORT. 49 veiled in a mist of words about honourable dealing with the public, is a direct attack upon a confidential servant for keep- ing his master's counsel. And mark the interpretation of the word ' honourable ' ; evidently, crooked answers to impertinent questions are deemed highly ' dishonourable.' What term, then, shall we apply to the questioner who is so admirably candid in his baffled curiosity, and who never stops to consider that he who pays the piper has a right to call the tune, and that an owner has the strictest right to enforce silence on his servants ? Another specimen from the pen of the same writer still more fully illustrates his code of turf ethics. Proceeding with his review of racing for 1883, he says : During my career of twenty-four years as a writer, I have never known so many reversals of form and glaring inconsistencies in which trainers and jockeys, if not owners, must have been con- cerned as during the past season. Deep calculations and brain- racking with regard to the past form, the make, shapes, and sound- ness of this or that horse, are all thrown away if the animal on which the hopes of turf writers are centred becomes impounded within the ring, or is mercilessly scratched on the eve of a race. In the former case the writer suffers most unfairly, and indeed in these go-ahead times the sporting tipster has much more to con- tend against than his readers generally suppose. And again, towards the conclusion of the article, he says : I have said enough in reference to the ' manipulation ' of horses, and the betting of some trainers, to nauseate the reader if he be an honourable man ; but the astounding reversals of form shown by several horses during the past season call for strong con- demnation at the hands of every sporting writer, for the reason that it upsets his calculations in reference to the selection of win- ners for the benefit of the public ! It may be urged that it is not fair to quote such paragraphs without the full context, but no context can justify such moral obliquity as is implied in the foregoing words. Honesty is honesty, and wrong is wrong per se. No man is under any circumstances justified in pulling a horse, or causing him to be E 50 RACING. pulled, or in scratching him for the sake of getting money out of him ; but these things are wrong because they are ip so facto dishonest, and not because the ' reputation of turf writers suffers most unfairly ; ' for if that argument be admitted, it follows that, were an owner to say to the prophet of a morning paper, ' In strict confidence, my horse is not intended for the Cesarewitch, but will win the Cambridgeshire,' and if the prophet, prophesy- ing with much of that mystery he so earnestly condemns in trainers, should ' caution his readers ' not to be disheartened by the running of Obscurus in the long race, but to take long shots about him for the shorter one, there could be no ground for complaint, but much for the triumphant crowing of ' Chanticleer,' or whatever the writer may sign himself, in the event of the prophecy being confirmed by results. And yet persons might be found to declare that the ' reputation of the writer ' would have suffered less had he been less well informed. Let no evil be spoken of the dead ; but the obituary notice by one sporting writer on another recently deceased may well raise doubts as to whether our turf mentors can, by the very nature of things, be as single-minded in their devotion to the guidance of the speculating public as their lavish professions might lead us to believe. The dead man is described as ' fortunate in his plucky speculations on the turf, besides en- joying a lucrative commission business.' Is it possible for a ' plucky speculator ' so to divest his mind of all regard for his own private interests that when he takes pen in hand he can refrain from writing, unconsciously though it may be, up to his own book in other words, from being a ' bull ' or a ' bear ' on the turf exchange ? The worst side of turf journalism has been here enlarged upon, because it has so seldom been the subject of published comment. The good and much good there is lies patent to the world. No praise can be too great for the laborious accuracy of racing reports, or for the care bestowed on the calculation of weights, through the labyrinth of ' penalties and allowances ; ' while for lightness of touch, quaint metaphor, keen THE PROGRESS OF THE SPORT. 51 appreciation of the ridiculous, and trenchant, yet withal not ill-natured, satire, some of our turf writers may fairly lay claim to a niche in the Pantheon of English Humorists. Of all the changes wrought upon the turf by modern re- quirements, few have been more remarkable or more potent in their influence than those which have resulted from the intro- duction of gate-money meetings ; and since the first institution of racing, no such signal revolution is recorded as the system now so extensively pursued of enclosing racecourses. Evil Too much on the turn. and good are therein blended, as in all human affairs ; but it may be asserted with some confidence that the evil has been in a great measure attributable to the lack of energy of the Jockey Club during the reign of Admiral Rous, or of the Jockey Club ministers, in not at once establishing that control over such meetings as necessity has since compelled them to exercise. One of the chief, and perhaps the least remediable, faults of E 2 52 RACING. some of these courses is their limited circumference. As an instance of this, the popular Sandown Park at once suggests itself. True it is that under the modern licensing system a course could never have been established there at all, and those pleasant meetings would have been denied to us, owing to the impossibility of obtaining a sufficiently extended area ; on the other hand, we could not have regretted the unknown, and it might well have happened that the originators would have found some larger space whereon to display that liberal and able management which has made Sandown the type of comfort and convenience. With the exception of a straight five furlongs, the courses here are too much on the turn fairly to test a horse's powers, though there is full opportunity for skilled jockeys to display their superiority in judgment of pace, provided always they are not too much interfered with at the turns aforesaid. However, within the last four years the Jockey Club has taken up the subject, and none but really spacious courses are now allowed to be enclosed, or, being enclosed, would be licensed. From time to time members of Parliament have attempted to interfere with racing, and Bills for that purpose have been brought before both Houses. Thus, in 1860, Lord Redesdale introduced a measure in the House of Lords for the purpose of fixing the lowest weight to be carried by horses in any race at 7 stone, but on the Jockey Club consenting to meet his views half way, the Bill was withdrawn, and the minimum weight established by Jockey Club rule at 5 st. 7 Ibs.. Loud were the lamentations of many of the old school of racing men at this innovation, as they averred, with some plausibility, that to make a good jockey, a lad should be put on a horse as soon as he could bestride one, and should have a chance given him in races at his natural weight as soon as he had learnt to ride ; and to this arbitrary impost they still attribute the present scarcity of 'good boys,' a conclusion from the outset more or less narrow-minded, as it is probable that other and more subtle influences have caused the inefficiency of our light-weights, THE PROGRESS OF THE SPORT. 53 while it is still open to argument whether the decay in the art of riding is quite as real as it is alleged to be, and whether, qua riding, jockeys are not now very much what they have been for the last fifty years, with some half-dozen artists at the head of the profession, and perhaps a score of second-class performers, followed longo intervallo by a host of cut-and-thrust stable- boys stuffed into boots and breeches. Be this as it may, the * Infant Phenomenon ' is no longer possible, as the Education Act steps in, and must effectually prevent boys under twelve years of age from being engaged in a racing stable ; for one of the most essential conditions of a training establishment The infant phenomenon. is, that the lads should be kept at home as much as possible. If they had to attend school, they would inevitably be marked down in their goings to and fro, and persecuted for informa- tion by all the touts of the neighbourhood, and dismayed peda- gogues would learn with amazement that in ' Ruff' a fourth ' R ' had been added to the historic trio whch form the basis of our educational curriculum. 54 RACING. We have said that there may be other causes for the paucity of jockeys of superior worth. It is sufficient to point out one which is patent to all persons who thoroughly understand the matter, the great increase of Welter handicaps. The racing authorities, whilst attributing to the interference of Parliament the whole mischief, have gone far to meet its ignorant views by closing the various schools for forming young jockeys. Now- adays the races which were originally instituted for refractory horses only, have become the commonest of all races, and this is to be attributed to the influence of the gambling jockeys and owners who at one time were ever applying for such races, and have now established them to such an extent that it may be said that they and selling races constitute the principal part of the programme of meetings, whether at Newmarket or else- where. We are glad to see that some of the older turf legis- lators are now turning their attention to this fact. In 1879 Mr. Anderson succeeded in passing the Metro- politan Racecourse Bill, the object of which was to prohibit racing within a radius of fifteen miles from London, Kings- bury, Bromley, and West Drayton being the chief culprits at whom this bolt was hurled, and they met with but little sym- pathy in their well-deserved fate. Nevertheless, it is a some- what ridiculous fact that in this instance the time of Parliament was devoted to animated and angry discussion on a Bill which at best can only be regarded as a posthumous Act ; the Jockey Club having already, with a view to the abolition of these very meetings, passed certain laws, fixing the minimum of added money to be given to a day's racing, so that before Mr. Ander- son's Bill came into operation, the above-mentioned meetings, with others of like character all over the country, had actually been smothered out of existence. Temperance societies, eager to have a finger in every pie, are now constantly urging individual members of both Houses of Parliament to place racing, or the licensing of racecourses, under the control of some local authority, though whether that local authority is to be wielded by magistrates in quarter THE PROGRESS OF THE SPORT. 55 sessions, corporations, boards of guardians, or vestries, has not yet been clearly manifested to the expectant community. To ordinary minds, however, it seems that the only bene- ficial method by which Parliament could exercise a control over racing would be that of bestowing some form of incorporation on the Jockey Club, and having thus asserted 'its supremacy, the Legislature might well leave the general management and direction of turf matters in the hands of that body, which for a hundred and thirty years has held an undisputed authority, which now rules over many thousands of the inhabitants of the kingdom, and whose laws and regulations, obeyed and respected here, receive the sincere flattery of imitation from other countries. 56 RACING CHAPTER III. HISTORY OF THE JOCKEY CLUB. TRADITION in this instance probably correct assigns to the year 1750 the origin of the Jockey Club, though there is no absolutely trustworthy record by which the date of its founda- tion can be ascertained. It seems, however, tolerably certain that up to that year the general place of assembly for gentlemen during the Newmarket meetings was at the Red Lion Inn. Whether previously to that time racing affairs were ruled over by a committee, or were entirely under Royal control, is a matter of doubt, nor can we find any reason for the move from the Red Lion to the present site of the Jockey Club ; but it may be surmised that the building of the Jockey Club room was contemporary with, or immediately subsequent to, the for- mation of that body, This room was built in 1752 on ground leased by William Erratt, horse-dealer of Newmarket, to the Duke of Ancaster and the Marquis of Hastings, in trust for fifty years. At a meeting of the Jockey Club, December 6, 1767, it was resolved that persons desiring to be admitted to the coffee- room were to be proposed by a member of the club and balloted for. The Dining Club was held at the Red Lion (the site of which is supposed to have been on the present Station Road) till 1771, when the lease of the coffee-room was surrendered by the surviving trustees, and the ground lease, together with that of the ground on which the present * New Rooms' were afterwards built, was transferred for a term of sixty years to R. Vernon, Esq., a member of the Jockey Club. HISTORY OF THE JOCKEY CLUB. 57 An agreement, dated Whitehall, May 8, 1771, was entered into between Mr. R. Vernon on the one side, and the stewards and such members of the Jockey Club as might choose to sub- scribe on the other, to the effect that the said R. Vernon should build suitable rooms for the purposes of the said sub- scribers, and that these should pay a rent equal to eight per cent, on the outlay, for a term of fourteen years certain. This rent was fixed at 2487. per annum, which was paid to R. Vernon and his heirs until 1831. At first the funds of the New Rooms were kept separate from the Heath accounts, and any money borrowed from the one, for the purposes of the other, was repaid. In 1815, 5oo/. was charged to the Rooms towards defraying the expenses of the prosecution of D. Dawson, the horse-poisoner. In 1826, 6oo/. was transferred from the Rooms' account to the fund for redeeming money borrowed to buy Heath ground. In 1821, at a meeting of the stewards and members of the Rooms, it was resolved that all members of the Jockey Club should ballot for candidates for the New Rooms. The accounts continued for some time longer to be kept separate, but the funds were used for general purposes as required. When Mr. Vernon's lease expired in 1831, the Jockey Club bought from the Erratt family, for the sum of 4,5007., the free- hold of lots comprising the Coffee-Room, New Rooms, and appurtenances, and a house, then occupied by Mr. Bottom, which stood in the now vacant space forming the yard on the west side of the Coffee-Room passage. This estate was conveyed to Lord Lowther, the Duke of Richmond, and Lord Verulam, in trust, to deal with the same as stewards of the Jockey Club for the time being, or as the major part of them, should direct ; or in case there should be no stewards, then, as the majority of the members present at a meeting convened after a manner pre- scribed in the conveyance should direct : and in case the trusts upon which the estate was conveyed should have deter- mined, or be no longer capable of taking effect, then in trust for all and singular the several and respective members for the 58 RACING. time being, who should be entitled to the capital of the afore- said society, according to their several shares. The money for this purchase was borrowed from the Duke of Portland at four per cent. As regards the action of the Jockey Club, the first resolution on record is dated March 24, 1758. It relates to the ' weighing in ' of jockeys. The proceedings of the Jockey Club, and their mode of enacting laws up to 1771, are described in * Tilting and Falconer's Sporting Calendar ' for that year. Stewards were first regularly appointed and their powers defined in 1770, but there is a casual mention in the 'Racing Calendar' of stewards as far back as 1762. What their functions were, or how they were appointed, does not appear. The Heath lands, now owned by the Jockey Club, have been acquired piecemeal at various dates, and a short account of these purchases may be acceptable to readers interested in such research. Starting from the Cambridge Road, at the commencement of the Beacon Course, the Jockey Club bought from Mr. Allix the whole of the land composing the Round Course on the Cambridge side of the Ditch, with the exception of the first few hundred yards of Beacon Course, which by the Swaffham and Bulbeck Enclosure Act of 1798, and by that of Swaffham Prior paddock in 1805, were reserved for the purposes of racing. The Jockey Club afterwards sold the farm forming the centre of the course, but stipulated with Mr. Salisbury Dunn, the purchaser, that the running-track should be only farmed as sheep walk. In 1808 were added the two plots of ground running parallel with, and east of, the Ditch, crossing the Cambridge Road, and bounded on the east side by a line bisecting the Rowley Mile near the Bushes. The northern part of this ground was purchased from Mr. Salisbury Dunn, the southern from Mr. C. Pemberton, and the whole was vested in trust for the Jockey Club. In 1819 tne purchase of 'The Flat* was completed by the HISTORY OF THE JOCKEY CLUB. 59 acquisition of Crown Lands reaching to the site of the present Birdcage, at the Rowley Mile Stands, an exchange with Pembroke College having previously secured the small plot which separated the purchases of 1808 from those of 1819. The remainder of the Beacon Course was devoted to racing by the Exning Enclosure Act of 1807. Besides these lands, through which run the four miles of the Beacon Course, subdivided into various courses of all dis- tances and gradients, the Jockey Club has leased several plots of exercise ground lying to the east of Newmarket ; Exercise ground to the east of Newmarket. these include theBuryHill, the Warren Hill,theLime- kilns where a straight gallop of two miles has lately been finished, by means of acquiring the Waterhall farm and finally the new winter ground, on which the finest tan gallop in the world has been made since the year 1882. In 1882 the Exning Estate, conterminous to 'The Flat' in nearly its whole length, came into the market. The Jockey Club was forced to buy, lest building speculators should erect houses overlooking the Heath, and this last outlay has doubtless 60 RACING. been a heavy drain on the Club resources, involving as it did a mortgage of the whole property, though under able manage- ment it may turn out a profitable investment, as the far side of the estate adjoining the rapidly increasing town of Newmarket, and the village of Exning, will be in demand for building purposes, while all the land can if necessary be laid down by degrees, and thus be made available for gallops. 6i CHAPTER IV. RACING OFFICIALS. RULE IV. of Racing, sec. i, enacts, that the full programme of every meeting must be advertised in the ' Racing Calendar;' then, in sec. 2, goes on to say that the advertisement must state the names of two or more persons as stewards, and of the judge, starter, clerk of the course, handicapper, stakeholder, and clerk of the scales, and furthermore it says that the clerk of the course or corresponding official shall be the 'Sole person responsible to the stewards for the general arrangements of the meeting. Then Rule VIII. sets forth that the stewards shall appoint an adequate staff of officials for every meeting, and that the following officials shall require ' a licence to be granted by the stewards of the Jockey Club annually before they can act ' (the 'they' here refers to the officials, not to the stewards of the Jockey Club, but the Rules of Racing are occasionally inde- pendent of the rules of grammar), viz. : judge, starter, clerk of the course, handicapper, clerk of the scales, and stakeholder, and one of each shall be named for each meeting advertised in the ' Calendar.' Power is of course given to the stewards to employ an unlicensed deputy on emergency, but in such case they are bound to report to the stewards of the Jockey Club. These then are the officials who amongst them have to carry out the whole business of a race-meeting, and of these by far the larger burden of responsibility falls upon the shoul- ders of the clerk of the course. He is himself appointed by the company or committee, or whoever may be the guarantors 62 RACING. of the necessary funds in the way of added money (we are not now speaking of Newmarket, Ascot, or Goodwood, where the staff is as it were ex offitio that of the Jockey Club), and he does practically appoint the stewards i.e. he requests a certain number of gentlemen of local influence, or of position and ex- perience on the turf, to accept the office, and if at the time of the meeting none of them appear upon the scene, and have not chosen their substitutes, he has to find deputy stewards from the turfites present, and to affix their names in some con- spicuous place, that men may know with whom they have to deal. One of his principal labours is the soliciting of entries ' canvassing ' it is called a work which has to be carried on for weeks, or it may be months before the meeting, and for which purpose it is necessary that he should be known to all (racing) men, and, if possible, personally popular. One of the most successful men ever known in this line was the late Mr. John Frail, of Shrewsbury, who may fairly be styled, in more ways than one, the father of clerks of courses. Entries he would have, and entries he got somehow. He is said to have invented the system of entrance fees, which have now been universally adopted, and which are a large source of revenue to every racing executive. CLERK OF THE COURSE. The clerk of the course is expected to look to every detail of the business : the arrangement of the weighing-room, press-room, jockeys' room, the posting of the gatekeepers, the ordering of the course all more or less devolves upon him, and during the progress of the meeting he is supposed to be, and is, ubiquitous ; he it is who knows the men who may have a free pass into stand or paddock, he it is who suggests the summary ejection of evil-doers. He has to provide good temper for himself and for his patrons, he has to explain away the burdens laid upon other men's horses, yet no one will- touch his load with a little finger. If everything goes right, he is passed RACING OFFICIALS. 63 unheeded ; if anything goes wrong, he is roundly abused. Of a truth his is no sinecure no bed of roses yet withal not an unprofitable berth. He is paid by salary, by percentage on profits, or on entries, or by a mixture of all three. Mr. Bell, Mr. Ford, the Messrs. Frail and I'Anson, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Lawley, the Messrs. Sheldon and Topham, Mr. Ridge, Mr. Dorling, and Mr. Verrall are among the best known of the clerks of the course who yet survive, and apparently thrive under their onerous duties. THE STARTER. It is not easy to decide which of the two judge or starter holds the most responsible position. On the absolute incor- ruptibility of each large fortunes daily depend, yet must they be possessed of other high qualities besides honesty. The starter should be a cool resolute man, with nerve equal to the strain of moral responsibility and of actual physical danger ; for when he drops his flag he is, or should be, in front of a field of horses, all of them wild with excitement, some of them steered by very puny riders ; and he stands a fair chance of being knocked down by a runner-out or swerver in the first mad rush of the jump off. He must be quick to see and to seize his opportunity. He must be firm even to severity, yet strictly just to the jockeys, who are sharp enough to note any sign of faltering resolution ; and when he orders them to ' turn round and walk back,' he must see that everyone obeys the word, and also when they wheel again to come up to him that all heads are the right way. If the jockeys once lose their confidence in, or their fear of, the starter, chaos quickly ensues. He should also be a young and active man, as he may be obliged to take much exercise in the course of a day's racing. The late Mr. McGeorge, perhaps the best starter the world has ever seen, used when in the full vigour of his health to walk to the starting-post for every race at Ascot, returning to the weighing-room as soon as he had dispatched his horses, if time permitted. Lord Marcus Beresford, the present Jockey 6 4 RACING. Club starter, bids fair fully to rival the fame of his predecessor. His was a singular instance of a public appointment which met with universal approbation. He is the first gentleman who has professionally wielded the flag in England. He is paid by fixed salary for his duties at head-quarters, but this of course forms but a small portion of the emolument which accrues to the Jockey Club starter. What is good enough for the strict A fair chance of being knocked down. orthodoxy of Newmarket, is good enough for most other places, and engagements follow as a matter of course. The other starters who now obtain the most employment about the country are : Mr. H. Custance and Mr. J. H. McGeorge, deputy starters to the Jockey Club ; Mr. R. I'Anson and Major Dixon. THE JUDGE. Nor must the judge be less cool and decided than his colleague at the other end. It is true that, seated in his RACING OFFICIALS. 65 coign of vantage, the judge runs no personal risk, for there is no authenticated instance of a horse bolting into the box ; yet not the less does the man there enthroned need to have all his wits about him. From the moment the flag falls his glasses are fixed upon the coming cohort : as they approach nearer he is able to pick out those that are still in it, and their relative positions on the course ; then when the supreme moment comes, with his eye on the opposite post it is a matter of comparative ease to a practised hand to decide in what order the first three heads shoot past if only people would hold their tongues. But think, in a near race, especially if an important one, what a babel of clamour rises round the box, and how easily a nervous man, one not siir de son fait, might be bounced into putting up the wrong number. No. 6 ! No. 6 ! No. 6 ! shout the partisans of the horse thus numbered, trying to convince themselves, and the judge ere it be too late, that a good second has really got his head in first. Vain hope ! just is Mr. Clark and tenacious of his opinions, and no civium ardor can affect his judgment. Turning to his signal-man he says, very clearly, ' No. 5 ; ' up goes No. 5 ; then after a short pause for the public fully to realise what has won, 'No. 6, No. 7,' the numbers of second and third are hoisted ; the judge descends and solemnly wends his way to the scales, there to watch the jockeys weighed, to take down the numbers, and note in his private book the colours, for the ensuing race. Owing to the exceptional advantages he enjoys for seeing everything that goes on towards the finish of a race, he is almost always the first and most important witness called when there is an objection or complaint on the score of a cross, jostle, or any form of foul riding, and his evidence is usually taken as conclusive. Where the weighing-room is very close to the box, it is not impossible for the judge to double his part with that of clerk of the scales, but it is by no means a de- sirable arrangement. He has to send a signed report of each race to the Registry Office. When all is said and done, there is now but one judge and his name is Clark, though in his deputy, F 66 RACING. Mr. Robinson, he has a very able prophet ; we would here express our deep regret that Mr. R. Johnson, the Radamanthus of the Northern Circuit, has been compelled by failing eyesight to relinquish the profession. Other men may sit in the box and name the winning number, but for the bulk of the racing A cross. public Mr. Clark reigns supreme as the Racing Lord Chief Justice of England. Long may he continue to do so. He also is paid, by fixed salary from the Jockey Club, for his services at Newmarket. THE CLERK OF THE SCALES. Of almost equal importance to the success of every well- conducted meeting is the clerk of the scales. Before the commencement of each day's operations he usually throws his handkerchief into one side or other of the swinging receptacle of weight, and if the carefully adjusted balance yields to such trifling pressure, he may feel sure that he will be able to weigh RACING OFFICIALS. 67 his flesh-and-blood customers to the fraction of an ounce. It was, indeed, this absolute certainty as to the accuracy of the weigh-out, which led to the detection of the attempted fraud when Catch-em-alive won the Cambridgeshire. Needless to say that the clerk of the scales must be a man of unblemished integrity, and of strict business habits, for the slightest mistake, wilful or unintentional on his part, would lead to the most serious complications. He is responsible too in great measure for the punctuality of the start, and by strict adherence to the regulation which enjoins that the numbers of the runners shall be exhibited on the telegraph board one quarter of an hour before the time appointed for the race, ' Newmarket time ' has now become the rule, instead of as formerly the exception, throughout the country. On the clerk of the scales, too, de- volves the duty of seeing that notice of colours unpublished on the card, or of any alteration of colours, or of any declaration of over- weight, be posted on the board as soon as practicable after the hoisting of the numbers ; in the latter case the decla- ration must be made twenty minutes before the start. The clerk must be in his place the moment a race is over, as every jockey is expected to weigh in immediately after the race, and from official lips must issue the fiat ' all right,' which has so often filled the cup of joy or of despair to overflowing. Though under the ' Rules ' the extra 2 Ibs. in the scale as a precaution against the carrying of undeclared over-weight is only necessary on weighing in, this test is as a matter of custom equally applied on weighing out. The clerk of the scales should to the utmost of his ability keep his weighing-room clear of intruders. By law, ' the owner, trainer and jockey, or other person having the care of a horse engaged in a race,' are alone entitled to admission. Stewards are often culpably remiss in the exercise of their authority in this direction ; for it can hardly be expected that the clerk, busy as he is, can keep his eye on every one who comes through the doorway, and the policeman on guard is of more use as a ' chucker-out ' than as a Cerberus. F 2 -68 RACING. In this 'department of weights,' Mr. Manning of New- market is facile princeps : he is of course a Jockey Club official, though like the judge and starter he acts at many other meet- ings. Of this be sure, wherever you find him, you will find a weighing-room as business-like and orderly as a bank parlour. THE HANDICAPPER. Except for overnight handicaps, the work of the Handi- capper is finished before that of the above-mentioned officials begins ; nevertheless it is of a most arduous nature, and his is perhaps the most thankless office of all ; for who yet was ever known to avow himself thoroughly content with the way his horse has been treated in this respect ? If he is top weight with a stone in hand, there he ts top weight, and that of itself is sufficient cause for grumbling ; if he has 5 st. 7 Ibs. and 2 1 Ibs. in hand, ' the top weight could always give him another stone,' 'no boy can ride him,' 'a flattering handicap,' &c. &c. To all this the handicapper must listen with a sympathetic countenance, and a partially deaf ear we say partially, be- cause in the nature of things he must often make mistakes, and from the outpourings of the torrent of obloquy he may perchance catch a cupful of common sense. Sometimes, too, from the fulness of the heart the mouth speaketh. Who does not remember the touching incident of the defeated owner at Croydon, who cried aloud in his despair, ' Pulled him six times, and now when we slip him at last to get beaten ; it's too bad, too bad ! ! ' after which he suffered himself to be led gently to the refreshment bar. All such incidents should the handi- capper mark, not too ostentatiously, and inwardly digest ; and for this purpose he must be a constant attendant on race- courses, and during the progress of each race note towards the finish, not so much the doings of the first three horses for of these the newspapers will give him sufficiently accurate infor- mation but what the other runners are about (what could have been close up, what never took any part at all, c. &c.) ; and he must draw his own conclusions, and having formed his opinion RACING OFFICIALS. 69, act on it. If he is on friendly terms with judge and starter, so much the better for him ; both are capable of giving very useful hints. There are various systems of handicapping. Some men- keep books i.e. they daily write down the names of the first, three horses that have contended in every race of which a de- scription is published, with the weights at which they ran, and. the distance between each at the finish, and on the opposite side of the page, re-handicap them at such variation of impost as might presumably bring them to a dead heat. Some keep only * ladders,' i.e. long lists of horses handicapped over various courses, from five furlongs upwards, and re-cast the weights' constantly. Others, like Mr. Weatherby (who has unfortu- nately now resigned the post of Jockey Club handicapper, being out-wearied by the worry of the position), go through; the book anew for each fresh compilation, aided only by such notes as they have made from personal observation, and this is perhaps the safest method to adopt. The handicapper must indeed be sober and vigilant, for much of his work has to be done at night ; he should be a man, of infinite tact and temper, and to a certain extent he should possess a gift, which at first sight seems hardly necessary for so prosaic an occupation, viz. imagination. The Keeper of the Match Book has ere now been heard to say that so-and-so was a good handicapper, but had no imagination that is, if called upon to handicap a horse for a distance over which he had never run in public, the man could not make a brilliant or even a fairly good guess for it can be nothing else at the form likely to be displayed. Never, if you can help it, admit that you have made a mis- take, is a sound piece of advice in this as in other professions. No man asserted his infallibility more loudly than did Admiral Rous, 1 and no man was more thoroughly believed in, though he was tripped up now and then. 1 The Admiral was one of the rare instances of a man whose deafness did not seem materially to affect his enjoyment of society for he certainly was very 70 RACING. Lord Calthorpe said to him one day, apropos of one of his recently published handicaps, ' Now, Admiral, do you think that my horse has got any chance for this race?' ' None what- ever,' unhesitatingly replied the Admiral. ' Then pray, do you call that handicapping I thought that every horse was at any rate supposed to be given an equal chance ? ' An unanswerable question which remained unanswered. Yet does the apportioner of weights not infrequently score off his tormentors. Over and over again have instances been known where official or quasi-official complaints have been lodged as to the unfair handicapping of a horse, who a few hours afterwards has won the very event his impossible weight wherein has been the subject of such bitter invective. In such moments of triumph the conqueror does well to bear himself modestly, and as if this vindication of injured innocence was a matter of every-day occurrence. Perhaps it is ! The most terrible possibility in the lot of any handicapper is the having to listen to a remonstrance or rebuke from any betting lady on one of his handicaps, more especially if she deaf, though no doubt he heard many things which were not intended to reach his ears ; indeed, bis friends used to say that he never missed hearing an offer of a good match at Newmarket. Match-making was his delight his affecta- tion of bewilderment over the form of two horses whose merits he knew as well as he did the Rowley Mile, his start of sudden inspiration, his solemn and deliberate announcement of the weights, his pompous mandate, ' Hands in pockets, gentlemen ! ' followed by ' Show ! ' and his glee when the half-crowns of two acceptors rewarded his skill, were treats to see and to hear. Perhaps one reason why he was never bored in. company, even when he could not hear the conversation, was that he had the resource of constant mental handi- capping. When his life was drawing very near its close in fact, a few days before he was confined to his room he said to one of his intimate friends, ' It's a very odd thing. I lose my way now going from the Turf Club ' then in Grafton Street 'to my hoiise in Berkeley Square ; but,' he added with a gleam of satisfaction, '/can still handicap /' No faster friends than he and Mr. George Payne ever lived, and the latter looked a broken-down man ever after the Admiral's death. It was great sport' to watch the two at billiards, and to listen to their comments on each other's play ; and the tidings that ' the Admiral and G. P. were playing together ' would any night send the Turf Club- men flocking upstairs. RACING OFFICIALS. 71 advances her reasons. After this infliction he is usually, by his own desire, at once consigned to his county lunatic asylum. The Jockey Club handicapper is paid, like ether servants of the Club, by fixed salary, and is pretty generally employed all over the kingdom. Of the rest, Mr. Ford, Mr. R. John- son, Messrs. Frail, Messrs. Topham, Mr. Lawley, Mr. Dorling, and Mr. Verrall seem to have the most work. THE STAKEHOLDER. The Stakeholder incurs some considerable pecuniary lia- bility ; but beyond this the duties of his office are not of a very harassing nature. THE STEWARDS. We have left the Stewards, as the amateur or unpaid element in racing officialism, to the last ; though, if they know their duty and do it, they are very important factors in the conduct of a meeting. To them are referred all objections or matters of dispute which arise out of the running or business of each day, and formerly there was no appeal from their decisions (except by their own consent) to the Stewards of the Jockey Club ; but, on the motion of Mr. J. Lowther during the Houghton week of 1883, Rule 38 was modified in this respect, and appeal is now in any case allowed to the Stewards of the Jockey Club, ' so far as relates to points involving an interpretation of these rules, but not as to questions of fact.' From the decision of the last-named authorities there can be of course no appeal under any circumstances, The powers of the stewards com- mence with the meeting and continue after it, for all purposes relating to disputes, disqualification, c., which shall arise in connection with such meeting ; but if they fail to give a decision within seven days after a case has been referred to them, it must be reported to the Stewards of the Jockey Club, who then summarily deal with it, and if they consider there has been any negligence, order payment of costs out of the funds of the meeting a wise regulation, which has the effect of preventing 72 RACING. cases being 'hung up,' thereby causing a partial or complete failure of justice. Stewards have power of postponement of a meeting, or of any races from day to day, until the intervention of a Sunday ; this rule is enacted out of deference to our great British arbiter the Clerk of the Weather. The penal jurisdiction of the stewards is limited to the duration of the meeting over which they have control in other words, they can suspend any person from acting or riding at such meeting, and they can also at their own sweet will expel anybody from the stands and enclosures, and they can inflict a fine not exceeding 5o/., unless they happen to be also Stewards of the Jockey Club, when the fine may amount to zoo/. Any further punishment which may be considered necessary must be reported to the Stewards of the Jockey Club, and as this is only done in extreme cases, the recommendation seldom fails to have the desired effect. There is yet another responsibility, and that a very serious one, which may devolve on the stewards of any meeting ; for Rule 8 says that 'any complaints against the above-named officials ' (i.e. Judge, Starter, Clerk of the Course, Handicapper, Clerk of the Scales, and Stakeholder) ' shall be made in writing to the stewards of the meeting only, who, if they think fit, shall forward the same to the Stewards of the Jockey Club.' For- tunately, or unfortunately, for the peace of mind of those most nearly concerned, this rule is not often acted upon. For- tunately in the first place for the stewards. Even to racing men thoroughly versed in turf details a constant flow of docu- mentary protest against real or imaginary (chiefly the latter) grievances, would prove such an intolerable nuisance, such a complete hindrance to their own business or pleasure, that, like Mr. Gladstone, they would think twice, nay thrice, before accepting an office so fraught with annoyance ; but it has already been mentioned that oft-times at country meetings the stewards appointed at first hand, those whose names appear on the card, are conspicuous by their absence, and deputies have to be sought out who may act tant bien que mal in the place of RACING OFFICIALS. 73 the absentees. Conceive, then, the puzzled dismay of some local magnate, who has for the first time in his life had great- ness on a racecourse thrust upon him, at being presented by an irate ' little man' owner or trainer with a written manifesto, not unaccompanied by ornate verbal exposition, of the ruinous wrong he has suffered by the handicapper's too exalted es- timate of the powers of some thrice-pulled crock. Think, too, of the disgust of the Stewards of the Jockey Club if, in his anxiety to escape from immediate pressure, the bewildered provincial sent up such a case for their serious consideration. 1 Unfortunately, however, for the much-abused employes, the written protest is, as we have said, rarely resorted to ; hot, hasty, and too often unjust denunciation is showered upon them, and then as time presses, and business must be attended to, the denouncer forgets all about it and expects them to forget too. If this rule were insisted on, and all complaints formulated in writing, what a wondrous collection of scribble, on leaves of betting-books and backs of race-cards, would be in the hands of the stewards at the end of each meeting ! The fragmentary MS. of the late Teufelsdrockh, with which the author of ' Sartor Resartus ' had to deal, would be a joke to it. As guerdon for their services, the stewards have free access to all stands and enclosures at the meeting over which they preside, but the privilege does not seem to have the effect of insuring a greater regularity of attendance. A most desirable change in this respect might be brought about, if gentlemen would resolutely decline to allow their names to be published as stewards, except for meetings at which they have a reasonable prospect of being present. 1 Since these lines were written the Stewards of the Jockey Club have issued a notice, that a complaint against any official made otherwise than in writing to the stewards of the meeting will subject the complainant to a fine, which will also be inflicted in the event of the complaint being adjudged as frivolous. A very interesting and voluminous correspondence is anticipated. 74 RACING. CHAPTER V. NEWMARKET. Tan gallop at Newmarket. N the matter of expenditure, the Jockey Club seems always to have lived ' from hand to mouth ' ; in other words, it has annually devoted the whole, or within a fraction of the whole, of its income to racing, in the shape of added money, the maintenance and rent of gallops and racecourses, and the salaries of its large staff of officials. When, therefore, gate-money meetings came into fashion throughout the land, there was no alternative but to march with the times, to build stands, to make enclosures, to substitute the white rails of modern civilisation for the old- fashioned ropes and stakes of our forefathers, and otherwise alter the whole character and aspect of the Newmarket meet- NE WMA RKE T, 75 ings. Accordingly, in 1875, the Grand Stand, with its appanage of refreshment rooms, telegraph offices, bars, stables, hack- sheds and rings, was consiructed under the auspices of Sir John Astley. Scant indeed up to this date had been the provision for the comforts of even the privileged few. Three forlorn- looking edifices there were, two of them wholly or in part appropriated for the weighing and jockeys' dressing-rooms, the third a private stand, and the accommodation thus afforded was open only to members of the rooms or Jockey Club. Horses were saddled anywhere, but where was not always an easy matter for the owner or jockey to discover. Martin Starling and a posse of rustics armed with staves kept the course, and the Cambridgeshire Hill was guarded in the evening from pro- fane hoof-marks by the simple expedient of fastening across it, secured to two or three strong stakes, a sewin, or rope garnished with bunches of feathers, over which the homeward galloping plunger was at liberty to break his neck if by his own careless- ness or the waywardness of his hack he failed to steer clear of the almost invisible obstacle. A fatal accident of this nature did indeed once occur, and the tragic fate of Mr. Blackwood in the dim twilight of an autumn afternoon was the final cause of the abolition of the roped runs-in. The locale of the betting-ring was more than once changed, and each time, as it seemed, to a bleaker and more wind-swept spot. In those times the backers, almost to a man, did their day's racing on horseback, the ring men who could ride follow- ing the example, but bookmakers for the most part clustered in and about flys, which even then appeared to be in the last stage of decrepitude, but which are still apparently in com- mission on the Heath. A few broughams there were, tenanted then as now chiefly by the press reporters (for the art of writing despatches on the saddle-bow is still, we believe, con- fined to a very select circle of war correspondents), and per- chance a dozen landaus or barouches conveyed to the scene of action the ladies whose speculative energy tempted them to brave the vicissitudes of Newmarket weather ; while, as is their 76 RACING. wont even unto this day, the flying squadrons of University Light Horse skirmished in exceedingly loose order all over the place, regardless of the admonitions of Starling, or of aught else save their own wild will. Let Sir Laudator Acti, standing dry-shod, in patent leather boots, on the gravel of the reserved dust-bin in front of the stand, at whose portals hangs the notice ' For members of the Rooms, Stands, and Jockey Club only,' and whose Racing on horseback. warders keep vigilant watch against the intrusion of outsiders let him shut his eyes for a moment and try if he can recall a scene of the past, nigh upon twenty years ago say in the year of grace 1865 the zenith of the Hastings era, In imagination we can command the weather, so it shall be a bright still morning in October. Sir Laudator sees himself once more a gilded youth, clad in light cub-hunting costume, NEWMARKET. 77 riding slowly towards the ring on the neatest of hacks, warranted by Mr. Sheward to * stand still, and let you write as long as you fancy it.' The crisp west wind hardly stirs a lock of the thin silky mane, which ruthless fashion has not yet decreed shall be hogged, yet there is a feel in the air which reminds Sir Laudator that in a few weeks the hack must rejoin his comrades at Melton a goodly string already, wanting only a few additions but such additions as those shall be IF the good thing comes off! an 'if which will be decisively settled in the course of the next half-hour. For it is an open secret that there is a flyer from Danebury in the T.Y.C. handicap ; that the Marquis means having a flutter, that the Duke is unusually sanguine, and that the legion of stable-followers l is 'going for the gloves.' A quarter of an hour to the time fixed for what is reckoned the event of the day the actual stake a paltry hundred, the impending venture a king's ransom. Even now the numbers are going up, as the official with bracketed telescope reads them off from the board by the weighing-room at the end of ' The Flat.' Eighteen runners and a shout of ' The field a hundred ! ' ' No one names the winner for a pony ! ' rends the air. That the betting shall open at evens is a point which has long ago been settled by the members of that secret society whose means of intercommunication are as mysterious as those of the Eastern bazaars. The level money is quickly snapped up, and the cry of ' I'll take odds ! ' is beginning to be heard, ere the Marquis is 1 The propensity of racing men's servants to identify themselves somewhat too closely with their masters' pursuits is sufficiently notorious. Admiral Rous, sharp as he was, was not exempt from this annoyance. He had at one time a retainer at Newmarket, who, under pretence of exercising the well-known hack during the Admiral's absence, used to ride about in the morning and tout in the most bare-faced manner. At last, during one of the meetings, Charles Blanton, riding by the side of the Dictator, said, 'Admiral, if that old horse of yours could talk, he might tell you every trial there's been on the Heath for the last three weeks.' This rather opened the Admiral's eyes, and a short time after he discovered his man perusing an unpublished handicap which had been left in the writing-desk. The sentence ' Never more be officer of mine ' was of course at once pronounced, though perhaps not exactly in those words, and certainly not mitigated by the prefix ' I love thee.' 78 RACING. seen cantering up, surrounded by his aides-de-camp, to do his own and part of the stable commission, a trifle late maybe, for he has lingered for a few last words with trainer and jockey ; but little recks he of price, when, as he now calculates, he has a stone in hand, though of this advantage he has relinquished 3 Ibs. to secure the services of Fordham. He slackens speed as he passes through the thin line of carriages, from which come shrill plaintive cries of 'One moment, Lord H ! ' ' Dear Lord H., do come here for one second ! ' ' We do so want to know something, Lord H ! ' But absorbed in the lighting of a cigarette, or in some jest of Peter the henchman, or at any rate con- veniently deaf to the voice of the charmer, he rides straight into the horsemen's circle, where two obliging friends speedily make room for him, and he takes up his position on the heavy betting side. ' They're laying odds on yours, my lord,' says a bookmaker, who, with his partner at his elbow, has been waiting, as he ex- presses it, to get done with the favourite in one big bet. ' It's been backed for a heap of money. I suppose it's a real good thing,' he adds, looking up almost wistfully into the impertur- bable young face. ' What odds ? ' replies the owner, blandly ignoring the query. ' Well, my lord, I'll take your six hundred to four twice ; nay, I'll take you six monkeys to four once,' he continues, waxing bolder despite the warning nudges and gestures of his less enterprising confederate. ' Put it down,' is the brief response. ' And me three hundred to two, my lord ; ' ' and me, and me,' clamour a swarm of pencillers who come clustering up. ' Done with you, and you, and you ' the bets are booked as freely as they are proffered. ' And now, my lord, I'll take you thirty-five hundred to two thousand in a bet, if you've a mind for a bit extra,' says one who has just forced his way through the throng. ' Right you are, and so you shall ! ' replies the owner cheerily, expanding under the influence of the biggest bet he has made that day. Then the smaller fry with seventies to forties, and seven ponies to four, are duly en- registered, and time being nearly up, the Marquis wheels his NEWMARKET. 79 hack, his escort once more gathers round him, and away they dash, as they repass the carriages shouting to the fair occupants, ' Real jam, can't be beat ! ' a piece of information which, as they have only two minutes to profit by it, and no one to bet for them, will not materially benefit the recipients. The Danebury division forms into line in close proximity to the throne of Judge Clark, and 'Peter' accommodates an amateur fielder, who has not been to the other side, with fifty to forty, at the same time assuring him, that it's a long way over the odds, and that the bet must be regarded as a mark of friendship and esteem, meriting meet recompense in due season. Sir Laudator, who has more on than he quite cares to add up at present, and who is, truth to tell, a trifle nervous, rides away some five hundred yards nearer to the winning-post. Already there has been one false start, the horses are massed in complicated confusion, and the air is thick with flowers of stable rhetoric. Somehow the entanglement unravels itself, and a curved line, with wings thrown forward, spreads over the course, there is a sudden surge up of the centre, and for the fraction of a second a well-dressed front. He who hesitates is lost, and if the converse of the proposition be true, then assuredly is McGeorge one of the saved, for down goes the red flag, down also the white banner in advance, and with a screaming rattle of silk the eighteen sprinters are off. To the earlier fluctuations of the struggle, Sir Laudator pays little heed, but when the first quarter of a mile has been traversed, one or two pessimists standing near him vouchsafe their customary growl, that 'the favourite's out of it even now.' As, however, the rushing phalanx approaches he sees for himself, aye, and proclaims aloud that ' the favourite is in it, right bang in it ;' is indeed leading by about half a length, with a couple of light weights racing at his girths. Fordham throws a keen glance to right and left, then, perhaps actuated by a charitable desire to kindle once more a ray of hope in the breasts of the now silent bookmakers, or, which is more probable, thinking 8o RACING. that those two boys have got more left in them than he quite fancies, he sets his shoulders higher than ever, a convulsive movement agitates his elbows, while from exultant layers rises crescendo a yell of ' The field a hundred ! ' as quickly diminuendo into a mutter. ' It's all that d d Fordham's kid. I'll lay three to one I name the winner ! ' For the hundredth time the old ruse has succeeded, the two stable lads, thinking they have the great horseman in difficulties, plunge simultaneously into the fantastic ecstasies of a flogging finish which settles their horses in the next dozen strides ; with the semblance of a shake *? M ' It's all Fordham's kid ! ' Fordham shoots out, and canters home, the easiest of winners by two lengths. No need to look at the numbers. Off speeds the Danebury cohort in mad gallop, with Sir Laudator hard on their track, and arrives at the weighing-room in time to see Fordham, looking as if he had just gone into church, draw the required weight with professional exactness, and to hear the welcome * All right ' from Mr. Manning. A brief congratula- tion in the Birdcage to old John, who gives vent to a prolonged ' Gor your grace,' as the senior partner hints at the probable aggregate of the stable winnings, and then away to slake NEWMARKET. 81 parched throats, where Jarvis crowns the misty goblet with spurious alliance of Schweppe and Cognac. . . . ' You can't be drunk, seeing it is yet but the third hour of the day, so you must be dreaming. Rouse up, patriarch, and attend to business.' Sir Laudator gives a start and awakens to the fact that he is some score of years older than he has been during the last few minutes ; that his young friend Lord Olim Juvabit, who addressed the above admonition, is regarding him with astonish- ment ; that the Middle Park Plate is next on the card, and the jockeys already weighing out for that event ; and that Lord Olim has therein engaged a horse called Paul Pry of no mean pretensions, on whom he, Sir Laudator, contemplates * putting down his maximum,' a sum modest when compared with the plunges of his earlier days, yet withal worthy of being dignified with the title of a * dash.' ' Come on,' says Lord Olim, taking his companion's arm and leading him forth, ' we may as well have a look at Paul, hear what Mat has to say about him, and find out how much he means standing ; and then look here, old fellow ' dropping his voice into the orthodox private information key 'as I rather fancy myself this journey, I shall give my job to Perkins to do at the back of the ring ; we shall have time for a bit of lunch before the start, and as you will want something on for yourself, you can work the boys down the rails, and put two hundred on for me at the same time. We shan't get much of a price on account of Archer being up, still Romanus will be favourite, and they'll lay some sort of odds against mine. Of course if I win I shall be told that the American got all the money, and equally, of course, if I'm beaten, people will say that he got at everybody in the stable, myself included, and made a fortune by laying. We'll chance all that.' He concludes his words of wisdom as they enter the Bird- cage, still so-called, though how different from the lightly-wired poultry run of two decades ago ! The paddock is thronged with men, women, and horses, the bipeds unmistakably on G 82 RACING. the tout, the latter for the most part lounging round in the in- souciant follow-my-leader fashion characteristic of the trained thoroughbred. At the far side stands a range of stalls and boxes, and in one of these they find Paul Pry being saddled. A mighty chestnut colt 16-2 big, long in his points and good all over, though perhaps open to the suspicion of being just a trifle loaded at the point of the shoulder. With ears slightly pricked, and his bright full eye fixed on the door, the opening and shutting of which appears to afford him the keenest interest, he stands like a statue during the ceremony of his toilette, save when now and then he rubs his nose affectionately against the sleeve of his special attendant who is holding the bridle. 'Looks well, my lord,' remarks the trainer 'well and confident, as I like to see them ; hope we may like him as much later on in the afternoon ! ' he adds, bound in virtue of his profession to throw in a word of doubt or depreciation. Two or three ladies, accompanied by as many men, now slip in, by special permission of the owner, and scan the chest- nut with curious glances. The fair ones, as is the custom of their sex, mistake muscle for fat, and cherish a secret conviction that the horse has done no more work than an alderman ; they are, however, discreetly silent on this point, while displaying a knowledge of his antecedents, and an intimacy with his trainer and the head lad, which greatly edifies and amuses Lord Olim. Seeing there is no chance of a word in private where they are, Mat makes a sign to his employer and Sir Laudator, and the three step out into the paddock. After satisfying himself that there is no one actually within earshot, the trainer enters at once into business. ' Now, my lord, your horse is just as well as I can make him. You know how we tried him, and he has never missed an oat or a gallop since ; indeed, he had one more gallop than I had bargained for. It was the day before yesterday ; he had had his spin, and then broke clean away with that young NEWMARKET. 83 of a boy who never got a pull 'at him till he'd gone the length of the Flat not that he's an ounce the worse for it, indeed, he can't be better. Your lordship will of course please yourself about backing him, but I'd be obliged if you would allow me to stand a hundred pounds with you.' 'Amen,' responds Lord Olim, to whose charge the sin of loquacity at least has never been laid. Mat looks up with a twinkle in his eye. ' I'm just hoping your lordship's colt '11 not come in where they place Amen in the Prayer-book,' he says gravely, and forthwith returns to Paul's box. Eight numbers go up. All Newmarket-trained horses, with the exception of one outsider from the neighbourhood of Ilsley, whom rumour affirms to be a * latter-day saint,' waiting for a nursery in the Houghton. Neither his appearance nor his jockey has created an impression in his favour. There are three penalised winners Romanus, Osmunda (a colt with a filly's name, someone observes), and Ambrosia, the mounts respectively of C. Wood, Cannon, and Webb. Paul Pry, who is ridden by Archer, has been successful on one previous occasion, but escapes a penalty. Fordham rides Amulet, who has once or twice shown good form, but has never got his head first past the post ; the other three are unknown to fame, though each has a select circle of professing followers. Not a large field for the principal two-year-old race of the year, but influenza has been rife in the stables, and the art of * putting them together ' has attained, or is supposed to have attained, such perfection, that many owners who formerly would have started on the off chance prefer keeping their horses at home, and backing whatever is (to them) incontestably fore- shadowed as the winner by their private handicap books. As the two friends recross the Birdcage they see Mr. Perkins awaiting them at the gate. The conference is of the shortest. A thou' on mine, please, Perkins,' says Lord Olim ; the burly commissioner bows, and with the conscious air of a Newfoundland dog carrying a walking-stick, dives down G 2 8 4 RACING. the subway, to emerge again into upper air on the tumultuous exchange of TattersalFs ring. It wants but ten minutes to starting time, and Stott is calling out the jockeys, as Sir Laudator and his companion, both members of the Jockey Club, enter the luncheon-room sacred to that body, a lofty well-lighted apartment, with bright fire, bare walls, and table furnished forth as for a ball-room supper ; on the sideboard hot dishes, and goodly array of bottles ; Pace's satellites somewhat bustled by the throng of hungry and thirsty convives of both sexes. 'Well, Juvabir, how goes it ? how is Paul Pry? and will he Then he is steadied. win ? ' inquires one whose persistent search after turf know- ledge has been hitherto but inadequately rewarded. ' If it is well to want luncheon, and to have no time to eat it, then it goes well. Paul Pry is well, or at least has told me nothing to the contrary ; he will win if he doesn't tumble down, "or if nothing beats him,' answers the youthful owner helping himself to a cutlet, and demanding immediate champagne. This reply, not being of a nature to encourage further interrogation, Lord Olim is left unmolested, the more readily inasmuch as the ladies usually the chief inquisitors have to NEWMARKET. 85 a woman their own commissioners, and for the most part their own touts ; and having issued their backing instructions, desire not to be perplexed by any new wind of doctrine. Moreover, his Lordship has the reputation of a man who likes to be paid. Sir Laudator, who has frugally refreshed himself with a biscuit and a glass of sherry, as the Scotch say, * in his hand/ slips out. On arriving at the rails which separate the private stands' enclosure from the ring, he finds the market well set. Ro- manus is firmly established first favourite at evens ; the public fancy him, and despite his seven-pound penalty the public will not be stalled off. The watchword of the day is ' Charley Wood, good busi- ness,' and the mashers are plunging on him. Paul Pry is second in demand, his weight, his public and (reputed) private form, and the fact of his being Archer's mount, naturally placing him in that position. Three to one is offered against Ambrosia, hundreds to thirty, in some instances four to one, against Osmunda, five to one Amulet, and the others are at prices ranging from ten to twenty to one ; quotations which the bookmakers unblushingly assert represent the worst betting- race that ever was known. ' A man can't get round nohow, and there's no money in the market for the favourite neither.' Seven thousand is subsequently traced to the stable con- nections alone of Romanus. ' Seven to four, bar one ; seven to four, bar one,' resounds on all sides, but Sir Laudator is well-known and industrious, and by much perseverance he gets on the bulk of his own and his friend's money at fifteen to eight, with here and there a stray bet of two to one to small sums. As he closes his book, and Lord Olim, cigar in mouth, appears on the scene, the flag falls to the first attempt. Archer always gets off, and Paul Pry, for a big one, is singularly quick out of the slips, so for the first fifty yards he holds a decided lead next to the rails on the stand side, then 86 RACING. he is steadied, and one of the outsiders rushing to the front comes along a cracker. Time being of much importance to most of the spectators, great satisfaction is expressed at the pace ; Romanus, Os- munda, and Ambrosia are pulling double at Paul's quarters, and nearly level with them, but wide on the right, is Fordham on Amulet. The remaining two horses are in difficulties already. They run thus till nearing the Bushes, when the leader, who is spun out, or who has ' had his feeler,' drops back to the The forlorn division forlorn division. With the exception of Osmunda, a length in their rear, the others are almost abreast. Descending the Abingdon Mile hill, to the dumb conster- nation of his backers Romanus is seen to falter and lose his pace. Wood calls on him without mending matters, and six to four on the field goes begging. As they approach the bottom of the dip Paul Pry too begins to roll. There ts something wrong with those shoulders after all. Archer gives him a savage shake. * Five hundred to two against Paul,' shrieks Steel. Lord Olim, who has been waiting his opportunity, snaps at the bet just as Osmunda, going straight as an arrow, takes up the running. NEWMARKET. 87 When Paul Pry feels the hill he drops into his stride again and tackles the ascent like a lion. ' Archer has not moved his legs yet,' remarks Sir Laudator, who knows well every phase of that jockey's riding ; but if Archer has not moved his legs, his arms are certainly at work, and Cannon is sitting so still, and looks so happy on Osmunda, who has now a clear lead of two lengths, that the vociferous declaration of ' Osmunda beats anything ! ' * Osrnunda wins for a hundred,' sounds like prophecy after knowledge. Fordham is riding in grim earnest, although his wide berth makes his chance look better than it really is. Ambrosia, though beaten, is struggling gamely on under Webb and the fatal 'seven extra.' Why, then, if the race is over, as surely it must be, does Cannon suddenly, and within a few lengths of the post, catch up his whip, and sit down to a finish which for polished ele- gance, combined with determined strength, few horsemen have ever equalled ? The reason is apparent enough, for with a whirlwind rush in which legs, arms, whip, horse, and man seem strangely, madly mingled, comes Archer on Paul Pry, gaining, gaining, gaining on his adversary, till, if only it were not too late, if only the post were ten, five, two yards further up the hill, that desperate swoop must snatch the race out of the fire. Is it so certain that it is too late ? Locked together the two horses flash past the judge, their jockeys simultaneously drop their hands, and half turning in the saddles stare hard into each other's eyes. Amidst the babel of voices the opinion appears to pre- vail that Cannon held his own to the end, and just got home by a head, though many of the old hands, remembering the curious angle from which the Stand spectators see the end of the Rowley mile contests, quickly take odds that the head is the other way. Then the numbers clatter up on the swinging shutter. The mystery is solved, and a roar of ' No. 3 ! Archer ! Paul Pry ! Archer ! ' rends the heavens. Cheer follows on cheer, for stable and owner are alike 88 RACING. popular ; besides, even when losing, it is well to shout for the winner. The air is thick with hats. (Par parenthese.} How do these hat-throwers ever recover their hurled-up headgear ? If you or I, reader, were to drop a fourpenny-bit on the Heath during the most thrilling moments of a race, we should never behold that groat again ; yet we cannot remember ever seeing a man, not utterly drunk, returning home hatless to Newmarket town. An escort of jubilant stable boys. The two friends exchange glances, then with not undignified haste they betake themselves to the weighing-room. On the way thither they encounter Mr. Commissioner Perkins, in a state of considerable elation, which is somewhat damped by his average of seven to four to all the money not being received with the gratitude or enthusiasm he had antici- pated. Archer is there almost as soon as they are. Slowly descends NEWMARKET. 89 the scale in which he takes his seat ; but it yields not to an additional 2 Ibs. of counterpoise. The ' All right ' goes forth, and the triumph is complete. Outside Lord Olim, having shaken hands with Mat, and decorously received numerous congratulations, gazes thought- fully after the chestnut Paul, who is being led away under a strong escort of jubilant stable-boys, then suddenly looking up at his ancient and intimate ally, says, ' What a blessing it is ! ' and pauses. Sir Laudator cynically completes the sentence : 'To be able to count your Two Thousand Chickens all the winter, eh, my boy? 5 'No,' rejoins his lordship, 'to be able to turn one's undivided attention to the Cambridgeshire.' 90 RACING. CHAPTER VI. RACING IN THE 'PROVINCES.' THE advantage of the gate-money or enclosed meetings which have sprung up of late years is manifest in the security given to managers for guaranteeing large sums of added money, thus enabling owners of horses to race at less expense than on the open courses, where a large proportion of the stakes must necessarily come out of their own pockets. The only other sources of revenue on which clerks of courses of the old-fashioned open meetings can depend are the sums obtained for admission to the stands, rings, &c., at a tariff which the masses are unable or unwilling to pay ; the entrance money to the ground for carriages only ; such rates in aid as can be screwed out of neighbouring residents, tradesmen, or county or borough members, and the half surplus of the price realised by winners of selling races ; all these being what may be mathematically termed ' uncertain quantities,' depending on many and fluctuating circumstances, and rendering close calculation impossible ; whereas to the wholly enclosed courses, situated as they must be within easy reach of a dense population, every soul desirous of admission must contribute either in the shape of annual subscription to the club if club there be or by the entrance fee of a shilling or half a crown for passing the wickets ; the right of entree to public stands or paddock necessitating an additional outlay. The chief factor, therefore, for the consideration of promoters is, whether the love of racing has a sufficient hold on the inhabitants of a particular district to induce them to come in RACING IN THE 'PROVINCES? 91 crowds on to the ground itself, there being then a tolerable certainty that a given percentage will avail themselves of the further accommodation of stands, &c. ; and these calculations being made, as they now are, with nice accuracy, the committee or clerks of the course may order their ' broad sheet,' with its large promise of added money, not only without fear of failing to meet their liabilities, but with every confidence that a margin of much gain will be left over for all concerned in the venture. As an instance of what can be done by this system of trading on racing may be cited a North-country company of which the original shareholders have turned their capital over six or seven times in the course of a few years, and wherein for i,2oo/. worth of original shares, upwards of 8,ooo/. was recently offered and declined. With enterprises of this nature, open meetings, like Ascot, Epsom, Doncaster, Goodwood, and York can alone successfully compete, arid of these the first named is facile princeps. Under the able administration of Col. Seymour, Capt. Bulkeley, and Mr. Cades, the Secretary, its funds acquired considerable pro- portions, and a large and annually increasing capital was held in trust by the Master of the Buckhounds, Capt. Bulkeley, and Mr. Garrard. It was here that the first recorded bonus of i,ooo/. was added to a stake, to wit the Alexandra Plate, a race of three miles for four-year-olds and upwards, which was inaugurated by the success of the celebrated mare Fille de 1'Air, the property of Count de Lagrange. Since that time the wealth and the liberality of the Royal Meeting have in- creased part passu, till in these days so great is the value of the prizes, so great the prestige which attaches to the winning thereof, that all which is most excellent in horseflesh, most am- bitious in ownership, is annually attracted to that favoured spot. As long as the Derby is run for at Epsom, which, for aught we know, may be to the end of time, so long will Epsom con- tinue to fascinate the public, and people will flock to the Downs, in the hope, or on the pretence, of seeing a race which not 92 RACING. one man in fifty ever really sees, not one in twenty cares about seeing. The Oaks is nearly as popular with holiday-makers as the Derby, and both in spring and summer there are many other stakes, notably the City and Suburban and Grand Prize, well worth winning, which will always draw good fields, the facilities for betting being unlimited. Yet Epsom is the very home of discomfort. The managers may indeed have achieved the proverbially difficult feat of getting a quart into a pint pot, but at the same time they have succeeded in providing for their patrons the maximum of inconvenience with the minimum of enjoyment. The stands are arranged so as to render locomotion almost impossible. The bear-pit in front of the weighing-room is hardly large enough for the first and second horses in each race, let alone their attendants and the bystanders. It is suffocating in sunshine, and always dusty, except in wet weather, when it is little better than a well ; the private boxes are hot and draughty ; of the means of access thereto, let those who have experienced the horrors of that 'middle passage' on Derby day bear witness ; while the journey up the course from weighing-room to paddock an expedition, be it remarked, which must be undertaken on foot by every jockey and trainer who has to ride in or saddle for a race is simply a hideous struggle with an unsavoury crowd. Yet even at Epsom there is, at least for the upper class of race-goers, a promise of better things to come. The Private Stand ' Rous's Stand ' it was called, what time that amiable despot arrogated to himself the sole right of according admission thereto has long been found of far too limited accommodation to serve the needs of the actual members, not to speak of the numerous foreigners who, belonging to the European, American, or Australian Jockey Clubs, are admitted as a matter of course, or of the still greater number of popular and eligible racing men who are anxious to have access to the one place, inconveniently crowded though it may be, where it is practicable to bet and possible to see a race. RACING IN THE ' PROVINCES? 93 Therefore have the Grand Stand Company, not unmindful of the profits which arise from Club Stands, undertaken to build one which shall include space for the Royal boxes, for the Jockey Club and for a general body of some seven hundred members, with refreshment-rooms, weighing-room, Messrs. Weatherby's office, press-room, jockeys' dressing-rooms, &c. partly on the site of the present Private Stand, but enlarging its borders very considerably in the direction of the judge's chair, on to the space in front of what has hitherto been known as Barnard's stand. An annual payment of five guineas for old members, with the addition of an entrance fee of a similar amount for the new, will give the right of entree to all parts of the stand, to all the rings, and to the paddock during the whole of each meeting, and 1886 sees the inauguration, or rather the re-introduction, for we believe it is not altogether a novelty, of an autumn meeting. Election to the new Epsom Club rests, as heretofore for the Private Stand, with the stewards of Epsom, i.e. the Stewards of the Jockey Club for the time being, plus Lord Rosebery. What the Derby is to Epsom, such is the St. Leger to Don- caster ; but here there is less crowding, on the stands at least, one or two of which have been erected by private subscription amongst the county families. The general management of affairs is in the hands of a Race Committee, which acquits itself of the task much to its own, and fairly to its customers' satisfaction. In addition to the Leger, the Champagne Stakes for two-years, the Park Hill for three-year-old fillies, the Don- caster Cup for all ages, and the great Yorkshire and Portland Plate Handicaps are recognised as the principal features of the meeting. Goodwood, popular resort as it is of all classes of race- goers, differs from other turf gatherings in this respect, that it is to all intents a private meeting. The course, the stands, the whole mise en scene, belong in their entirety to the House of Richmond, and it rests with the reigning representative of that 94 RACING. House alone to say how long he will permit the races to be run in his park, or on what terms he may choose to admit the public. The present Duke of Richmond and his son, Lord March (the senior steward of the Jockey Club in the year 1884), are as keen on the sport as ever were their forefathers ; they fully understand and appreciate the requirements of the age, and their instructions are most efficiently carried out by the agent, Captain Valentine. Under this regime at any rate ' Ichabod ' shall never be substituted for the cognomen of ' Glorious,' so dear to turf historians. Goodwood also holds a sharply- defined position in the annals of the (Weatherby) year. It is the mezzo termine of racing, an equatorial line between the tropics of the summer and autumn campaigns. The Richmond, Findon, Lavant, Ham, Prince of Wales', Rous Memorial, and Molecomb Stakes for two-year-olds, the time-honoured Goodwood Cup, the Sussex Stakes for three-year-olds only, the three great handicaps of Stewards' Cup, Chesterfield Cup, and Goodwood Stakes, may be mentioned as amongst the chief items of interest in a momentous week ; the last-named long afforded a striking ex- ample of British prejudice in favour of speculation on some particular races ; for whereas the Ascot Stakes, run over a similar distance of ground, rarely yields a quotation until a day or two before the event comes off, the market on Goodwood Stakes, even in modern days of post betting, opens almost as soon as the weights appeared. York, or its Knavesmire of excellent repute with turfites is the oasis in the desert of plating between Goodwood and Don- caster, and, like Doncaster, is one of the chosen battlefields where the champion runners of North and South meet to settle their differences. The Great Yorkshire is notorious for the discomfi- ture of favourites and its influence on the Leger betting. The Gimcrack is an ancient, and the Prince of Wales's is a rich, two- year-old stake. The Great Ebor is regarded as in some sort a clue to the Cesarewitch mystery ; but the new York Cup, which RACING IN THE l PROVINCES: 95 formerly held high rank amongst weight-for-age contests, has been recently modernised into a handicap, in which quality is usually conspicuous by its absence. This quintet therefore Ascot, Epsom, Doncaster, Good- wood, and York which have been outlined rather than de- scribed, may be taken as the only open meetings ; open, that is, in the sense of free admission to their respective courses, which continue to hold their own against the wealth and seductions of gate-money gatherings; yet do these five mighty reunions find it necessary from time to time to alter their programmes, and keep step in the quick march of the day, lest they too should be fain to take their place in the rear of the ' Companies.' Where the trainer is happy, there will the horses be gathered together. Of Newmarket, ample notice has already been taken in these pages ; and Newmarket can no longer claim to be altogether an open meeting. Free pass there still is for pedestrians and horsemen to. the Heath, but heavy toll is levied on carriages on both sides of the ditch. It would be tedious here to enumerate all the old-fashioned county meetings which have suffered from, or succumbed to, the new limited liability undertakings, or to the rule for which they must ultimately be held responsible that a sum of not less than 300 sovs. shall be added to each day's racing; yet it may be well to devote a few words to one provincial race- course, which has survived all vicissitudes, to be still regarded as the ne plus ultra of enjoyment by those who love racing and who abhor a crowd. The ' Calendar months ' include no fixture more keenly anticipated and relished than those three summer days on the downs at Danebury. Stockbridge, to which the Bibury Club meeting was removed in 1831,* when local support failed at its birthplace on the Cotswolds, has seldom, if ever, attempted to provide the rich prizes which fire the ambition or the avarice i On the motion of Lord Worcester (afterwards jth Duke of Beaufort). 96 RACING. of owners. The Hurstbourne, 1 established in 1870, at the suggestion of Lord Portsmouth, is now by far the most valuable of its stakes, the Stockbridge Cup a piece of plate value 300 sovs. coming next in order of importance, and the whole affair has always been in great measure dependent upon the patrons of the home stable and their friends. In the days when the Duke of Beaufort, Lord Anglesey, and Lord Hastings kept the Danebury boxes full, some big matches, or private sweepstakes resulting in matches, were occasionally made, notably those between Leonie and Athena, Mameluke and Innerdale, in 1867, Tenedos and Wellington in 1868 ; while the races, big and little, usually filled well, and, it is needless to add, were the medium of the heaviest of betting. The tale has doubtless lost nothing in the telling, and sums are wont to be magnified by tradition, but the thousands landed at seven to four on Historian (who lost several lengths start) in a Handicap Plate, half a mile, in the year 1865 did, we believe, really amount to what was complacently spoken of by those Titans of speculation as ' a very nice little stake.' It was, however, as far back as 1860 that the largest field there recorded turned out for the Amport Stakes of a mile and a half. Twenty-one runners, comprising a goodly number of previous (or subsequent) winners, would nowadays be esteemed no unworthy array to face the starter for the Cesare- witch. The failing health of John Day, most generous, genial, and hospitable of trainers, and the death or retirement of many of his chief supporters, soon dimmed the lustre of the once 1 There was a Hurstbourne Plate in 1855, of 50 sovs. (given personally by Lord Portsmouth), added to a sweepstakes of 10 sovs. each for two- and three- year-olds. Won by Duke of Beaufort's b.c. Furioso, 2 years, 6 st. 13 Ibs. (Wells), after a dead-heat with Mr. Powell's b.f. Plausible, 3 years, 8 st. 4 Ibs. (Yates). T.Y.C. This race seems to have dropped out the next year. It was revived afterwards in the form of the Hurstbourne Cup, two miles and a half, value 200 sovs., added to a sweepstakes of 15 sovs., 5 forfeit, for three-year- olds and upwards, and was run for the last time in 1869, Sir F. Johnstone's Brigantine, 3 years, 7 st. 7 Ibs., beating Mr. Graham's Formosa, 4 years, 8 st. 12 Ibs., and Mr. Brayley's Cock of the Walk, 4 years, 8 st. 10 Ibs. ED. RACING IN THE ' PROVINCES? 97 powerful stable, and latterly a squadron of cavalry might have been stalled where but a few years ago there was scarcely spare standing-room for a hack. So, merged in the fortunes of Danebury, waned the renown of the Stockbridge meeting, till, with the exception of the two events above referred to the Hurstbourne Stakes and Stock- bridge Cup or when now and again a two-year-old of good report came forth for the Mottesfont, Troy, or Champagne, the races sank to the merest plating level ; but, let the racing be good or bad, what man is there who, having once experienced the indefinable charm of Stockbridge, does not long to go there again ? For there you can see races as you can nowhere else. Stands there are, one for the use of the general public, and one (built by private subscription from a fund started in 1866 by Sir John, then Colonel, Astley) the property of the Bibury Club ; but stroll on to the course, and take up your place where you will, either within or without the enclosures, there is so much space, and such is the conformation of the ground, that, from the fall of the flag you shall behold, not, as is usually the case, your neighbour's hat, or the fringe of a lady's parasol, but every change and incident of the contest, to the final struggle out of the treacherous dip to the winning-post. Here, too, by those whom it interests, may be watched every stage of the amateur's progress ; for our most famous gentle- men-riders have graduated on a course which the professionals declare taxes their judgment and skill more than any other in England. Since the death of John Day in 1883, the establishment and training grounds of Danebury have passed into the hands of his son-in-law, Tom Cannon ; a man ' many-counselled ' and of much sagacity, under whose management Stockbridge seems likely to renew its youth, and continue to flourish exceedingly, a living proof that ; Palings do not a meeting make, nor iron rails a course.' H 98 RACING. CHAPTER VII. RACING SERVANTS : OLD STYLE AND NEW. MANY racing men there are still living, and actively engaged in their favourite pursuit, who can remember the old school of trainers and jockeys : the former simply training grooms, the latter for the most part lads who had lived with them, and in their service obtained proficiency if not fame. Few of either class betted to any extent, or owned horses at all. They were employed at fixed salaries by the gentlemen who patronised the turf. Almost the first great public trainer on a large scale was John Scott, who, beginning with a select coterie, ended with a somewhat heterogeneous assortment of employers. But the change from the private to the public trainer was in the course of events inevitable. As wealth largely increased and became more widely diffused ; as the sharp distinctions of class became gradually obliterated, the turf year by year attracted more votaries : some for the love of sport, others from hope of gain, and many because it was the fashion, and furnished an introduction to society which might otherwise have been unattainable. A large proportion of the new- comers were of course ignorant even of the rudiments of racing lore, and were fain to place themselves under the wing, and in the stables, of those well acquainted with its intricacies. And so, fast disappearing from amongst us, is the old- fashioned groom who dwelt in remote corners of the downs and wolds ; who tended in his barn-like boxes the fifteen or twenty horses belonging to his master and that individual's intimate friends ; who bought his forage exclusively from the RACING SERVANTS: OLD STYLE AND NEW. 99 neighbouring farmers, and who was looked up to in his market town as vir sapientia, if not pietate, gravis. Almost unknown to him were the ' lights of London,' and he even regarded Newmarket with some suspicion and dislike, on account of its cosmopolitan tendencies ' flash notions ' he would have called them. Rising early, and early taking rest, save in the matter of polygamy he lived in true patriarchal fashion ; faring well, and ruling his lads, and often his entire household, with a rod of remarkably strong and pliant ash. Devoted to the animals under his care, their preparations were of singular severity, and external appearances never belied his assertion that a horse 'was wound up and thoroughly clean inside.' A good judge of the raw material, and his own 'vet.,' his pharmacopoeia and practice were alike of the heroic order. Often a devout and regular church-goer, his conversation was garnished with expletives of home manufacture which suggested rather than reached the profane. His literary ac- quirements and tastes were few and simple. He could read and write, and knew enough of arithmetic to be able, with assis- tance, to keep his accounts. N.B. His charge for training was about 35.?. a week per horse. His library consisted of some few volumes of sermons and theology, which he did not, and of a Bible and ' White's Farriery,' which he did, peruse. A local newspaper, the * Racing Calendar,' and ' Bell's Life ' (as soon as it came into existence) sufficed for the remainder of his mental sustenance. For art he cared but little his walls nevertheless being usually adorned with portraits of himself and wife, chiefly remarkable for a glossiness of hair, brilliancy of complexion, and general want of resemblance, which reflected infinite credit on the imagination of the local artist ; engravings, or sketches in chalk, of county and borough members, if they were racing men ; perhaps a coaching picture or two, and, dearer to him than all, several of those wonderful caricatures in oil of cele- brated Cup horses, which, judging from the stiffness of their H 2 ioo RACING. action as portrayed on canvas, could hardly have compassed in the whole of a racing season those terrible four-mile courses' whereon history avers they were wont to perform in heats during a summer's afternoon. A rigid disciplinarian, too, was he in all matters of stable observances and etiquette, and he would as soon have thought of starting a horse for a race with his mane unplaited as he would of pretermitting his own evening beaker of hot and strong. But the old order passeth away, and the long-coated functionary, with his breeches and gaiters, and his system of everlasting sweats, has been replaced by a very different being, by a revolutionised management. The wolds and the downs resound as of yore under the hoof of the thoroughbred, for Newmarket has not yet swept all the turf sheep (white and black) into her mighty fold; and the old dwellings, nestling in the shelter of coombes and dells, are, in outward appearance at least, but little altered; yet the thatched stabling (the thresh- ing machine having extinguished the thatcher's craft) has given way to ranges of slate-roofed edifices with all the modern improvements of ventilation, iron mangers and troughs, tiled floors, and drainage, or no drainage, of the latest sanitary and scientific pattern. The trainer himself, even in the farthest provinces, is more changed than his surroundings, though at Newmarket can be observed to greatest advantage the latter-end-of-nineteenth- century master of the horse. The 'boss,' as his lads call him, pursues his avocation in circumstances wholly dissimilar to those under which his predecessors of the past generation flourished. To begin with, he cannot train on the Heath at all without license duly applied for and obtained from the Stewards of the Jockey Club, and the where and when of his gallops, trials, and exercise are regulated by the official appointed for that special purpose. But let us suppose our trainer fairly established with as may well be the case from fifty to a hundred horses under his care, the property of some ten different owners, seldom RACING SERVANTS: OLD STYLE AND NEW. 101 identical in interest, often suspicious, and distrustful of each other. No sinecure his, truly; yet do his lines seem to have fallen in pleasant places. His stables, seen perhaps to greatest advantage when the gas is turned on, and all made ready for the evening parade of visitors, are at all times a model of neatness and comfort, and the most fastidious of the equine occupants must have been pampered to hypochondria if they can find aught to complain 'S' '^ * 7 - r~~TC- m Horse clothing : old style and new. of in board and lodging. The best Scotch oats, beans hard and lustrous, and the primest of old hay, at anything you please per ton, are stored in granary, bin, and loft. It was said of the late Joseph Dawson 'that he would give his horses gold if he thought they would eat it, and that it would do them good,' and the example of his lavish but wise liberality in feeding stuffs has been followed in most of our great training establishments. And the axiom ' Plenty to eat ' is no longer supplemented by the stern corollary of 'No time to eat it.' The racehorse of to-day takes his ease at his 'in,' but not unfrequently at his 4 out ' also, for the tiring every-day gallops once so much in 102 RACING, vogue have been, even in long-distance preparations, in great measure superseded by half- speed canters, short, sharp spins, and walking and trotting exercise of many hours' duration; while the striding gallops ' over the course ' are, except in the case of very gross animals, more often performed in a single sheet than under the heavy sweating clothes of a bygone system. The new and the old were seen strangely blended when Foxhall won the Cesarewitch and Cambridgeshire. Unlimited was the praise bestowed by press and public on William Day for the care and skill which had wrought such marvels, and for a time the honours of the double event seemed to rest solely with him; but after a while conviction seized upon men's minds that the muscle and condition laid on at Bedford Lodge had played no unimportant part in enabling the horse to stand the ordeal of ' our Bill's ' winding up, and that if William of Woodyeates was for the nonce first-class waxi.proxime accessit should be written against the name of Richard Sherrard. The residence of our successful trainer is as complete, even as luxurious, in its equipment as are his stables; his hospi- tality is fully equal to the demands made on it by the mutual entertainment society of Newmarket, and his tastes, in whatever direction they may tend, are as freely indulged, The portraits of winners which adorn his walls are by the fashionable horse-painter of the day; and the riders, usually depicted in majestic solitude on the middle of the Heath, as having distanced all competitors, are, in the matter of seat and bearing, drawn to the life. His library boasts a well-assorted collection of the book- binder's art. The musical acquirements of wife or daughters necessitate the possession of at least a 'semi-grand,' and his drawing-room tables are loaded with clocks, cups, and other articles of vertu, whose inscriptions record the triumphs of the trainer, and recognition thereof by his employers. In a word the whole business is carried on in a style fully commensurate with that advanced state of civilisation of which we are all so proud. As somebody has to pay the piper RACING SERVANTS: OLD STYLE AND NEW. 103 for the piper means being paid the keep of a racehorse is now charged at fifty shillings per week, whatever may be the inherent capabilities of the animal, and as this enhanced price is not of itself sufficient to keep the furnaces at full blast, fuel must be obtained from other quarters. Betting, of course, suggests itself as the first expedient, and some of the trainers of the young school plank it down ' when the time comes ' with a confident prodigality, and a cynical dis- regard of previous form, by no means beneficial to their fair fame. Few things, indeed, can be more gratifying to an owner, when he has won a few hundreds at a nearly equivalent risk, than to read in next morning's ' Sportsman ' the gleeful an- nouncement that his astute servant had invested a thousand at a remunerative rate of odds. Another method of providing for the budget latterly much in favour with trainers is the system of purchasing yearlings at public sales for the purpose of re-selling them, not only at a profit, but with an added stipulation that the said young ones shall remain where they are. This may seem, and, to a certain extent is, a perfectly fair way of turning to account a talent for the perception of immature merit in horseflesh ; but the draw- back is that to make the game really pay the buyer must sell as speedily as possible, and if the existing patrons of the stable are unable or unwilling to purchase, fresh customers must be found. Now there are many individuals of all classes, but having one common characteristic, viz. that they are to the last degree undesirable as partners in any sort of honest under- takingwho are for ever on the look-out for an opportunity to obtain a footing in any stable which they consider in luck, or which may chance to contain a favourite for a big race. To such men the value of the yearlings in question is often of small moment ; they pay for and obtain a footing, of which they are not slow to avail themselves according to their lights ; and should there not be, as there too seldom is, a master employer of means, influence, and determination to say 'If he comes in, / go out,' a nest of rascality may be the result. 104 RACING. Thus it will be seen that the public trainer and most trainers are now more or less public has no easy task to per- form. It is to be hoped that he wishes to preserve his re- spectability ; certainly he wishes to keep together and increase his clientele, and to make his fortune. He should indeed be wise in his generation. In all that appertains to his craft he must of course be an expert, studying and" knowing the con- stitutions, tempers, defects, and capabilities of his horses as if they were his own children. He must be sober and vigilant, implicitly trusting no man but himself, yet appearing to repose the frankest confidence in his grooms, while he exercises the keenest supervision over them. He must, if possible, keep his employers in good humour, which means keeping them on the right side with Messrs. Weatherby, the little man's selling plater requiring as careful a preparation as, and a good deal more placing than, the great man's crack two-year-old. He must be as discreet as the family lawyer, and as candid as Job's comforters ; and lastly, since whatever else he may or may not do he will most assuredly bet, he must contrive so to regulate his investments that he may neither excite alarm by his losses nor jealousy by his winnings. Considering his bringing up, his temptations, and his op- portunities, it is wonderful with what skill he usually contrives se tirer d'affaire. One great advantage he certainly enjoys, he is seldom the victim of misplaced confidence. 'There's no an honest man in the world,' said the Scotch merchant ; ' a ken it by myselV But if from * the ringing grooves of change ' has issued a new and improved system of training, and a new (if not improved) style of trainer, what shall be said of the revolution which has been wrought in the character and conduct of the jockeys, that body corporate of men and boys to whose skill, judgment, and honesty is ultimately entrusted the issue of all turf con- tests, and who are, therefore, the arbiters of each racing man's destiny ? RACING SERVANTS: OLD STYLE AND NEW 105 Can it be denied or ignored that at this present time there are left among us but some three or four jockeys of the old school men who have never during their long career staked on their greatest achievements a tithe of the sum which our dis- solute modern urchins wager on a selling-race, being therein aided and abetted by certain low fellows, not always of the baser sort ; and that this evil has increased to an extent which has rendered necessary the steps which at last have been taken to check it ? In 1879, Mr. Craven, who was then a steward of the Jockey Club, brought forward a motion forbidding jockeys to ride at Newmarket or elsewhere unless they had previously, by application at the Registry Office, obtained a licence from the stewards, and making suspension for the jockey and a fine of 257. for the trainer the consequence of knowingly infringing this rule ; and Mr. Craven furthermore proposed that, ' should it be satisfactorily proved to the Stewards of the Jockey Club that any licensed jockey is the owner or part owner of race- horses, or that he is in the habit of betting, they shall use their discretion as to with drawing such jockey's licence.' ' Any person proved to have betted for or with any jockey on races may be warned off Newmarket Heath.' The first part of this rule applying to the issue of licences was carried, but the penal clauses as to betting, &c., were rejected, mainly in consequence of certain jockeys threaten- ing, in the event of their being passed, to retire from the pro- fession. The effect of this leniency was instantaneous. A class of gambling jockeys at once bought horses, and so played the game that it became impossible for an owner to be sure that the rider he had engaged for a race had not himself a direct interest in one or more of the other competitors. Thus fresh legislation was unavoidable, and in 1882 Mr. Craven, returning to the attack, moved and carried by a majority of 1 1 the fol- lowing resolution ' That the stewards be requested to exercise in future, at their discretion, their power of withholding licences ic6 RACING. from all jockeys who are owners or part owners of racehorses, or who notoriously bet on horse-races' Mr. J. Lowther at the same time intimating that the stewards would use their dis- cretionary power in favour of some few old jockeys who com- bined the occupation of training and riding with the ownership of horses. In the same year the stewards carried a motion enforcing the registration of * all partnerships, and the name of every person having any interest in a horse.' The jockeys, however, had a real and genuine grievance under which they had long suffered, apparently without hope of redress, and which they alleged actually forced them into betting as a means of obtaining their livelihood viz. the with- holding, or non-payment by owners, of the fees for winning and losing mounts, wages in fact no doubt recoverable at law, but from an appeal to which remedy, custom, or a fear of losing custom, caused the riders to shrink. Therefore, in 1880 the Jockey Club, at the instigation of Mr. Craven and Mr. Alex- ander, passed a rule enforcing the payment to the stakeholder or clerk of the course of all fees to which the jockeys were entitled, so rendering impossible either loss or delay in pay- ment of legitimate earnings. Thus all ground of complaint, all plea for the necessity of betting on the part of jockeys, seems to have been removed, while the new powers, together with the power previously in- vested in the stewards of granting or withholding jockeys' licences at Newmarket, would appear at first sight amply suf- ficient to attain the desired end. But has the end been attained ? Has this enormous evil of jockeys owning horses and betting immoderately been sup- pressed ? Nay, has it even been scotched ? Is it not, on the contrary, openly asserted that there exists at this moment a regular 'backing club,' consisting of jockeys, trainers, touts, and betting men, who compare notes, and decide on the morning of the races what to 'go for ' in each event they consider worthy of their attention ? RACING SERVANTS: OLD STYLE AND NEW. 107 The modus operandi is described 1 as follows : When these astute individuals meet together, the trainers, so to speak, take the chair and guide the proceedings. The jockeys furnish information as to all the trials they have ridden in, with obser- vations on the running of horses in public races wherein they have taken part ; the touts report the work done by the horses which are considered to have a chance, and then the betting- men telegraph all over England to invest the subscribed capital ; for, be it remembered, they are too wary to bet much openly on the course, or the money would soon be traced. Later on, when the jockeys are weighed, and going to the post, the interchange of a few talismanic words causes most of the riders to stand on the favoured one, and thus every temptation to rascality is proffered. Nor does the matter end here, for there is yet another organised body on the turf, namely, the Ring. It is said that there is a man now earning his living by following up the backing fraternity, his business being to receive telegrams from all parts of the kingdom, one hour before every race, stating what horse is backed by the Syndicate, and his information is well worth paying for by the Ring, who, the moment the numbers go up, know what to make first favourite, ofttimes to the consternation of the owner, whose chances of getting on at reasonable terms may easily be calculated. Here are wheels within wheels with a vengeance ! It must have been more than a suspicion of these complications which caused Mr. Alexander, in the Houghton Meeting of 1883, to urge upon the stewards the full and immediate exer- cise of their discretionary powers. Therefore, in the beginning of 1884, Lord Cadogan and his colleagues, Lord March and Lord Zetland, gave notice through the 'Calendar,' that henceforth betting or ownership by jockeys would be regarded as a misdemeanour, punishable by suspen- sion of licence, and followed up this notice by certain action to 1 The authors state what is currently reported without in any way vouching for the truth of the assertion. io8 RACING. which it is unnecessary here to make further allusion, but which we may hope, if the case be not hopeless, will bear fruit in due (racing) season. To return to the question of the trainer and his establish- ment, we have thought it well to give plans and drawings of some training stables, and have selected, as being exceptionally well arranged, the buildings at Chetwynd House, Newmarket, in the occupation of Mr. R. Sherrard, erected in 1884 by Mr. Wm. C. Manning. An explanation of the drawings is sub- joined : The main block of stabling forms three sides of a square, the remaining side being occupied by the trainer's residence, from which a complete view of the yard can be obtained. There is a gateway from the garden which affords direct access to the stables. At the end of the wing nearest the trainer's gate is a drying- room and mash-house, the former of which is fitted with rails working on pulleys which are provided for the damp horse clothing. The other fittings in this room comprise two coppers, a saddle-room stove situated in the middle of room with smoke pipe leading to flue, and boys' washing basins ; adjoining is a saddle-room with fittings complete. Above these two rooms are boys' bedrooms. Stables. On the ground plan in this wing are nine loose boxes of the following dimensions, each 18 feet long, n feet 2 inches wide, and about 15 feet high. This wing is completed by a six- stall stable, in which corn shoot is fixed to deliver from granary above. The central side comprises fourteen loose boxes each measuring 18 feet long, 10 feet 10 inches wide, and 12 feet high. The boxes are divided by the entrance block. The remaining wing differs only from the other in having a boys' sitting-room corresponding with the drying-room in opposite wing. There are internal communicating doors throughout the whole length of building which, when closed, can only be opened by a master key. Loose box fittings. The boxes are fitted with slate mangers to full width of the box, with knee-boarding from the oak chintree to floor. The walls are lined internally with boarding 6 feet high ; all the internal woodwork is protected by hoop iron. The floors are paved with brick on edge, laid in herring-bone pattern on cement concrete. The surface of the floor is a perfectly horizontal RACING SERVANTS: OLD STYLE AND NEW. 109 plane ; thereby the horse may stand in a natural position, avoiding any unnatural strain upon any portion of his frame. Ventilation. Each box is ventilated by (i) a hit-and-miss brass ventilator fixed in the outside door just above bottom rail, (2) a fanlight over the door opening inwards hung on the transom, (3) a ventilator in back wall over the horse's head with sloping boarded casing to' prevent downward draught, (4) finally, any vitiated air is carried off by a trunk ventilator running above the ridge of roof, the bottom of which is fixed in centre of ceiling. The stall stables are similarly ventilated. Lighting. Each box is lighted by a single-jointed gas bracket fixed about seven feet above the floor, which, when not used, is enclosed in an iron case. The partition walls are formed of coke breeze and cement concrete seven inches thick. Water service. Water is obtained from the company's service, and can be drawn from taps placed in the most convenient positions. The upper plan consists of boys' bedrooms at the two ends of wings and lofts over the full length of the centre. There is a granary with boarded floor at each end over the two six-stall stables. There are three large water-tanks on this floor for use in case of fire. The racehorses enter principal yard through main entrance in centre block from back yard, which contains manure pit, pigstyes, and other necessary adjuncts to an establishment of this class, which would detract from the ornamental character of the stable yard. On one side of entrance archway is a clerk's office overlooking back yard. A stone staircase on other side leads to loft and head man's bedroom. This archway is closed with folding doors surmounted by ornamental glazed ironwork, and the head man's bedroom is situated immediately over to ensure security of premises from intrusion at night. Below are hay and straw shoots from the lofts. The carting is conducted along back yard, the outside doors of lofts and granaries overlooking same being fitted with jibs to raise forage, &c., from waggons in the yard below. Fireproof floors. These floors are of concrete and iron fire- proof construction. A flight of steps leads from the floor of loft to clock-room in roof over centre block, in which is fixed an illumi- nated clock manufactured by Messrs. Gillett & Co., of Croydon. A paved foot-path runs round interior of square next stables ; 10 RACING. within this is a roadway enclosing the lawn, which is ornamented with flower-beds, shrubs, and trees. Main entrance to yard. The main entrance is treated in a conventional renaissance style, and forms the principal ornamental feature externally, the carved and moulded portions being gauged Ground plan of New Stables, Chetwynd House, Newmarket. work. The external walls of remainder of building are faced with best red Woolpit bricks pointed with mortar of a neutral tint. The works were carried ou by Messrs, E. Lawrance & Sons, of Wharf Road, City Road, London. ii2 RACING. CHAPTER VIII. BREEDING. AFTER perusing the extracts from the 'Sporting Magazine,' made at an earlier part of this volume, the reader will have a fair idea of the origin of our breed of horses. It seems clear that chance has had a large share in the matter ; but no doubt the two facts which are most salient are these : First and foremost, that the quality and beauty of our horses are entirely attributable to the Eastern blood which we have imported ; and secondly, that our climate yields to none in its ' inherent capabilities ' for breeding, as proved by the increased size of the produce of Eastern horses when propagated in this country, and by the necessity, which all foreigners experience, of continually replenishing their studs from these islands. The indigenous animal of Great Britain must have been somewhat similar to what we now call a Welsh or New Forest pony, and the increase of size may be traced in the first instance to the importation of the Flemish, Spanish, and German cross, size being the object originally aimed at by the various Acts passed in different reigns. So far as imported Eastern horses are con- cerned, they have never within record been able to compete with those reared amongst us ; but this much may be confi- dently stated, that, whatever indigenous blood may have been originally crossed with Barbs and Arabians by our ancestors, it has not only entirely died out, but at this present time of writing there is no horse whose pedigree can be traced back with a semblance of accuracy to anything but Eastern blood. Thus we are brought face to face with the theory expounded BREEDING. 113 by Mr. Blount, which has caused so much controversy of late years. Mr. Blount, who has largely imported from the best of the desert blood, claims to acclimatise this breed, and make it take advantage of our soil, in order to reproduce itself from genera- tion to generation, till it attains that increased size which is necessary for racing purposes. He proposes, when the produce of his mares arrives at the English standard, to mate with the best of our thoroughbred Children of the Desert. stock ; and so imbued are many members of the Jockey Club with this idea, that a 2oo/. prize will now be run for at New- market, either annually or once in two years, by Eastern horses reared in, or imported into, this country. The first race of this description took place in July 1884, with the sole result of proving that Admiral Tryon's horse Asil, by an Abeyan Sherak horse, and bred in this country, was able to defeat the best racehorse brought over from India, viz. Dictator, aged (who ii4 RACING. had carried all before him in his own country), at weight for age over a two-mile course. Our jockeys looked as if they were riding their Newmarket ponies, and were mostly more tired than their steeds, who could never go beyond one pace all the way, but could have carried that pace on for ever. The trainers who brought these horses (eight running out of fifteen entries) all agreed that a common English selling-plater could give them two stone and beat them; on the other hand, their soundness, and the little heed they took of the hard ground, were remarkable. The estimate arrived at by the trainers, as to the compara- tive merit of these Children of the Desert and the sorriest of our English platers, was signally verified in the following year, when, on the Wednesday of the Second Spring Meeting at Newmarket, 1885, Iambic, in a match over the last three miles of the Beacon Course, gave the Arab champion Asil no less than 4 st. ylbs., and such a beating into the bargain as has seldom been seen ; thus we seem almost driven to the con- clusion that the prospects of improving the true Arab resolve themselves into this : that half a century of care and acclimati- sation may possibly result in the production of a second Iambic of Oriental extraction ! Meanwhile, the European prototype, Iambic, has, we be- lieve, been presented by his owner, the Duke of Portland, -to Lord Algernon Lennox, who now rides as hack this horse, utterly worthless for racing purposes when opposed to English racehorses, but 4 st. 7 Ibs. better than the best available Arab, and that be it observed over a three-mile course, which would have been absurdly out of Iambic's distance, if he had ever had a distance. Mr. Blount had had the advantage of breeding from the best Eastern blood for some time, and the size of his foals and yearlings speaks in favour of his principle ; but he was unfor- tunate in being prevented through illness from producing his best specimens of a more mature age, or he might have proved his theory, that the increase of size which results from the BREEDING. 115 English nurture and climate will bring the Eastern horses within reach of our older established breed. Be this as it may, Major Stapylton, another authority on this 'Eastern question/ considers that the Poles have one hundred years start of us at increasing the size of these horses, and that there are in Poland some horses of the purest blood which have attained the height of sixteen hands and more. That these should compete with the Anglo-Eastern breed is not to be thought of ; but, the size being obtained, it would be interesting to see if an importation of Polish Eastern mares and stallions into this country would improve more rapidly as to speed than those which have been brought over, straight from the East, with the object of attaining both size and speed. It is much to be hoped that Major Stapylton will give his theory a chance, for though our climate and soil develop the frame, they are apt to cause unsoundness and pulmonary disease, and it is possible that in course of time our stock may degenerate, and an infusion of sounder blood may become absolutely necessary. Prince Brinitzky is the greatest of Polish breeders. At a very early date after the breed of which we are now so proud was fairly established, we no doubt had a horse in Eclipse which was quite the equal of anything that has run in the memory of living man. Much has been written about him, and we must of course accept as a fact that from five years of age upwards he performed extraordinary feats in beating the horses of his own era ; yet the time in which he is alleged to have covered certain distances must always remain a matter of uncertainty, for it is hardly credible that the watchmakers of the last century had arrived at the perfection which is now shown in our stop-watches. Still there is this strong argument in favour of Eclipse having run the Beacon Course (4 miles i furlong 143 yards) under the eight minutes viz. that in modern days the Liverpool Steeplechase course, which is half a mile and 77 yards longer, and which presents some thirty-five obstacles to be negotiated, has been covered in ten minutes ii6 RACING. by horses which could not with a fair chance of success have competed at any weights with the best racehorses of their day over such a course as the Beacon. There has of late years been much outcry respecting the deterioration of our breed, principally owing to the fact that valuable racehorses are now seldom tested over long courses. But the modern system can claim in its favour that it does not drain away the stamina of horses and mares before they are put to the stud ; for as to mares it has been clearly proved that some of the best, and those especially who have ranked amongst ' Cup horses,' have been valueless at the stud, where- as some of our most eminent matrons were never raced at all, having in all probability been found wanting when tried. Equally, too, have failed some of the stallions most cele- brated on the racecourse, though many who gave little promise during the first few seasons in the paddock have done well in after life, when rest restored the constitutions impaired by too frequent exertions whilst in training. Eclipse will at once be cited in contradiction to this theory ; but it must be remembered that he had nothing taken out of him until he had arrived at maturity, and that he only commenced racing after five years of age. Our three great sires of the Eastern strain, whether Arabian or Barbs, had no pretension to size. The Godolphin Arabian, whose portrait has been handed down to us, was a very common-looking horse, and it is not surprising to hear that before coming to this country he had been drawing a cart in Paris. To this day many of the small Tarbes entire horses, which are used in gigs and general com- mon work on the high roads of France, much resemble the pictures of that illustrious sire. The Godolphin Arabian was first used on his arrival in England by Mr. Coke as teaser to Hobgoblin ; the latter having declined Roxana, she was put to the Arabian, and produced Lath as his first offspring. He afterwards belonged to Lord Godolphin, and covered for many years at Gog Magog BREEDING. 117 in Cambridgeshire, where he died in 1753, supposed to be 29 years of age. The Byerly Turk was Captain Byerly's charger in Ireland about 1689, during King William's wars. The Darley Arabian was brought over by a brother of Mr. Darley, who was an agent in merchandise abroad. Flying or Devonshire Childers and Bartlett Childers are both attri- buted to this horse 1715. To no one does the maxim, Quot homines, tot sententice, bring itself home more forcibly than to the students of the art of horse-breeding. Even in the preparation of this slender narra- tive of the origin of the British racehorse we have been led to peruse many works, to consider many theories, which have been written and upheld by various authorities on the subject, but nowhere have we come across the infallible clue which shall guide a breeder, though most writers can prove their own par- ticular systems by some instances of successful crossing ; be it remarked, however, that although they can adduce the instance in proof, it constantly happens that, though one good foal may result from a certain cross, his brothers or sisters may be very inferior animals ; and still further to perplex and bewilder us, we find that certain mares have thrown nothing but race- horses, or the parents of racehorses, whatever stallion they may have visited. Of this no more remarkable illustration can be adduced than Pocahontas, whose progeny, together with the genealogy of our leading thoroughbreds, will be found presently tabulated. Glencoe, the sire of Pocahontas, was exported to America, and the credit of the best blood of that country is due to him. We may here say a few words as to the method which in our opinion should be adopted in endeavouring to attain the nearest approach to perfection in breeding, and we must begin by pointing out an old and commonly practised act of negligence, which not only every veterinary surgeon, but every medical man and all students of animal constitution, would concur in decrying, viz. the want of proper attention to the n8 RACING. actual state of health of horse and mare at the time of mating. It seems never to strike breeders that before allowing a mare to be served they should at least take the trouble to ascertain if the horse is in good health ; for it cannot be taken for granted that, because when robust and in strong exercise a stallion has fathered an Eclipse or a St. Simon, he will be capable of begetting similar stock when ill and uncared for. Almost all animals will take plenty of exercise provided that they have sufficient liberty, and will thus generally keep themselves well. In the case of mares this is easily arranged, but with stallions it is different ; and how many stallions are neglected in this one most important item ? After quiet exercise and rest from June to October, an entire horse should be put into work, i.e. be led, or ridden, or lunged for several hours daily, besides having a good-sized yard to trot about in. In January he should be big, but his flesh firm, and his coat glossy, and he will then enter on his term of service in a good state of health the primary condition for begetting sound-constitutioned offspring. Lord Lyon may be cited as a typical instance of the neces- sity of exercise. Though he was good enough to win the three great classic races of his year, he has been more or less a failure at the stud, his fine pedigree notwithstanding. Notwithstanding also his parentage of Placida, and of Touchet, who, himself a good horse, has in his turn sired Necromancer a miler within measurable distance, say 10 Ibs. or u Ibs. of top form the expression * more or less a failure at the stud,' as applied to Lord Lyon, will hardly have to be modified, even should Minting's career be as glorious as foretold by those best acquainted with his capabilities. He was magnificentl); shaped ; indeed, when we saw him in 1884, he was in most respects as perfect a model as one could wish to see, but below the knee he dwindled away to nothing ; his ankles were small and bullety, his pasterns straight, and his feet half the size they should have been. Here was the point in which he failed ; he was early put to the stud, and except BREEDING. 119 when his services were actually required, he spent the whole of his time in lying down ; he could not exercise himself, and it would have been cruelty to attempt to force him. Newminster was latterly in the same plight, and to this was attributable the softness of much of his stock, though his Touchstone blood has told satisfactorily in his descendants. Indeed, as a rule, English breeders are more than careless in a variety of most essential matters. Some have theories which they endeavour to carry out, - *"-*/*- Stallions at exercise. but which relate solely to the blood. They study pedigrees either with the view of not breeding in and in, or per contra of obtaining a certain amount of inbreeding in the third generation. Others take a broader line, to wit, that Eclipse being the most flagrant specimen of inbreeding, that system must therefore be right yet how few sufficiently study shape, make, and constitu- tion? Men do not reflect that if a mare lacks propelling power she should be put to a horse with big hind quarters, and so on with shoulders, girth, and constitution ; and we maintain 120 RACING. that in this direction lies the secret, if secret there be, of suc- cess in horse-breeding. A bad constitution is the worst of defects, and should, if possible, be avoided ; but it may happen that an excessively well-bred mare with extraordinary speed may win short-dis- tance two-year-old engagements, and earn a great reputation, though from her delicacy it may prove impossible later on to train her for longer courses. In such a case the greatest care should be taken to mate her with a sound-constitutioned horse ; and there would be far more chance of obtaining valuable produce by a cross with some healthy second-rate stallion than with one of the fashionable high-priced yet deli- cate sires. The malady of our climate is defective wind ; and roaring, or any noise which emanates from throat or nostrils, is com- monly attributed to breeding. That pulmonary diseases are hereditary, whether in human or animal nature, there can be no doubt, but it is just as certain that in horses contraction of nerves either in the head or throat is as frequent a cause of what is termed roaring or whistling as is pulmonary disease. Delicate nerves may be hereditary, but not in so great a degree as affections of the lungs, and both diseases may be contracted by the soundest horses through violent chills, the result of neglect. Certain formations of the head and neck are beyond doubt indicative of a tendency to these disorders, and we are equally sure that our climate is also calculated to engender them, so. that the horse-owner can hardly be over-careful in the treatment of his young stock. Breeding from roarers or whistlers cannot possibly be a good plan, though there have been exceptions even to this rule \ but as a choice between the two causes of 'noise,' there is less to fear in breeding from animals where the affection arises from tightening of the larynx than there is when the disease is pulmonary. 121 CHAPTER IX. TREATMENT OF YEARLINGS. Yearlings on the road. THE exigencies of early racing compel us to rear our horses artificially that is, to give the weaned foals and the yearlings corn to a considerable amount ; but this system should be accompanied by plenty of exercise. The young things which are fed three times a day on oats with carrots, an occa- sional dose of linseed oil, with the addition in cold weather of 122 RACING. a few old beans or peas, require to have free access to their paddocks ; they will run back to their hovels fast enough for shelter from wind or wet. If fed regularly they will eat up their corn before going out again, and thus not over-do themselves with common grass, while taking thorough exer- cise in the search for their favourite food, the white or Dutch clover, a herb which is indispensable in paddocks, and which can generally be brought up by a light sprinkling of bone- dust. The same rule applies to yearlings, except that they should be shut up and fed four times a day instead of three, and early in spring the man in charge should even tie them up during feeding-time, so as gradually and carefully to accustom them to the various treatments to which they will be subjected in their future career. When the weather gets fine about May, cavessons and lunging reins come into requisition. The yearlings should be led about the high-roads in order to accus- tom them to the sights and sound of everyday life, and it is wonderful how soon the thoroughbreds arrive at a state of comparative indifference to external objects, though of course everything depends on the gentleness, temper, and skill with which they are handled. Perhaps the less lunging that is done at home the better. Hocks are often sprung, and back- sinews strained, by slipping. Even delicacy of constitution, hereditary as it undoubtedly is, may often be counteracted or palliated by acclimatisation that is, by giving plenty of liberty to the young ones. Breeders are naturally nervous about accidents, but the soundest and most lasting horses on the turf are those that have early been taught to take care of themselves. It may indeed be an alarming sight to see from six to eight colt foals loose together in a twenty-acre paddock, for they fight like bulldogs, and many a nasty rap is inflicted ; but as a rule the master in the meadow is the champion on the course, and though occasionally a serious mishap may occur, it is remarkable how soon, and how well, they learn to take their TREATMENT OF YEARLINGS. 123 own part. No breeder followed out this plan more syste- matically than the late Count Lagrange, and that great horse Gladiateur, though the recognised ' boss ' of the Count's paddocks, carried his paddock scars throughout his turf career. Much mischief has been done by those who breed largely for sale, by feeding up horses like so many prize bullocks, on mashed roots and other soft food, and many are the com- ' They fight like bulldogs.' plaints we have all heard from trainers on this subject ; thus the home-bred colt sent up by his owner to be broken and trained in July or August is usually by far the most likely one to meet his early engagements. A yearling should be put into the trainer's hands in such condition as the young one can get himself into by natural exercise on good food, and then, should he during the winter months contract any of the ailments to which horseflesh is heir,, 124 RACING. he will suffer in a very minor degree by comparison with horses which have been fatted up for the sale yard. There is yet another sanitary arrangement, or sanitary possibility we will term it out of deference to those who sit in the seat of the scornful, to which we would draw our readers' attention. In days of yore, when some hundred horses stood in one posting stable, ready to be called out at all hours, goats were frequently kept as disinfators, and they have since been em- ployed with success in several modern racing establishments, notwithstanding the number of artificial disinfectants which have been patented during the last half-century. When a horse goes out of his stall or box, the goat, if allowed so to do, will at once go into it, often jumping into the manger, pulling down any hay which may be left in the rack, and consuming such remnants of food as can be found. The smell of the goat is an antiseptic, apparently by no means disagreeable to horses, and during the spring months, when our climate is so variable, a strong disinfectant is abso- lutely necessary ; otherwise, as soon as one occupant catches influenza or any other epidemic, it will run through the whole stable. Where forty horses are kept, two or three goats should be about the place ; it will be found that the horses like them, and that when illness does occur, the removal of the invalid may suffice to prevent contagion, or that at any rate the chance of its spreading is greatly diminished to say nothing of the well-known principle that prevention is better than cure. The advisability of keeping the Billy goats tethered in yard or paddock Master Billy himself will not be slow to inculcate if allowed to run loose like the kids or she-goats. We need not expatiate on the paramount necessity, now almost univer- sally recognised, of pure water J and clean, well- ventilated stables. Whilst on this topic we may mention drainage, for which so many theories have of late years been laid down and taken up. The system of superficial drainage commends itself as the least troublesome. But it has been frequently adopted without TREATMENT OF YEARLINGS. 125 discrimination as regards the level of the floor, and can really only be satisfactory when stables stand on high ground, so that not only all liquid but also all decomposed matter may get well swept away from the possibility of hanging about the neighbourhood of stables and creating nauseous smells which poison the air. When stables stand on level ground a system of drains must be adopted which carries away all offen- sive matter to a good distance, and by keeping these drains well flushed, and by the use of a certain quantity of liquid disinfectants, much contagious disease will be avoided which superficial drainage on a flat surface is certain sooner or later to engender. Yearlings are placed in the hands of the trainer at various times during the summer and autumn, according to the fancy of the owner, or the means at his disposition for private educa- tion. They often arrive unbitted, and ignorant of all restraint, save that of the cavesson ; and in such cases what may be called the first lesson consists in the adjusting of the breaking- bit, the greatest care being taken not to pinch the pupil's mouth, which old bits are extremely apt to do, and cause a nervousness which may never be thoroughly eradicated, and must always retard the course of tuition. After being led about for a few days, an hour and a half a day, the roller and crupper may be put on, with side reins attached to the bit, and crossed over the withers, and thus caparisoned the yearling is lunged, circling right and left alternately to prevent his mouth becoming one-sided, and to prevent his putting more strain on one leg than on the other. Some of them come to hand much quicker than others ; but taking the average, after two weeks of this practice they may be saddled, and driven with a pair of long reins, being pulled about, turned, made to back, mouthed, &c., for another fort- night ; after which mounting can be attempted, a man first leaning gently, then more heavily, and afterwards with all his weight on the saddle, so as gradually to accustom them to the pressure. This is sometimes a long and tiresome process. 126 RACING. Joseph Cannon, who for his years has had as many young ones pass through his hands as most men, says that Lord Rose- bery's Incense filly was the worst he ever had to deal with, and it was fully a month before he could get a boy on to her back ; but in the interim sacks of various weight can be substituted for the boy. Once mounted, the yearlings are led walking and jogging till they ride nicely and quietly, and the instructor feels sure that they will * go on ' when loose. This once accomplished, the rest follows with comparative ease, and as soon as they can be trusted they are trotted about in batches, wheeling in figures of eight, which is the best exercise for mouthing ; they are then allowed to break gradu- ally and naturally from trot to canter, but on no account must they ever be hurried. Real work then begins with an old one in front, and is carried on with due regard to size and engage- ments. J. Cannon (to whom we may here acknowledge our indebt- edness for these few simple rules) likes to try his yearlings twice, provided they are eating and going on well ; but there is, of course, no attempt at winding up for these early essays. His light-pressure diet consists of a feed, crushed oats and chaff not long hay at 7 A.M. ; a snack at noon, and another feed when done up at 5 P.M. This is one course less than we fancy is given by most trainers. Shy feeders must be tempted with any wholesome food which they are found to relish. Many yearlings come up calfish and sulky, and too often develop into bad-tempered ones. 'Strict, not harsh,' is the motto for the stable, a most difficult one to impress on the boys, who, full of mischief themselves, are apt to tease, and teach all manner of tricks to, their charges. Familiarity breeds contempt ; then the nip or squeeze is resented with a blow from a stick, and what was intended as veritable horse- play , may thus be converted into an act of open hostility. For the sake of Calendar convenience, all racehorses are supposed to have the same birthday, viz. January r of the year in which they are foaled ; thus, a foal may be born as TREATMENT OF YEARLINGS. 127 early or as late as he or his dam may arrange between them, and if he chooses to anticipate matters by appearing at 1 1.30 P.M. on December 31, he strikes one as the clock strikes twelve on that night ; in other words, he is to all intents and purposes born a yearling, which practically means that he is useless for racing purposes. This, however, is an extreme and exceptional case, and born as he usually is in the first four months of the year, he becomes a yearling on the following New Year's Day, Driven with a pair of long reins. a two-year-old on the one next succeeding, and it is at this age that for good or for ill his racing career may be said to begin, as, health permitting, he will surely be subjected to some sort of competitive examination. It is not our purpose here to inquire whether the early maturity necessitated by the training of two-year-olds for their engagements in March and April is or is not prejudicial to the prolongation of their turf career doctors differ on this as on most other points. Suffice it to say that, through the influence mainly of Sir Joseph Hawley, the experiment of prohibiting two-year-old racing in England before May i has been tried 128 RACING. and found wanting. Clerks of courses were dead against it, as cutting out the most attractive feature in their programmes, and breeders were hostile to a system which greatly depreciated the value of the ' early sort ' of yearlings. Admiral Rous, who was little likely to be influenced by the clamour of either of these interested factions, was at first in favour of the change ; but he subsequently made public recan- tation in ' Baily's Magazine,' giving, if we remember rightly, as the reason of his ' Apologia,' the remarkable training of Count Lagrange's horses, whose two-year-olds could only have run early in England, as, by French Jockey Club law, they are not allowed to compete in France before August i ; so that it is evident that the Count, who bred on an immense scale, was opposed both in theory and practice to the restriction in his native country. What we have now to deal with is the existing custom, and as two year-olds begin racing at Lincoln, i.e. in the week which includes March 25, an outline of how they are prepared for matriculation may be useful. We are not provided with statistics on the subject, but yearlings which are intended to be entered for early engage- ments at Lincoln, Liverpool, Northampton, &c., ought to be in the trainer's hands by the end of July, for the very sufficient reason that in these hands alone are the young ones likely to receive the management, feeding, and breaking which conduce to early maturity : for if bought later on, say at the great year- ling sales at Doncaster, nine out of ten are fatted up to such a pitch, for the double purpose of pleasing the eye and concealing defects, that when first taken in hand it is impossible to say which way they will go. Perhaps it would be nearer the mark to say that it is quite possible to predict that they will go all to pieces in the early stages of tuition, and the edifice of fat which has tumbled down has to be constructed de novo with muscle, if by good hap the foundations, i.e. the feet and joints, have strength to support the process. Under any circumstances much valuable time is lost. And herein is made manifest the TREATMENT OF YEARLINGS. 129 great advantage possessed by yearlings who are bred privately to race, against those coming from a stud which breeds to sell : the private breeder can have no object but to send up his animals hard and well, so as to know the worst or the best as soon as possible ; the public breeder must, above all things, conform to the wishes and tastes of his customers populus vult decipi, decipiatur. People want smooth, fat, round yearlings they shall be smooth, fat, and round as diet can make them ; there is always a survival of the fittest ; some of the best-constitutioned ones are sure to train on and race, and their reputation will from year to year keep up the prices of their over- fed brothers and sisters. On the other hand, the home-bred one is often half-trained before he goes into the trainer's hands at all ; but not the less is the trainer glad to have him early, so as to get well on with his education before the fat ones begin to flow in from the later sale rings. The yearling, therefore, which is destined to come out in the Brocklesby or some other early engagement, should, above all things, have the firm hard feel about his flesh which indi- cates judicious feeding and plenty of exercise ; the soft flabby ones being always backward animals, and slow to come to hand. And, without quoting the usual stanzas from the Book of Job or from Whyte Melville, we may here briefly recapitulate what are the points requisite in the racer, old or young. Imprimis good, sound, well-formed feet and legs, a strong short back, with good loins, and powerful quarters, shoulders as oblique as possible, and an honest\\Qa.& and eye no first-class racehorse ever yet had a bad eye : it should always be full and prominent. A broad flat forehead is usually considered desirable, yet the Messrs. Graham, the well-known proprietors of the Yardley stud, have been heard to declare that purchasers would do well to select yearlings with narrow foreheads, for unless a horse is more or less a fool he will never race after two years old ! Fortunatus nimium, be he purchaser or breeder, who has an animal combining the above-named qualities the training of 130 RACING. such an one is to a practical man simple enough. The system of breaking and mouthing has been previously described, and the yearling, quietly ridden in the wake of a sober schoolmaster and thoroughly accustomed to the sight of the different objects with which he will be brought into frequent contact, will, if he has been placed in good time in the trainer's hands, become as fit and handy by Christmas as an old horse. He may then be tried for speed ; but it is necessary, before this crucial test is applied, that the beginner should be thoroughly schooled and apt in the art of 'jumping off,' and how often these lessons have to be repeated depends entirely on the intelligence of the pupil, or rather on his natural capacity for learning tricks. Some yearlings seem to know almost intuitively what is required of them, and at the second or third time of asking, jump from * the mark ' like veteran ' sprinters ' ; others, again, may be ' sharpened up ' twenty times without learning the business ; fools they are born, and fools they will remain not in the sense meant by the Messrs. Graham, because they are fools enough to like racing, but because, though they have the power, they have not the sense to apply it. The regular trial, in which the merit or promise of merit in a yearling is ascertained or guessed at, usually takes place over three furlongs at weight for age with a selling plater ; and when we consider what weight for age then is, and what sell ing platers generally are, it must be admitted that the ordeal need not be of a nature to dishearten the young one. Year after year we are told of miraculous trials in which a baby has beaten a good old horse at even, or at ridiculously small weights ; but, though in rare cases there is some smattering of truth in these reports, they may for the most part be assigned to the region of un- adulterated fiction, while it may be laid down as an axiom that the impossible is never accomplished. An ounce of practice is worth a pound of precept, and the record of a few real trials will serve to show what may be ex- pected of smart young ones, for the reproach of cetas pejor avis cannot, we confidently assert, be quoted against the British racehorse. CHAPTER X. EARLY TRIALS. THE highest yearling trial which has ever come on good authority to our personal knowledge was that of General Peel's Peter, by Hermit out of Lady Masham. He was tried on Christmas Day, 1877, at 10 Ibs. with Wanderer, an old horse, and beat him a head three furlongs. In the following March he had improved 17 Ibs., as by that time he could give Wanderer 7 Ibs. It was in that month that Wanderer ran Oxonian to a head at even weights in the Buccleuch Cup at Northampton, and the next day won the Delapre Handicap, carrying top weight fair selling-plate form this ; but just at this time Peter met with an accident, and could not be brought out till Goodwood, when from Wheel of Fortune he experienced his only two-year-old defeat. His subsequent career is too well known to need repetition. T. Jennings, senior, a persistent trier of yearlings, who, weather permitting, always asks them some sort of question in December, says that the best baby he ever stripped was Ecossais, whom, through the medium of Luisette, a five-year-old filly, thoroughly trustworthy in public or private, he tried in Decem- ber 1872 to be collaterally as good at 3 stone as Prince Charlie, then in the zenith of his career. The equation is not easy to prove, but it must work out, if at all, somewhat after this fashion : At Doncaster Prince Charlie, 8 st. 10 Ibs., beat Chopette, 8 st. 7 Ibs., in the Doncaster Stakes, and probably gave her a 7 Ibs. beating. At Newmarket Second October Luisette, 7 st. K 2 132 RACING. 4 Ibs., beat Chopette, 8 st. 12 Ibs., half a length for second place to Black Stocking in a free handicap ; allow 2 Ibs. for this beat- ing, and the handicap would stand : Name Age Weight yrs. st. Ibs. Prince Charlie .... 3 8 10 Chopette ..... 3 8 o Luisette . . . . . 5 6 8 so that to complete the argument Ecossais must have been as good as Luisette at 12 Ibs. But without the actual details of the trial, which are not forthcoming, this must needs be all guesswork, and it is open to the ingenuity of students to solve the problem in some other manner, though an ex post facto argument from the running of Prince Charlie and Luisette in the Cheveley Stakes at the July Meeting, 1873, must be barred ; for Ecossais had by that time practically walked over for the New Stakes at Ascot, and for the July Stakes ; they laid six to four on for the one and six to one on for the other, and he won each time in a hack canter. It is beyond dispute that, though Ecossais could not stay, he ripened into one of the fastest sprinters of his time, and was a member of the famous tri-equirate Trappist and Lollypop were the other two who, under the guidance of Archer, Cus- tance, and J. Goater, used to go about the country taking each other's numbers down to the alternate joy and despair of their respective admirers. It was not entirely a dummy rubber ; for Lowlander had speed enough to enable him every now and then to cut in with such first-class company, though seven furlongs or a mile was perhaps his best course ; and it was just before a brush with this horse at Newmarket, wherein Ecossais showed himself really in form, that, in the middle of September 1876, Chamant, then two years old, was tried with him at 10 Ibs., and beat him by six lengths ! After this Jennings must have been able to look on with calm assurance at the races for the Middle Park and Dewhurst Plates. EARLY TRIALS. 133 The roll of two-year-old trials may well begin with one which took place on Langton Wold on July 2, 1862, as it is curious to compare the relative merits of eminent matrons when in their frisky youth. T. Y. C. A II two years old. Name Weight Jockey Place st. Ibs. Old Orange Girl . 8 10 Spencer First Laura 8 10 Clift Second Queen Bertha . . 8 10 Basham Third Fantail .... 8 10 W. Oran Fourth Won easily by a length : three lengths between second and third ; Fantail beaten off. Mr. Bowes, Mr. Padwick, Lord Falmouth, and Mr. Perry, who then raced in the name of his trainer Boyce, were here represented. None of these young ones had a great two-year-old record : Old Orange Girl winning twice at that age, Laura and Queen Bertha once each, and Fantail not at all ; it is the fame of the progeny of two of them which lends such historic interest to this trial. Queen Bertha became the most celebrated of the quartet, as winner of the Oaks, as second in the Leger, and as having, moreover, left such a mark in the Stud Book as few other mares can boast ; she being the dam of Gertrude (who gave birth to Charibert) by Saunterer ; of Paladin by FitzRoland ; of Spinaway by Macaroni ; of Wheel of Fortune by Adventurer ; of Grand Master by Kingcraft, besides other minor celebrities, and it has been calculated, though we have not seen the statistics, and do not vouch for their accuracy, that Queen Bertha and her descendants have up to the pre- sent time won considerably over ioo,ooo/. in stakes. If Old Orange Girl was faster in this first essay than her two cele- brated contemporaries, it was the only time she ever proved herself in any way superior to either of them. The one i 3 4 RACING. remarkable thing she accomplished on the turf was winning the Bentinck Memorial at Goodwood three years in succession, thereby securing the bonus which then attached to this three- fold victory. At the stud the best animal she ever bred is probably Twine the Plaiden, whose name, if it is to live in history at all, will be remembered as Jacobite's dam, rather than for any intrinsic merit in its possessor. 1 Laura's solitary success at three years was when, as the property of Lord Westmorland, she won the March Stakes at Goodwood, in those days a great ' getting home J race ; Mr. Thellusson put in a claim for her, and she went to the stud in the following year, so that her fame rests solely upon the mighty deeds of her descendants. Of these Petrarch is of course the most illustrious, as the winner of the Two Thousand, Leger, and Ascot Cup, and in these latter days as the sire of The Bard ; but Protomartyr, Lemnos, Fraulein, Laureate, and Rotherhill, who disputes with The Rover the paternity of St. Gatien, are all children of which any mother may be reasonably proud. Fantail, who was so far beaten on that morning in July, was, next to Queen Bertha, the best performer of the lot in public, for at three years old she won such stakes as the Grand Duke Michael at Newmarket, the Nassau at Goodwood, the Park Hill at Doncaster, the Wothorpe Biennial at Stamford, and the Coffee Room again at Newmarket ; while at four years she won the Tradesman's Plate at Derby ; so that this trial furnishes a signal instance of two young ladies who subse- quently took rapid remove into a higher class, while their schoolfellows, who were originally in front of them, stood still. Fantail, covered by Asteroid, was sold in 1868 to go to Austria, and we know not what there befell her. Few more celebrated mares have trod the turf than Achievement in her day alas ! that it should be only ' in her 1 Nevertheless, when sold in the Houghton week of 1885 with the rest of the late Mr. Bowes's stud, she realised 1,2507., her c. foal by Isonomy 5oo/., and Jacobite 2,2507. EARLY TRIALS. 135 day,' and that she should not have transmitted her merits even through a single descendant. Colonel, now General, Pearson, her owner, liked to know the best or the worst of them at home. ' Let them learn what the prickers mean,' he would say, though he betted, if at all, on a small scale ; and in March, 1866, he and Mr. Sutton l tried Achievement at 10 Ibs. with a seven-year-old mare called Gri- sette, half a mile and a hundred yards, when the young one won in a canter by six lengths ; and on the Tuesday in the Craven Meeting she met her first engagement, the Beacon Stakes, over the last half mile of the B.C. ' What a certainty ! The best two-year-old I ever tried in my life,' said Mr. Sutton, as the mare, not half extended, swept past the post two lengths in front of Verulam ; a remark made to himself in the excitement of the moment (for Mr. Sutton used to put it down heavily when he fancied them) but which was not lost on at least one bystander, who never failed to follow the mare throughout the whole of that wonderful year wherein she ran thirteen times, beating such horses as Hermit, Friponnier, Marksman, and all that was most gilded of the equine youth of the day, being beaten herself only twice, once when in the Clearwell Stakes she attempted to give 4 Ibs. to Plaudit, and with 9 st. 3 Ibs. on her succumbed by a head, and the second time when, in the Middle Park Plate, The Rake avenged for Mr. Pryor the defeats of Friponnier, Verulam, &c., the mare giving 5 Ibs. and going down by two lengths. In fact, she and The Rake must have been as nearly as possible the same animal. General Pearson was a strong man with strong views on most subjects, but his theory of breeding was so awful in its simplicity that it may well be here quoted. He was wont to say, ' By the winner of the Leger out of the winner of the Oaks that's the proper pedigree for a racehorse ! ' But we may be permitted to drop back a year or two in order to register the first rehearsals of Lord Lyon, Achievement's 1 This was the only private trial Achievement ever had. 156 RACING. famous forerunner in that almost invincible East Ilsley stable, then, as now, presided over by James Dover. On September 10, 1864, the Saturday before Doncaster, Lord Lyon, then a yearling, was tried thus five furlongs over a severe course. Name Age Weight Place yrs. st. Ibs. Jezabel .... 2 8 10 First Lord Lyon . . . 1 8 3 Second Won by a head. That this was a tremendous performance for a yearling at that time of year Jezabel's public form will show. She had beaten a field of fourteen or fifteen in the Biennial at Bath, and, ridden by Thomas, she had come in first for the Coventry Stakes at Worcester, Lord Coventry's filly Prosperity, with Jemmy Adams up, being second. It was on this occasion that Jezabel was the cause of as much mischief and ill-feeling as could have been expected from that ominous name ; for, to quote the words of the ' Racing Calendar/ ' At the scale Adams objected to the winner on the ground of foul riding, and after hearing the case the Stewards gave the following decision : " We are of opinion that the rider of Jezabel cannoned against Prosperity, and prevented her from winning by squeezing her against the rails. Pro- sperity is therefore the winner of the Coventry Stakes. "(Signed) H. Rous, "STAMFORD AND WARRINGTON. " (Acting for Lord Westmorland.) " ' No provincial stewards these, unversed in the law and custom of racing, but two of the most conspicuous men then on the turf, and a verdict from them might well have been accepted as showing the entirely conclusive nature of the evidence ; yet for some reason or another the public were not satisfied. They took it into their heads that favouritism had been EARLY TRIALS. 137 shown, and when Lord Coventry's drag, loaded as usual with his racing friends, left the course the roughs assembled and hooted most vigorously. Lord Coventry, who up to that time had for some years been the chief patron of the meeting, was so disgusted with the brutality and injustice of this proceeding, that he in a great measure, if not entirely, discontinued his support, and Worcester steadily declined both in the character of attendance and sport, though it was some time before it attained the sort of ' thieves' kitchen ' reputation which it has lately gained. May we be pardoned this digression for the purpose of proving that it was with no mean antagonist that the infant Lord Lyon performed his first feat of arms ? He does not appear to have been stripped again till April 29, 1865, when the following trial took place. Half a mile. Name Age Weight Place yrs. st. Ibs. Rustic 2 8 o First Grisette .... 6 9 7 Second Lord Lyon . . . 2 8 o Third Tinder .... 2 6 7 Fourth Ironclad . . . 2 6 7 Fifth Won by a neck, a length between second and third, the others beaten off. That same night Lord Lyon went amiss ; but there is every reason to suppose that the late Sir R. Sutton thought Rustic was actually the better of the two at this time, and also when he sold the latter to the Duke of Beaufort, though there was much chaff about his Grace having purchased the Ilsley second string. Later in the year came the two trials, on the extraordinary merit of which we shall have occasion to dilate when dealing with the home performances of three-year-olds. On August 3, at three-quarters of a mile, Lord Lyon gave a real taste of his quality, as follows : 138 RACING. TJiree-quarters of a mile. Name Age Weight Place yrs. st. Ibs. Lord Lyon . . . 2 8 o First Gardevisure . . 3 9 4 Second Grisette .... 6 8 6 Third Won in a canter by seven lengths, two lengths between second and third. And again, on August 17, this was something more than confirmed by the following trial : Three-quarters of a mile. Name Age Weight Place yrs. st. Ibs. Lord Lyon . . . 2 8 7 First Gardevisure . . . o 9 3 Second Grisette . i 6 8 o Third Won in a canter by three lengths, half a length between second and third. On each of these occasions Gardevisure went the fastest for half a mile, and the farther they went the farther Lord Lyon would have won. The trial as a yearling of this same filly Gardevisure, General Pearson considers the best performance at that age he ever witnessed. She was tried three furlongs at level weights with Jezabel, also a yearling ; there were four other horses in with them, and Gardevisure won in a common canter by seven lengths. So impressed was the General with this performance, that he turned to his confederate Mr. Sutton with the remark, 'Dick, this mare will win you io,ooo/. J 'What's the use of io,ooo/. to me?' was the reply. ' I owe 30,0007. in one sum.' However, the mare was better than the General's promise, and in the long run won a larger amount than he had predicted for Mr. Sutton, who, at the time he gave up owning horses, must have been a very considerable gainer by his turf transactions. EARLY TRIALS. 139 None of the Rothschild two-year-olds seem ever to have beaten the private record of North Lincoln, who was tried before the Criterion of 1858, at even weights with Mentmore, four years, and to give no less than 3 st. to Sichoeus, another four-year-old, and the same weight to Bastion, two years ; the latter was ' chucked in ' so as to win the trial nevertheless North Lincoln won cleverly by a length. Immense was the excitement of the party over this spin, the object of which was to ascertain if they could turn the tables upon W. Day's Promised Land, who, in receipt of 5 Ibs. at Goodwood in the Findon Stakes, had beaten North Lincoln very easily by two lengths, when the plungers of the day laid 6 and 7 to 4 unweariedly on the Baron's colt. Now in the forthcoming engagement ' at the top of the town,' the two horses had to meet at 3 Ibs., or a difference of 2 Ibs. only in favour of the Baron. There was difference enough in the form, for North Lincoln won easily by a length, and down went the plungers again, who this time, fortified by study of the book, did not hesitate to lay n to 8 on Promised Land. Throughout his career Favonius invariably showed himself better than his two celebrated stable companions Hannah and Corisande ; as a yearling he beat them both by three lengths ; as a two-year-old, during the first Spring Meeting of 1870, he was tried to give the same fair ladies 10 Ibs. a-piece, a feat which he accomplished by two lengths. Taken to Ascot, to make his bow to the public in the New Stakes, he went amiss immediately on arrival. How great a certainty the race would have been for him Corisande lost no time in demonstrating, as she ran as his substitute and won easily. He never ran as a two-year-old ; of his capabilities at three years we shall hereafter treat. Kisber, in the same stable, is an instance of a bad begin- ning making a good ending, for he was tried as a two-year-old during the July Meeting of 1875 with a wretched four-year-old plater called Beaconsfield, and succumbed by half a length. He does not appear to have been stripped again till the 140 RACING. autumn, when he was asked to give 21 Ibs. to a two-year-old filly by Scottish Chief out of Gong, the property of Sir A. de Rothschild, and having done this easily by several lengths, he was started for the Middle Park Plate, and installed second favourite ; though the bookmakers astonished themselves and their customers by the unusually liberal offer of 10 to i bar one, Lollypop being a red-hot favourite at 2 to i. Petrarch, as all the world knows, won in a canter, and the Mineral colt was nowhere, to the disgust of the Hayhoeites ; for the Gong filly had, during the First October Meeting, shown a little bit of form by beating Mr. Mitchell Innes's Goddess in a small sweepstake over the last half-mile of the B.C., and this she confirmed by running third to Kaleidoscope and Enguerrande in the Prendergast. Accordingly Kisber was again tried with her on the same terms, and repeated the dose as before, and in the Houghton Meeting he rewarded his adherents for their faith by winning the Dewhurst Plate, for which he started once more at the remunerative price of 10 to i, beating besides ten others the redoubtable Springfield, in whose two-year-old career a fluky head defeat by Clanronald had been the sole previous reverse. It may be opportune here to contrast the modern with the comparatively ancient system of trying young ones. In 1866 Mr. Sutton considered that a two-year-old filly had done an extraordinary thing in private, because she had galloped away from an old plater at 7 Ibs. In 1879, Mr - R- Pec k tried Bend Or fully a stone better than Douranee, who was then in the full swing of success and carrying all before her, and she won the Exeter Stakes the day before Bend Or scored his maiden victory in the Chesterfield Stakes in the Newmarket July week. He, as we all know, was never beaten as a two-year-old. Again in May 1885, before Saraband won his fiist race at Kempton Park, Mr. Peck tried him better at even weights than such a useful handicap horse as Modred, five-year-old, while in the autumn of the same year, before the Middle Park Plate, Saraband beat very easily at 10 Ibs. Montr oyd, who, at any rate EARLY TRIALS. 141 in the estimation of handicappers, was right up at the top of the handicap tree ; yet Saraband could only get third in the great race. These two, Mr. Peck says, were the best two-year-olds he ever tried no small saying if we remember that one of them had The Bard for a stable companion to phrase it more exactly, they were companions in confederate stables and surely there seems to be a marked tendency to increase the severity of competitive examinations during the past fifteen years. Oceanic from T. Jennings's stable was another real rlyer. Her first three engagements as a two-year-old were the Newmarket Spring Plate, the Epsom two -year-old Plate, and the New Stakes at Ascot. These she won in a common canter; and after Ascot, as she was entered with her stable companion Phenix in the July Cup, wherein they had Trappist and Hackthorpe to meet, a trial between Count de Lagrange's pair was deemed advisable. On June 29, three days before the commencement of the July meeting, they were galloped with Dora and Tafna as follows : Six furlongs. Name Age Weight Jockey Place yrs. st. Ibs. Oceanic . . 2 7 12 R. Morris First Phenix . . . 4 9 o J. Goater Second Dora . . . 2 7 12 Third Tafna . . . 2 5 12 Fourth Won easily by six lengths, ten lengths between second and third, ten lengths third and fourth. This easy victory, be it remembered, was achieved at 16 Ibs., over a four-year-old no less redoubtable than Phenix, the winner of the Rous Memorial at Ascot, and the hero of that historical riot at Epsom, where the mob, infuriated at his defeat by Paul's Cray, proposed to lynch both Jennings and J. Goater. They caught a Tartar, though, in old Tom, who knocked over 142 RACING, two or three of the foremost ruffians, and made good his retreat to the weighing paddock, while Goater and Phenix were escorted thither by a body of friends and police. Then, after the rider had passed the scale, there uprose a pigmy jockey, a second David, ready for a fight with the many-headed Philis- tine, and said, ' Come on, Jem ; trust yourself to me, and /'// see you safe off the course ! ' There were only some two or three thousand of the greatest scum of the earth howling for blood. Offer declined with thanks. To return to the mimic warfare of the trial ground. The two two-year-olds of whom Oceanie thus easily disposed were by no means to be despised. They were not selling platers. Tafna had won the Lincoln Cup, and subsequently won the Grand Criterium at Dieppe, and Dora in the autumn was second for the Criterion, beaten a head by Prestonpans, and third in the Dewhurst Plate to Grace Cup and Ambassadress. So Jennings was left fully master of the position, for the ground on the July course was very deep that year, and Oceanie, being no easy mare for a boy to ride (she was a desperately hard puller), Phenix was substituted for her in the Cup, which he won easily by a length, and gave a further taste of his quality on the Thursday when he defeated Silvio by a head at 2 Ibs. in the Bunbury Stakes. It was then intended to reserve Oceanie for her autumn engagements ; these, however, she was unable to fulfil, owing to an accident which occurred to her on the Heath, and which seems to have marred her future career, for she ran but once at three years under rather curious circumstances. It was for the All-aged Stakes in the Newmarket Houghton, 1880. Douranee and Hackthorpe were the other runners. The French mare looked unfit and rough in her coat ; she had, moreover, as much iron as her mouth would hold in the way of snaffle and gag, as it was supposed she would do something dreadful on her way to the post ; so she started at four to one, while six to four was taken about each of the others. Goater EARLY TRIALS, 143 got her down to the Bretby Stakes post right enough, and when the flag fell, held a wide berth on the whip hand and let her do as she pleased, and what she pleased to do was to win anyhow. Her sole effort as a four-year-old, when she met Charibert at Ascot, was not crowned with success. Let us go on to some two-year-old trials where the early promise may not have been so brilliant, but where subsequent performance more than redeemed it. In March 1880 Althotas and ^Enone were tried at weight for age with Sutler, and Sutler won rather easily, yet Althotas was only just beaten by Wandering Nun for the Brocklesby, and he won the Althorp Park Stakes at Northamp- ton ; while yEnone was successful the first four times of asking, at Ipswich, Newmarket, and Sandown. Neither of this pair was quite first-class ; for Sutler was by no means a speedy horse, and the young ones should have beaten him, his best course being probably a mile. However, they both trained on, and oddly enough both won the Spencer Plate, /Enone as a three, and Althotas as a four-year-old. Belle Lurette again, tried with Sutler and a speedy mare called Grace, a five-year-old (a winner of many short-distance races) at weight for age, beat them both two or three lengths, and she won the Brocklesby easily enough ; but Convert, who was second to her, and also second best (which is by no means the same thing), had, if we rightly remember, been tried with and just beaten a horrible four-year-old called Topsy, who is still, for aught we know, * dreeing her weird ' over hurdles at Chandler's Ford and suchlike places. On the occasion when Mr. Craven actually carried off the Brocklesby, his trial was of a very different nature, for he asked Lucy Ashton to beat Rosie at 18 Ibs. (Rosie being a six-year-old mare, who that season won several handicaps in good company), and Lucy answered the question. When tried just before Epsom Summer 1884 for the Acorn Stakes (in which she split both her pasterns), she just did Rosie at even weights. As the season advances there is no better trying 144 RACING. tackle than another young one whose form has been clearly proved in public. Thus Sir J. Willoughby's Queen Adelaide, when tried for the July Stakes 1883, gave 16 Ibs. or 18 Ibs. to another two-year-old, Lord Byron, who was good enough to win during the previous week the valuable Hurstbourne Stakes at Stockbridge. In this case there were, as there should always be, one or two old ones in to check the trial. Though tried much later in the year in the month of August St. Louis could give Grace 7 Ibs. and a good beating, whereas Althotas was always a stone behind Grace, therefore Althotas must have been some 10 Ibs. worse than St. Louis, who could moreover give a stone to the redoubtable Foxhall ; and though somewhat travelling out of the record of two- year-old trials, we may here mention, in confirmation of his juvenile form that St. Louis could at three years give 10 Ibs. to an old horse like Elf King, and 2 stone 7 Ibs. to Don Fulano, a contemporary, who ran third for the Two Thousand. It was, in fact, in this trial that the fatal splint was developed which effectually prevented St. Louis from ever displaying this excellence in public ; thus the inference is fair and clear, that had he been a thoroughly sound horse, and could have been got ready by Lincoln, nothing would have beaten him throughout the season. And it may be laid down as a general rule, that if a two-year-old in the month of March can get in front of a good selling plater at iclbs. or a stone, he will win most of his early engagements, and in all likelihood go on half-way through the year, or almost up to Ascot, at which time, if in, or about, the first class, the youngster will be expected to give a selling plater a stone. Petticoat, who won the Brocklesby easily, and the Lincoln Cup on the following day, could, when tried before that meeting, only just beat Pretty Dance, a common plater, at 10 Ibs., and yet her party fancied her, and backed her accord- ingly. The Bard again is a case in point. Report saith that he was tried at 10 Ibs. with Kirk o' Field and beat her easily. Whether report is right or not, though it is not imposing a great EARLY TRIALS. 145 tax on our credulity, what is quite certain is that The Bard's owners had underrated the merits of the performance, whatever it may have been, and it was , not till they had seen him canter home for the Brocklesby that they realised how good an animal they had. As a two-year-old he was never beaten, starting for and winning no fewer than sixteen races ; it is, indeed, impossible to say whether he was ever thoroughly extended ; for, though it was thought that Cissy stretched his neck at Sandown, Archer says that the race was never in doubt. We may conclude this subject by saying that the later and best two-year-old of any year, the winner of the Middle Park Plate for instance, is generally about 2 stone in front of the good early form. Weight for age is the basis of trials with old horses. A thre'e-year-old some 2 st. 7 Ibs. ' worse than his year,' as it is technically termed, is as good a trial horse in the beginning of the year as need be required. At weight for age he would be called upon to give a two-year-old in March 2 st. 2 Ibs. over five furlongs ; then, calculating that the spring winning form is 2 stone worse than the autumn, and taking into consideration the difference of weight for age in October as against March, the two-year-old and three-year-old should be tried at 17 Ibs., the handicap coming out thus : st. Ibs. Best three-year-old of year . . .100 Trial three-year-old 77 Best two-year-old form . . . .84 Spring two-year-old form . . .64 Bad policy as it is to dogmatise about anything connected with racing, it may be taken as a rule that fillies come to hand earlier than colts, and are perhaps the most trustworthy during their two-year-old career, as they are not so apt to turn jades and cowards. Storm Light indeed furnishes a striking modern exception; for, after winning the Maiden Plate at Ascot 1885 in a canter on the Tuesday, she positively refused to try a yard in the Windsor Castle Stakes on the Friday. Still we maintain that she is the exception ; but at three years old, beware of L I 4 6 RACING. fillies ; however highly tried in private, they are never worth backing for money till they have given indisputable proof in public that they retain their early form. Of this we have a striking example in Queen Adelaide, whose youthful fame has been sadly tarnished by her subsequent refusal to race in public, and yet there is every reason to sup- pose that, in training parlance, * she can do what she likes at home.' As a typical illustration of a two-year-old trial and its subse- quent confirmation before the Newmarket examiners, we subjoin a story from the pages of a number of ' The World ' of some few years ago. THE LOP-EARED COLT. IN TWO GALLOPS. GALLOP I. A COLD, wet, raw morning in early autumn, and nowhere colder, wetter, or more raw than on the Hampshire Downs. Just now, though, matters seem mending rapidly. The rain has ceased, the dense, heavy atmosphere is clearing, and I can see nearly the whole glacis-like range of Cloister Hill. I am standing by a cross, rudely and deeply cut in the turf ; maybe some shepherd's landmark, or perchance a gipsy's patran. The spell of the South Downs is upon me, and I watch with absorbed interest the mist wreaths curling up the combes, and gathering themselves together en masse on the highest crest of the hill, as though uncertain whether they shall disperse altogether from before the face of their enemy, the Sun-god, or whether they shall roll down upon me in a final charge, a last effort for the possession of the uplands. Now the air becomes suddenly luminous, as it seems to me the air never does elsewhere ; then the sun gleams fitfully forth, and the swift shadows begin to chase each other over the stubble far below me, across the valley, and up the juniper- studded side of the opposite hill. EARLY TRIALS. 147 What a delicious warmth has succeeded to the death-like chill of a few moments ago, and with what a torrent of song are the larks proclaiming their conviction that it is very good to be alive ! Then I fall to wondering why it is that nowadays one hardly ever hears a lark except on the Downs. A muffled sound as of blows rapidly dealt on the thick dripping turf; a sound dull and distant at first, but becoming momentarily more distinct ; the quadrupedum sonitus strikes my ear ; and see ! here they come, breasting the sharp incline one, two, three, four : what a pace they are going ! When . they get within a hundred yards of my position, three right arms rise simultaneously high in air, and three out of four riders set-to desperately ; the fourth sits motionless, and, for a few strides, keeps alongside his companions, and then a long- legged, ungainly, lop-eared colt gallops clean away from the rest of the party, manifestly increasing his lead as they pass me, and as the ascent becomes steeper. A furlong or two off I see them pull up, turn round and stand still for a few seconds ; then they come sauntering back in their tracks, preceded by two men on foot conversing earnestly. As they approach I catch the words, * The old one at even weights ! I couldn't have believed it ; and yet it's true, sir, true as I'm standing here ! ' Then after exchanging a cheery greeting with the poor invalid who comes so often for his stroll on their training grounds, they opine that the young ones have had a rousing gallop, express a confident hope that the day has now cleared up for good, and pass slowly on. Now come the horses, and I scan them curiously as they defile past me. The leader of the small string, evidently the ' old one ' referred to, slouches sulkily along ; his head is hang- ing down, and on his streaming flanks have arisen one or two lumps from which the red drops are oozing. I can almost fancy I hear him saying to himself, ' After all the pretty pupils I have dressed over this year, to be cut to ribbons by this three- cornered beggar is enough to make me swear never to try L 2 148 RACING. again.' He is followed by the three-cornered beggar. From him, too, the sweat is pouring, but never a spur mark shows on his side, and he looks round him with a half-bewildered, half- satisfied air, as who should say, ' What does it all mean ? and why does the " old one " look so astonished ? Does he think no horse can gallop but himself? ' The other youngsters lag behind, leg-weary and blown. They seem, now that my imagination is aroused, almost to realise their defeat and its consequences, to look forward with dread Slouches sulkily along. to their own too probable fate of slavery in the cab-rank, and with envy to the more brilliant future of their unprepossessing comrade. Gradually they disappear down the hill-side, and for an hour or more I wander alone, drinking in the fresh pure air for this is what the doctor orders and feasting my eyes on what to me is the loveliest scenery in the world. Strange how my mind keeps reverting to that lop-eared colt. I fancy I should know him again anywhere, and as I step into the pony-carriage which awaits me under the chestnut-trees at the foot of the EARLY TRIALS. 149 Down, I laugh to find myself repeating the mystic words, * The old one at even weights ! I couldn't have believed it.' GALLOP II. A still, hot, delicious afternoon at Newmarket, so hot that there is a quivering haze in the air, which makes it what racing men call a had day for glasses ; glasses will, however, be much in request anon, for the horses are going to the post for one of the chief two-year-old events of the autumn. The doctor still orders me full doses of fresh air, and the article to be obtained on the Heath is unexceptionable both in point of quantity and quality. So I bask in the sun, leaning against one of the Stand pillars, and watch with some amuse- ment the white, sad face of a young friend who has been recently confiding to me the extent of his pecuniary embarrass- ments, and the remoteness of his chance of settling on Monday if this meeting 'comes off crabs,' as he assures me with unnecessary asseverations has been the case up to the present moment. I have been giving him good advice too, as to the necessity of immediate reform and retrenchment in his style of betting and general habits of living. He seemed to listen with some attention. Can it be that he sees the error of his ways ? Not just at present, if I may judge from the anxious air with which he keeps gazing at the starting-post, where the white flag is not yet hoisted, as if he would like to have it over and know the worst at once. But apart from the study of my fellow-creatures, I really feel that I have a personal interest in this race. A few minutes ago I was strolling about in the Birdcage, looking at the comely forms of some of the competitors, when my attention was suddenly arrested by a lean ugly head with lop-ears, pro- truding from one of the saddling-stalls. I looked again ; yes, there was no mistaking that loose-made ungainly colt, with the quaint, wistful expression of countenance once seen never to be forgotten. Here was the ' three-cornered beggar ' of the Hampshire Downs. 150 RACING. He did not seem to attract much notice, for except his own attendants, who were engaged in saddling him, no one appeared to trouble his head about him. At that moment there passed one of my friends, who is remarkable for two things the immense extent of his acquaintance with trainers, head-lads, stable-boys, and the hangers-on generally of racing stables ; and his persistent ill-success in backing horses. Pointing to the colt, I asked if he could tell me his name. One glance at the boy then busy with the girths, and another at his card, was enough. ' Oh, yes,' he replied, * that's the Ugly Duckling by the Drake out of Leda, bred and trained down in your part of the world, old boy, and it don't seem to have done him much more good than it has you ! ' with which encouraging remark the punter strolled away to the ring and his fate. So it comes to pass that I feel unusually excited, and listen with more attention than is my wont to the shouts of the book- makers, who wax more and more energetic as the hands of the blue-faced clock draw close to the starting-time. * Two to one on the field ! ' * Six to one, bar one ! ' There is evidently a red-hot favourite. 'St. Just by Aristides out of the Abbess, one of the best Old Tom ever tried, and he's put some smart ones through the mill,' says a man at my elbow in answer to my question what it is they are taking such a short price about. Then the cry is heard : ' Any odds agen some of these here outsiders ! Twenty ponies, the Ugly Doockling ; a hundred to five the Doockling ! ' But I notice these offers cease as a tall handsome man, whom I recognise as one of the two who were on the Downs that memorable morning, strolls slowly along the rails, making frequent entries in his betting- book as he goes. I seldom bet, chiefly because I hate losing ; but now I feel sorely tempted to back what I mentally call ' my horse.' Shall I have a bit on ? I must and will. So 1 hasten to a well-known bookmaker and inquire, ' How much that Duck- ling?' EARLY TRIALS. 151 ' A thousand to seventy twice to you, sir/ replies Mr. Bes- semer, promptly, evidently no more hundreds to five to be had. The man of the Downs a passe par la ; so I answer : ' A hundred to seven, once, if you please.' ' Thank you, sir,' replies the great man, touching his hat as deferentially as if I were his most constant and opulent, instead of his most casual and impecunious, customer. This most important transaction being duly registered, I once more return to my post of observation, and notice that the white flag has just been hoisted. Mr. McGeorge does not keep us long in suspense. One trifling breakaway, the two or three offenders get back as fast as they can, and turning their horses' heads as they come into line again, down goes the flag to a first-rate start. There is a pace, and no mistake, from the beginning ; and I can see that the favourite with the blue jacket has got well off ridden by one of the best and sharpest jockeys of the day, he was not likely to be left behind ; and I see also that my Duckling, though bestridden by a ' chalk ' neophyte (a stable- lad, I fancy), is either by luck, or good guidance, right amongst the leaders. For a second or two my view is intercepted by the heads of those around me ; and when I next get a full sight of the horses, they are descending into the Abingdon Mile Bottom. Steady and still sits the rider of the favourite, a length in front of everything, and a murmur arises from the ranks of the backers : ' St. Just wins anyhow ! ' Of the rest the cherry jacket and white cap on my Duckling show as promi- nently as anything, when 'Ah, just what I expected ; those stable-lads can't sit still ! ' and the boy gets up his whip and begins to treat the public to his finish. Well, my banker will be a poorer if not a wiser man, by seven pounds, and perhaps I shall know better than to back horses with stable-boys up. But what do I hear ? 'I'll take three to one the Duckling the Ugly Duckling wins ; I'll take very little odds ! ' Up go my glasses again ; there is no doubt about it, the 152 RACING. favourite's jockey is riding in grim earnest, and the outsider, regardless of a whipping and a spurring which would stop most horses, is coming up hand over hand, racing from sheer love of the game. Fifty yards from home they are level, and for the next few strides no one can say which has the best of it ; then somehow the lean ugly head and lop- ears get in front and remain there ; and Mr. Clark's verdict is, ' The Ugly Duckling by half a neck cleverly.' All's well that ends well, and people are not found wanting who say the boy rode splendidly. May Heaven forgive them ! The fielders are not quite so jubilant as I should have expected them to be ; but I find on subsequent inquiry that very few of them have missed the winner. The man of the Downs does not seem to have missed his opportunity. My pallid friend comes up to me ; he has rather more colour in his cheeks now, but is trembling a little as he thanks me for my good advice. What does he mean ? he can hardly have had time to elaborate, still less to practise, any very extensive or trustworthy scheme of reform. Nevertheless I feel flattered, and muttering to myself something about a word in season, I march triumphantly to the Birdcage to have one more look at the Duckling. Ay, there he is, blown certainly how could he be other- wise after such unassisted exertion ? Nor is he any longer ignorant of what the spur means, for his jockey has let him have it in the most impartial manner, and with sufficient length of limb would probably have stabbed him in the eye ; but the horse's countenance still bears the same calm, satisfied, and now I think amused expression ; indeed, as he is led away, I almost fancy I see him wink at his tall owner, who has been watching the re-clothing with an air of affectionate interest. To the man of the Downs comes one, apparently on terms of intimacy, who says ' My dear fellow, how could you risk such a chance by putting up that misguided youth ? D d if he didn't get his whip up half a mile from home.' 'What could I do?' replies the other; ' the best jockeys EARLY TRIALS. 153 were all engaged ; this little chap rides fairly enough at home, and I trusted the whole business to the Duckling ; I was sure he could stay, that sort never turns it up, and he had made the old one lie down at even weights.' I shall not be surprised if another season sees the Ugly Duckling turn into a bird of very fair plumage, and much power of wing. 154 RACING. CHAPTER XL THREE-YEAR-OLDS. IT is obvious that the training of horses of three years and upwards must often of necessity involve a large divergence from the system pursued in the preparation of two-year-olds, and afford even more scope to the trainer's art, owing to the greater variety of courses over which the elder animals are called upon to contend. It is true that the ' sixpenny five-furlong races ' are the staple commodity of all race meetings, and will continue so to be unless the Jockey Club is prepared enormously to curtail the number of meetings, and thereby to run the risk of such an outburst of popular indignation as can be evoked by a whole- sale attack on large vested interests. But the fact remains, that two races per diem of a mile and upwards are a legal obligation in each day's racing, so that without taking into account the Two Thousand, Derby, Oaks, Leger, the Cups, and other so-called classic races, where considerable distance of ground has to be compassed, a number of minor events come off every week between March and November, for which a severer discipline than that enforced on the sprinter is requisite. There never was and there never will be a rule of thumb whereby horses can be trained for any course long or short, though our forefathers appear to have imagined that a prepara- tion as cruel as their system of heats, or as the distances over which those heats were run, was the sine qua non of success. Luckily for their horses there were very few meetings in those days, which have passed away never to return ; and THREE- YEAR-OLDS. 1 55 no writer on the subject of training would now venture to do more than sketch the merest outline of operations to be pursued in getting a horse ready for such an event as the Derby. The present writer has certainly no intention of dogmatising on this theme. Suffice it to say that, supposing at the end of his two-year-old season a horse is considered to be of suffici- ently good class to have even the remotest of outside chances for the Derby, and supposing him also to be sound and in good health, he would in all probability never be stopped in his work at all, but would (weather of course permitting) continue steadily on throughout the winter at such exercise as would have the effect of keeping him clean in his inside, while on the soft ground his action would materially improve ; but that exercise would not exceed two or three canters daily at some- thing less than half-speed. As the advancing season and the approach of the event necessitates work of a more serious character, the nature of that work must (and it cannot be too often repeated) depend entirely upon the quality of the material, i.e. the constitution of the horse which the trainer has to deal with. To the man who knows his business the words ' orthodox preparation ' have no meaning whatever ; work there must un- doubtedly be and plenty of it, but as to length and severity of gallops and their frequency, he can only be guided by what his knowledge as a stableman tells him the animal under his charge is or is not capable of doing. A gross horse with strong constitution may, probably will, require long fast gallops two or three times a week, with several sharp canters daily on the alternate days ; but these horses are of the ' angel's visit ' breed, and much rarer than trainers were wont, or as the general public still are accustomed, to believe. One of- the training traditions which lingered longest, viz. that a horse must more or less frequently gallop the distance over which he has to travel in the actual race, is, we believe, no longer a distinct article of faith with the training fraternity. We can at any rate call to mind one very striking example of the upsetting of this theory, the case of Corrie Roy, who before 156 RACING. she won the Cesare witch did but one two-mile gallop through- out the whole of her preparation, which gallop so completely upset her that the experiment was never repeated, and she was thenceforth restricted to gallops across the Fiat, a mile and a quarter, an indulgence which proved a sad stumbling-block and rock of offence to some of her stable connections, who would not back her for the long handicap, arguing with apparent plausibility that a mare trained only over a mile and a quarter could not be expected to win what is always a strong run race over two miles and a quarter. Here came out the knowledge of the stableman ; had Sherrard persevered on the old lines, and continued the two-mile gallops for the sake of custom and tradition, he would have ruined his mare, and Chippendale would have won the Cesarewitch for the second time ; in the end, as we know, the man of practice was right and the theorists wrong. To give another instance from the same stable. Our John had been engaged solely in leading two-year-olds five-furlong work before he was sent to York to run in the Queen's Plate, in which Victor Emmanuel, then in his best form, only just beat him a head. Our John then passed into other hands, when he was regularly trained for long races, yet he never improved on that York performance, never, if we remember rightly, was so good a horse. Hampton is another case in point. Though he won many long-distance races, he was, we have good reason for believing, never asked to do more than mile work during his preparation for these events, and even less than a mile was sometimes con- sidered sufficient ; yet when the pinch came he never failed to stay home. The fact appears to be that staying is a natural gift, and not one that can be engrafted, or an art that can be acquired by a succession of long wearying gallops. Witness Martini, perhaps one of the best sprinters we have had in England ; but after he was sold to go abroad his new masters determined on converting him into a stayer by the artificial method of gallop- THREE- YEAR-OLDS. 1 57 ing him over a scope of ground, with the brilliant though un- looked for result that he lost his speed, without learning to stay, though, had they been contented to let well alone, and to train Martini as he had hitherto been trained, his fine unimpaired speed might have pulled him through one or two long-distance races against slower antagonists. In the word constitution we must be understood to include soundness of limb ; a gross horse, who in other respects requires strong work, may have ' dickey' legs and be incapable of taking it. If he is worth keeping in training, he must perforce be content with such an amount of exercise as his limbs will stand, and take his chance a poor one it will be in a race of any impor- tance unless by some wonderful luck his opponents are equally infirm. One second-class sound horse would be almost certain to settle a field of first-class cripples. Supposing a three-year-old to have in all respects stood his preparation to the satisfaction of a competent trainer, the question that stands next for solution is how to try him. Most owners bet more or less, even if they only invest sufficient money to enable them to pay out of the pockets of the ring the huge reward usually bestowed on the jockey who rides the winner of a Derby. ' To race like Lord Falmouth ' has almost passed into a proverb. It means not to bet at all, and in such cases there is no necessity for a trial, unless the owner is specially inter- ested in the welfare of his speculative friends ; for to run a horse untried for a big race adds further excitement, and lessens by one strong gallop the risk of a break-down. Not all men, how- ever, indeed very few, have the self-control of this proverbial peer, and, as aforesaid, the owner who does bet will probably endeavour to have a peep into the unknown and so to gauge the powers of his horse as to ascertain approximately to what extent it may be worth while to take the short odds the ringmen will offer the moment a stable commission appears in the market ; for short odds they will always be, the specious promises and vain hopes held out in the Boulogne and other wonderful and imaginary price-lists notwithstanding. Sir Joseph Hawley, a i 5 8 RACING. consistent upholder of weight for age as an adequate test, adhered to it resolutely, we believe, as a rule in his Derby as well as in other trials. The present writer well remembers his astonishment at being told by Sir Joseph that a trial at 18 Ibs. with Gopsall, a very indifferent four-year-old belonging to the late Lord Anglesey, would tell the truth about any Derby horse. We presume he intended the young one to win rather more than cleverly. Very likely Sir Joseph was right ; he had at any rate the strong argument of repeated success in his favour. The actual record of some of his trials, now published as we believe for the first time, will be read with interest not only by those who were racing in the palmy days of the cherry and black, but also by those who think that instruction may be gleaned from a peep behind the scenes whether ancient or modern ; while it is more profitable to all to show how the Derby or other great racing problem has actually been solved beforehand, than to theorise or dogmatise as to the weights at which trials should be conducted. Here, then, is the trial of The Palmer for the Derby of 1867, and in this horse Sir Joseph had such confidence that at a dinner party at Sir F. Johnstone's in the winter 1866-67 he betted Mr. Chaplin 4o,ooo/. that The Palmer beat Hermit. May 20, 1867. One mile and a half. Name Age Weight Jockey Place i vrs. st. Ibs. Palmer . . . 3 9 o Wells First Padishah . . 3 8 o Second Arapeile . . 3 8 7 Third Fakir . . . 3 9 o Fourth Won by three lengths ; same between second, third and fourth. In this case it appears that Sir Joseph had no old ones to try with, and was obliged to put the three-year-olds together as best he could ; and as none of them had run in public that year, we must suppose that he handicapped them on their two- year-old form. Arapeile was his Oaks mare, and he seems to THREE- YEAR-OLDS. 159 have thought that the winner of the Derby should be 7 Ibs. better than the winner of the Oaks even in a year which in- cluded Achievement amongst the entries for the latter race. Sir Joseph maintained his confidence in The Palmer to the last moment, and he started second favourite and finished eighth in the enormous field of thirty runners. He was, however, a useful animal, and in the autumn of 1868 carried off the Liver- pool Cup from sixteen opponents with the respectable weight of 8 st. 2 Ibs. in the saddle. Note that the trial above narrated took place on the Monday in the Epsom summer week ! How many owners or trainers would now-a-days venture to try within two days of the Derby ? It is needless to say that in the spring of the following year The Palmer's capabilities as a trial horse were not overlooked, and accordingly on May 12, 1868, he was thus put through the mill with Rosicrucian and Blue Gown. One mile and a quarter. Name Age Weight Jockey Place yrs. st. Ibs. Rosicrucian . 3 8 7 Wells First Blue Gown 3 8 7 Carter Second Palmer . . . 4 9 10 Porter 1 Third Won by a neck ; two lengths between second and third. Here we have a trial at exact weight for age between threes and fours at one mile, with a quarter of a mile thrown in as a luck-penny to the old one. Sir Joseph always entertained the highest opinion of Rosi- crucian, swearing (he could swear as emphatically as any man) that Rosy was the best horse in his stable, as indeed this trial would warrant him in believing ; but unhappily the public proof of this superiority was never forthcoming, for the gallop of May 12 settled the black, who went all to pieces afterwards. He had been suffering from influenza for three months, with 1 The trainer. i6o RACING. setons in his throat and chest, so that he was weak and unfit to train, whereas nothing ever interfered with Blue Gown ; but we have the best authority for stating that, both horses fit and well, Rosicrucian was always 7 Ibs. the better of the pair ; he had better speed, and was far the better stayer. Perhaps the indisposition was not as apparent as it was real; anyhow a second trial took place on May 21 in company, at weights and distance, and with result, as follows. One mile and a half. Name Age Weight Jockey Place yrs. st. Ibs. Green Sleeve . 3 7 7 First Blue Gown 3 8 8 Carter Second Palmer . . . 4 9 i Wells Third Rosicrucian . 3 8 8 Bunyard Fourth Won by a length ; four lengths between second and third ; two lengths third and fourth. Green Sleeve had been first, with Rosicrucian second, in the Middle Park Plate of the previous year. Here we have Blue Gown, the subsequent winner of the Derby, attempting to give 15 Ibs. to this form, and running it to a length, whilst he actually defeats the four-year-old Palmer by four lengths at 7 Ibs., a very material reduction upon Sir Joseph's favourite weight for age ; yet so firmly convinced was he of the pronounced superiority of Rosicrucian that, heavy bettor as he was, and in spite of Wells preferring to have the mount on Blue Gown, he won a com- paratively small stake by this horse's success. ' Nothing,' he was wont to declare, with the usual emphasis. In the next year, 1869, the prospects of Pero Gomez for the Derby, and of Morna for the Oaks, seemed undeniable, and with the trying tackle which the Kingsclere stable then pos- sessed a mistake appeared to be out of the question ; and yet it is probable that never was there a trial more thoroughly wide of the mark, and more completely misleading, than that which took place on May 20, 1869. THREE- YEAR-OLDS. 161 These are the details : One mile and a half. Name Age Weight Jockey Place yrs. st. Ibs. Lictor 4 7 i Braithwaite First Morna . 3 7 8 Armstrong Second Blue Gown 4 9 ii Wells Third Pero Gomez . 3 8 9 J. Adams Fourth Won by two lengths ; four lengths between second and third ; two lengths between third and fourth. Here again is a flying in the face of the weight-for-age theory, for the three-year-old Morna is set to give 7 Ibs. to the four-year-old Lictor, which, by the way, she fails to do by two lengths ; but we fancy that Lictor's staying powers (he won the Liverpool Cup in the autumn of that year carrying 7 st., with fourteen other runners) had not then been discovered. At any rate, he had, during that spring, only competed over short distances, and his one win had been achieved on the Bretby Stakes Course, where he gave 4 Ibs. to the aged Historian. On the other hand, Blue Gown is asked to give no less than 2 st. 3 Ibs. to Morna, or 12 Ibs. more than weight for age, but it must be remembered that the mares w r ere supposed to be exceptionally bad that year, and that a Derby winner is not an ordinary trial horse ; yet Pero Gomez was asked to do a great thing with him, viz. to beat him at i61bs., or 3 Ibs. less than weight for age. Sir Joseph evidently considered that his Derby colt would want to be fully a stone better than his Oaks filly, and as a matter of fact Pero Gomez was lolbs. better than Morna ; for, as we have said, the trial was all wrong, or wrong so far as the first two were concerned. Even unto this day Porter has not ceased to wonder what Wells and Adams could have been about on the two cracks, but supposes that they must have been watching each other, and have allowed the stable lads on Morna and Lictor to slip away from them. It was a curious coincidence, and a piece of exasperatingly bad M 1 62 RACING. luck, that both colt and filly should have subsequently run second in their respective races, the Derby and Oaks, though the placing of Pretender first in the former race was one of the few sentences pronounced by Judge Clark which has not met with universal approval. It has already been stated that Sir J. Hawley was in favour of trying three-year-olds as much as possible at weight for age with the old ones ; but he once told General Pearson, who agreed with this theory, that ' if the young one won, you should put it down as 7 Ibs. against him on his appearance in public/ and on the General asking why, Sir Joseph replied, ' I can't tell you why, but so it is.' We must suppose that he either meant that it took 7 Ibs. to discount the sanguine propensity and vanity of ownership, or else that the old ones are 7 Ibs. better out than at home. Sir Joseph was a shrewd judge, but he had his moments of weakness (even Mr. Chamberlain, that ' sea-green incor- ruptible ' of modern days, is reported to have said that it is by no means necessary to practise in private what you preach in public), and once when the Leybourne Baronet went down to Benham the seat of Mr. Sutton to try Merry Wife with Gardevisure for the Cambridgeshire of 1865, the pride of pro- perty led him astray. There were four in the trial altogether, the two mares probably running at the 1 1 Ibs. the handicapper had placed between them, and at the finish half a length only separated them, but that half-length was against Gardevisure, who had lost three lengths at the start, and who had afterwards obtained possession of the lead, but failed quite to stay home. Colonel Pearson thereupon ventured to remark that she ought by rights to' be credited at the end with the three lengths she had lost at the beginning, more especially as she had made up her ground in the first quarter of a mi-le, when the pace was a real ripper which sounds rather like common sense. ' D your excuses,' replied Sir Joseph ; ' where your mare is, mine will be ; ' but he was all wrong, for Gardevisure won and Merry Wife was nowhere. After this trial Gardevisure went THREE- YEAR-OLDS. 163 back in the betting from 1 4 to 40 to i ; undoubtedly she could not stay, but her terrific turn of speed pulled her through ; for she was going well within herself when they began to collar the stiffest part of the ascent, and she would have had it all her own way had it not been for Nu, who was popularly supposed to have been ' readied ' for this event. The most remarkable feature of the whole transaction is, that the Ilsley party, if such a thing had been possible, would have gladly substituted Lord Lyon, two years, for the mare, three years ; for as far back as August 17 of that year he had been tried with her three-quarters of a mile at 10 Ibs. (8 st. 7 Ibs. and 9 st. 3 Ibs.), and he had beaten her in such a canter that they thought him her equal at even weights, and they knew he stayed better ; more especially did they scoff at the possibility of Gladiateur, then first favourite for the Cambridgeshire with 9 st. 12 Ibs., giving him 3 st. 10 Ibs. The effect of the race, had they needed any further witness, was to make them sure of winning the Derby of 1866. A hint as to trying, and particularly as to trying on short courses, may be here usefully interpolated. Always send some trustworthy person to the post to start the horses ; owners are far too apt to forget this necessity. They place themselves and the trainer at the winning-post, a friend or a head lad half-way ' to see how they are going there,' and they leave the jockeys to get off as best they can, and give such account of the start as they choose. This practice, though never safe, may not be so dangerous at Newmarket, where the services of thoroughly experienced riders are always available ; but in country quarters, with stable-boys up, it is simply fatal, and can only end in frequent discomfiture and loss of money. Achievement, as we have mentioned elsewhere, was never tried again in private after her first question as a two-year-old, and Hippia had only had a good rough gallop with the four- year-old Tourmalin before the Oaks, wherein the Baron's filly M 2 1 64 RACING. upset what was supposed to be the best thing ever known to plunge on. And how they did plunge that day ! Everyone who had laid against ' Chaplin's impostor,' as poor Hermit was stigma- tised after he broke a blood-vessel, everyone who had intended to back him and then had been talked into backing something else (a very large class this), and everyone who, having backed him, had not been able to get out, and had won money in- voluntarily ; all alike, winners and losers, to increase the gain or to recoup the loss, dashed it down in full confidence on Colonel Pearson's black and scarlet chevrons and on the 'boy in yellow,' as Custance was still sometimes called. What was the matter? The 'proverbial &c.,' or what? Even echo was at a loss for an answer, but the result was an unfortunate cool- ness between jockey and employer, and Chaloner had the mount in the Leger. And the black Monday that followed that Oaks ! If the Ring ever start an ' Annus Annuli,' we would suggest May 27, 1867, as an appropriate date for its commencement, or at any rate for an important festival in the * Calendar.' We are fortunately able to give one or two more episodes culled from the annals of the Rothschild stable with reference to the putting of the home question to three-year-olds over courses exceeding one mile but less than two miles. In 1868 Blue Gown's year the Baron had three good horses of this age, viz. : Suffolk, King Alfred, and Restitution, of whom the two first named were engaged in the Derby. These three he tried at even weights with Mr. E. C. Clayton's Lozenge, who the previous year had won the Cambridgeshire, carrying 7 st. 2 Ibs, ; the young ones all beat the old one, and moreover beat him so easily that Mr. Clayton thought his horse must be out of all form a supposition which cost him dearly, for in a TOO/. Plate over the Rowley Mile at the First Spring Meeting, Lozenge met Captain Machell's Knight of the Garter, giving 6 Ibs., and Mr. Clayton backed the latter in preference to his own, who won after a good race by a head. THREE- YEAR-OLDS. 165 The feelings of the owner may be imagined when we mention that the betting was 3 to i on Knight of the Garter, and 8 to i against Lozenge ! To return to the trial. Suffolk beat King Alfred easily, but was kicked by a cart-horse while being saddled opposite Armstrong's stables, and was lame when he ran in the Derby, where King Alfred was second, beaten only half a length by Blue Gown ; so it is fair to suppose that Suffolk sound and Get off as best they can.' well would have won the race. Sir Joseph's star was in the ascendent just then. Kisber, though the property of Mr. A. Baltazzi, was trained in Hayhoe's stable, and, good as a two-year-old, was a real smasher at three years. His Derby trial was a Yorkshire gallop, with the weights carefully ascertained z>. even weights with Hesper, three years, and an old horse called Huntsman, over a mile and a half on the July course and Kisber won running away. His owner backed him for an enormous stake, i66 RACING. but before the Epsom Meeting serious pecuniary difficulties arose, and he might have lost both his money and his horse, had it not been for the generosity of a money-lender, who con- sented to forego an advantage which circumstances had placed in his pow T er. Let the backers of Kisber remember this before they speak evil of usurers. So Mr. Baltazzi's horse won the Derby and Grand Prix in a canter, and Petrarch perchance had never been recorded winner of the Leger had not Kisber broken down in the pan of the heel some time before the race. The owner hedged his money for a time, but on Hayhoe giving the horse a couple of canters at the last moment, took heart of grace, and backed him for double the amount he originally had on ! It may be remembered that after the Derby there was some talk of an objection on the score of age, but as he was bought as a yearling at the Imperial Stud, there could be no real doubt on the subject. He was always lame in the stable, and was generally walked about for two hours before commencing fast work. Let us return to the Kingsclere stable, still guided by the master hand which has lost none of its cunning, to more modern times, to the present decade. Here is a clever bit of handicapping of some most un- promising material, and a case where class honours followed what must be admitted to have been a very indifferent private examination we refer to the trial of Shotover for the Two Thousand, which trial took place on April 18, 1882. One mile. Name Age Weight Jockey Place Incendiary Locksley . . Shotover . . Sirdar . . . yrs. 5 3 3 st. Ibs. 9 o 7 o 9 o 9 o Mario w Warner Cannon Taylor First Second Third Fourth THREE- YEAR-OLDS. 167 Won by a neck ; head between second and third ; fourth beaten off. There was little enough here to guide the adjuster of burdens; weight for age was obviously out of the question. Incendiary had run once only in public that year, and had run very badly an indifferent fourth in the International Handicap at New- market Craven meeting, won by Barbe Bleue. Sirdar had run not at all, and Locksley, though he had been out twice, had merely succeeded in proving himself to be what he always was, an infamously bad horse, though his temper made him somewhat worse out than he was at home, and it must have been on his knowledge of their capacity in private that Porter had to depend in trying with this scurvy crew. He acquitted himself of the task with much skill, which, let us hope, led to much profit ; for Shotover started third favourite at 10 to i for the Two Thousand, which she won, her market position being probably enhanced by Sirdar having run a fair race with Frontier for the Trial Stakes. She was not tried again before the Derby, which for first and second places was a replica of the Two Thousand, Quick- lime occupying the Despair position in each instance. To come down to still more recent days, as recent indeed as it is well possible to publish the private trials of great horses without incurring the charge of ' breach of privilege,' we will set forth the manner in which St. Blaise answered the question asked him ' in the schools ' prior to the Derby of 1883. Was St. Blaise a great horse ? We verily believe that the verdict of the general sporting public would be, ' Certainly not, he was one of the worst horses that ever won the Derby ; ' and in support of this view his general career may well be adduced. He never actually beat a good two-year-old, and he wound up the season by just scrambling home in front of a selling plater like Pebble, to whom he was giving the very modest allowance of 3 Ibs. : after his success in the Derby he never got his head in front of anything. Nevertheless those best qualified to judge stoutly aver that 1 68 RACING. he was a good horse in the spring of 1883, and from the way in which they tried him it is evident that they had the courage of their opinions, and that these opinions were justified by the result. The spin which took place on May 18, 1883, was as follows : One mile and a half. Name Age Weight Jockey Place St. Blaise . . Incendiary Shotover . Geheimniss . Energy . . . yrs. 6 4 4 3 st. Ibs. 8 6 8 2 8 12 9 5 8 5 Barrett Warner Mario w Giles Nurse First Second Third Fourth Fifth Won by two lengths ; four lengths between second and third ; a length between third and fourth ; three lengths between fourth and fifth. On paper a truly wonderful performance ; for we have Shotover, the winner of the Two Thousand and Derby, beaten six lengths at 6 Ibs., or 13 Ibs. less than weight for age, while Geheimniss, the winner of the Oaks, succumbs at 13 Ibs., 6 Ibs. less than weight for age ; and to make sure of a pace, there is Energy in receipt of a pound. It is, however, only fair to see how far this form will bear analysis. Itnprimis Shotover, who was within 3 Ibs. of Incen- diary when she was three years old, should surely have made some sort of improvement with another year over her head ; and yet when she tries to give lolbs. she is beaten four lengths, which makes her out to be a trifle worse than she was before she filled those two niches in the temple of fame. Then Geheimniss never really stayed but once in her life, when she won the Oaks, and she had then nothing behind her but St. Marguerite, a worse stayer even than herself ; and to wind up, Energy, though his tremendous turn of speed was probably more than suspected, had not at any rate proved himself the THREE- YEAR-OLDS. 169 flyer he afterwards became. On the whole, the old plater Incen- diary seems to us to have emerged from the struggle with the most glory. Let it not be supposed, however, that we have any wish to detract from the merits of St. Blaise. ' He did what he was asked to do ' more than can be said of most horses. He won the Derby, which can be said of only one horse a year, and he was an excellent second in the Grand Prix. His subsequent failure is attributed, no doubt justly, to a sprain of the muscles of the arm. His racing career is ended. May joy go with him, and may he prove a success at the stud ! We heartily wish that we had at command information from all the leading stables as to the trials of the various ' cracks ' who in time past have gone forth to victory from their gates ; the subject is so fraught with interest that it would be hardly possible to satiate the regular turfite therewith, but the reader must know that all trainers do not keep trial-books. Many who do keep them destroy them every two or three years ; and in other cases these records are for some reason or another inaccessible e.g. the books of the late John of Danebury, which we believe to be in existence, but in whose hands we are not aware, though Thomas Cannon would probably pay a hand- some price to the present possessor. Lord Falmouth, though he never betted after he became an owner of racehorses, and was therefore not forced into trials by his betting-book, was nevertheless in the habit of ' putting them together ' pretty frequently as a matter of curiosity, or of scientific recreation, and he and his paragon of trainers, Matthew Dawson, perhaps made as few mistakes as any two men who ever stripped horses in private. The wish may have been father to the thought with them as with others, but the money never was mother to the practice, and we fancy that they never bamboozled themselves in the almost invariably futile attempt to delude the omnipresent tout, by having a horse pulled up in his trial, when in his rider's opinion he could i;o RACING. have won, so as to allow other of the examinees to canter first past the post ; a trick which has caused the boiling over of as many pots as any process we could mention. What you see with your eyes in racing you may have some faint hope may prove to be true; but, for sheer vanity and vexation of spirit, commend us to the conflicting accounts of jockeys after a ' hugger-mugger ' trial. Matthew Dawson's system has always been to try a three - year-old at less than the accepted weight for age with a good old one, this being in his opinion the only way to make tole- rably sure of winning a big race. An instance of very much less than weight for age was when he tried Queen's Messenger for the Derby of 1872 at even weights with Kingcraft, and the young one won easily. It is true that Kingcraft was not a very good horse, was in fact a moderate one. Still he was then five years old, and he had won the Derby two years previously ; also he must have been in form, or they would not have tried with him at all. This appears on paper a stupendous performance, yet the sequel proved that it was not good enough, for there were a couple of giants going about in those days in the shape of Cremorne and Prince Charlie, both of whom beat Queen's Messenger in the Two Thousand, and, though he had his revenge on the roarer in the Derby, Cremorne repeated the dose. Pell Mail's second may be regarded as one of those flukes by which indifferent horses sometimes get placed in good company ; for Khedive, who gave him 7 Ibs. at Ascot on the Old Mile, and beat him a neck, was at best only a second-class horse. Lord Falmouth's second Derby winner Silvio was tried in the spring of 1877 at u Ibs., one mile and a half, with a good four-year, Skylark, who had during the previous year met eleven of his engagements and carried off six of them. They started a quarter of a mile beyond the ditch gap, finished at the Rowley Mile stand, and Silvio won cleverly; yet it was some time before he confirmed this form in public, for starting a hot favourite in the Craven Biennial he was beaten off by a THREE- YEAR-OLDS. 171 field which contained but one good animal besides himself Belphcebe. 1 One of the most remarkable trials, perhaps the most note- worthy trial of modern days, was that which took place in the spring of 1879, when Silvio, five years, Jannette, four years, Wheel of Fortune, three years, and Charibert, three years, went down together to the Rowley Mile post to try conclusions over that famous mile. Well might Matthew Dawson exclaim to his employer, ' There's a sight, my lord, the like of which you may never see again,' and a goodly sight it must have been. The winner of a Derby and Leger, the winner of an Oaks and Leger, the putative and, as events proved, actual winner of the One Thousand and Oaks, and the actual, though almost un- dreamt of, winner of the Two Thousand ! A racing man can imagine no greater agony of delicious excitement. On this occasion, having regard to the unusual excellence of the trial horses, they ran at weight for age, and Wheel of For- tune won pretty cleverly, Jannette beating Silvio two or three lengths, a feat which she had already accomplished, though with 1 The exact details of this trial, which took place on April 24, are Name Age Weight Jockey Place Silvio yrs. q st. Ibs. 7 IO Huxtable First Skylark . . ' . . King Clovis . Queen's Herald . . Fieldfare .... 4 3 3 3 8 7 7 10 I 3 6 i Lynch Swift Morrell Saddington Second Third Fourth Fifth Won very easily by half a length. Huxtable said he could have won by five lengths, but did not like to press the horse, and considered it a 7 Ibs. beating. There was perhaps some excuse for Silvio in the Biennial, owing to the race being run in a blinding storm, when neither jockeys nor horses knew what they were about ; but why should he afterwards have succumbed to Chamant and Brown Prince in a Two Thousand chiefly memorable for the favouritism of Morier, that rankest of turf impostors? The trial, however, came out right enough at last, when in the Derby Silvio, who started at n to i, beat a field of sixteen, and very decisively turned the tables upon Chamant and Brown Prince ; and he did not meet his master again that year, save when the mighty Spring- field, poisoned horse though he was, romped home in front of him for the Champion Stakes. 1 172 RACING. rather less to spare, in the Champion Stakes of 1878, a year during which she only twice suffered defeat. Charibert must have been beaten off, a circumstance which may account for the friendless price of 25 to i at which he started for the Two Thousand ; but a curious fact in connection with this memorable trial is, that neither owner nor trainer seems to have any distinct recollection of the exact position Charibert occupied therein. Let us seek once more the Southern Downs, and see how such an acknowledged master of the art of trying, and indeed of the whole business of racing, as Mr. Robert Peck, got at the truth, before some of the splendid and lucrative successes of the three-year-olds under his care at Russley. Doncaster, the property of Mr. James Merry, whose trainer R. Peck then was, was in 1873 first tried with and proved him- self 15 Ibs. better than Peto, four years, a speedy horse over a mile (the distance of the trial), who had beaten a large field of horses at Northampton ; and in a subsequent essay at home, Doncaster at 7 Ibs. over a mile and a half beat Freeman, four years, by a length and a half, just after the latter had won the Great Northern Handicap at York, carrying 7 st. This looks good enough, and touts must have been rare or stupid at Russley in those days ; for Doncaster started for the Derby, which he won easily, at the forlorn outside price of 45 to i- In that same year Marie Stuart, who had won the Oaks, was tried just before the Leger with Freeman at even weights, and she beat him very easily indeed by three lengths. Free- man was taken to Doncaster, and with 8 st. 5 Ibs. ran second for the Great Yorkshire Handicap in a large field, which by the way included Kingcraft, to whom Freeman was giving i Ib. Marie Stuart on the following day won the Leger, beating her stable companion Doncaster by a head, thus showing clearly that a three-year-old in the month of September may be nearly, if not quite, as good as at any time during its career. Before the Derby of 1876 Forerunner was tried to be 14 Ibs. THREE- YEAR-OLDS. 173 better than Conseil, five years, who only the week before had won the Manchester Cup, carrying 7 st. 3 Ibs. in a 'field of twelve ; and Dalham, who was then in form is it not written in the book how he was that year second in the Hunt Cup at Ascot, with 8 st. 12 Ibs. ? was beaten very easily a mile at 7 Ibs. by Forerunner, yet could he get no nearer than second to Kisber, who was probably on that day an exception- ally good horse, Anyhow, as Ryan, Mr. Houldsworth's trainer, remarked before the race, ' he was the only horse that had ever fairly beaten Springfield at two-year-old, and that should make him worth backing for most Derbies.' What Bend Or was capable of doing at home with his comrades before he won the Derby of 1880 we are unable to state, for the very sufficient reason that he was not tried at all, though we may here mention that as a yearling he was better than Ramsbury, a smart two-year- old plater, at even weights ! So that his career seems to have been foreshadowed almost from infancy. Mr. Peck says that Peregrine, who won the Two Thousand in 1 88 1, was in his opinion the best horse he ever tried. Before the Guineas he beat Bend Or at i61bs., and on the Saturday before the Derby ran a dead heat with him at 20 Ibs. ; and that the four-year-old was in his very best form there can be no question, for he had won the City and Suburban easily, giving 2 st. 7 Ibs. to Foxhall, not to speak of the victory over Robert the Devil in the Epsom Cup. What manner of horse then must Iroquois have been who beat such a flyer as Pere- grine in the Derby ? Truly our American cousins were to the front in those days, for in the autumn of that year Foxhall would probably have beaten Bend Or at even weights another instance of the enormous improvement which the summer months may effect in a three-year-old. A famous horse in more ways than one is Bend Or. Green in the memory of our readers must be that celebrated lawsuit, the outcome of ' Pavo's ' strictures on Mr. Peck's stable manage- ment, allusion to which comes fittingly under the head of trials ; for it was one in which the * Morning Post ' had a beating of we 174 RACING. forget how many thousand pounds. Nor less celebrated was the investigation into the identity of the mighty chestnut, while the paternity of Ormonde, and of we hope many other winners, will perpetuate the renown of the son of Doncaster and Rouge Rose. ' The Bend Or case ' is one of the causes celcbres of the Turf, a singular instance of disputed identity, and so instructive as to how such disputes may be and should be guarded against for the future, that an authentic account of it may for all time prove interesting. It created an immense contemporary sensa- tion, and as all pretenders from Perkin Warbeck down to Arthur Orton have had, even after the collapse of their pretensions, a large if not over-intelligent following of believers, so to this day there are many who confidently affirm that Clemence and not Rouge Rose was the dam of the Derby winner of 1880. The controversy originated in the foregathering of stud grooms at Newmarket in the July Meeting 1879, an d happened in this wise. The Duke of Westminster's servants had come from Eaton in that month to fetch away some brood mares, and while at the station had their attention called to Bend Or, who after winning the Chesterfield was being boxed for his homeward journey to Kingsclere. They made observations over which they pondered, and on their return to Eaton discussed freely this victorious two-year-old, ultimately arriving at the conclu- sion that the horse they had seen was the offspring not of Rouge Rose but of Clemence in other words, Tadcaster and not Bend Or. The following year, Goode, Lord Falmouth's stud-groom, took Lady Coventry to be served by Doncaster at Eaton, and while he was there Sexton, who had charge of Doncaster, un- burdened his mind of the verdict arrived at by the saddle-room jury. When he got back to Newmarket, Goode chanced to meet Matthew Dawson, and in the course of a conversation which ensued on the mating of various sires and dams, Dawson mentioned that it was in consequence of Bend Or's prowess and THREE- YEAR-OLDS, 175 appearance that Lord Falmouth had sent the two Thormanby mares to Doncaster ; whereupon Goode remarked that he had heard that Bend Or was not out of a Thormanby mare, and did forthwith his tale unfold, which Dawson subsequently re- peated to Blanton, the trainer and part owner of Robert the Devil, who, as all the world plus Lord Macaulay's schoolboy knows, had just run second after a tremendous race with Bend Or for the Derby. Mr. C. Brewer, also part owner of Robert, then sought coun- sel of Prince Soltykoff, the chief patron of Blanton's stable, and was by him advised to talk the matter over with Mr. Craven, one of the stewards of the Jockey Club, which Mr. Brewer, after a trip to Eaton, where he interviewed Arnull, the Duke of Westminster's stud-groom, accordingly did, and stated his case. Mr. Craven then requested the Duke of Westminster to come and hear this statement for himself. The upshot was, that in the July week at Newmarket a preliminary investigation took place before the Stewards of the Jockey Club. Sir George Chetwynd, however, who was then senior steward, having some pecuniary interest in the result, did not think fit to act, and he nominated Lord Calthorpe as his deputy. Mr. Craven there- fore became chairman, Mr. James Lowther being the junior steward. At this preliminary investigation it was decided that the case should be thoroughly sifted and heard out, and the whole of the witnesses were summoned to attend on July 21, at Mr. Lowther's house in Grosvenor Street. The inquiry lasted for four days, at the end which time the stewards announced that they found ' no bill,' that there were no grounds on which Bend Or could be disqualified. It appears that the whole of the evidence in support of the theory that a mistake had been made between the two foals emanated from the Arnulls, father and son, who were under notice of discharge from Eaton, and were on the point of quitting that place. Arnull kept, or assumed to keep, a stud- book containing the dates of birth, the marks and colouring of foals, so that in evidence this record must have been proved to 1 76 RACING. be inaccurate and incomplete. On the other hand, Major Barlow, who was supposed to supervise the Duke's stud, kept, strange to say, no stud-book or record whatever ! And it was at this point of the inquiry that the extraordinary fact came to light how few there are amongst breeders of thoroughbred stock who do keep any such register. This, considering the value of the animals produced, the perfect possibility of mis- takes occurring, and the disastrous inconvenience which might thence accrue, does strike us as an instance of remarkable and dangerous neglect of interests both public and private. In the particular case under discussion there was exceptional need of accuracy, for Major Barlow had persuaded the Duke of West- minster that his weaned foals did not thrive in the Eaton paddocks ; consequently Bend Or and Tadcaster were sent to Newmarket on leaving their mothers' sides, and from that day to the time when the two-year-old Bend Or ran in the Chesterfield neither of the Arnulls had once set eyes on either of them. It also transpired that, though the Arnulls and Sexton had originally been most positive in their statements as to the markings of the two colts, yet when separately examined they all broke down completely in their descriptive evidence. Moreover it was a curious thing that, having had, as they declared to the stewards, a knowledge of this matter since July 1879, they should never have made mention of it until they were discharged about the end of June 1880. On the other hand, the evidence in refutation of the Arnulls' assertions was very strong, and came from witnesses who had not only seen the foals at their mothers' sides, but also afterwards when they were at Newmarket, and again whilst in training as yearlings and two-year-olds. Thus exiit in fumo an episode which we believe to be unique in turf history. That one racehorse has ere now been substituted for another is undoubtedly a fact ; it has happened perhaps more often than the world wots of; but in cases where a charge of this nature has been brought, fraud has been THREE- YEAR-OLDS. 1 77 implied or proved, whereas in this instance there was never the faintest imputation of dishonesty against any of the parties concerned. It was an imaginary allegation of ' accidentally changed at nurse ; ' it was investigated, disproved, and there an end. We have no more to say on the matter, unless it be a word of praise for the thoroughly honourable and straightfor- ward behaviour throughout the whole business of the Duke of Westminster, of Mr. Brewer, of Blanton, and in fact of all those mainly interested in the issue. No man has accomplished more turf surprises than did Thomas Jennings during the time he trained for the late Count Lagrange ; but never did he make the general body of backers and bookmakers ' sit up' so effectually as in the year 1865, when with Gladiateur he made a clean sweep of the three great three-year-old prizes in England, besides the Grand Prix, and such sweet little fish as the Drawing-Room at Goodwood, the Doncaster Stakes, the Newmarket Derby, and the Grand Prix du Prince Imperial at Paris in the autumn, during which series of victories the French champion was only once fairly ex- tended, viz. by Archimedes in the Two Thousand, and once only during his three-year-old career was he beaten, when he essayed the Cambridgeshire hill under the hopeless weight of 9 st. 12 Ibs. That the Count and Jennings had eaten of the tree of knowledge before sending their colt to the post for the Two Thousand, the following trials as clearly demonstrate as does the starting price of 100 to 15 show that they knew when silence was golden. Though for a long time at the head of a great racing confederacy, that inscrutable Count was never known to have been betrayed, either by partners or servants, perhaps because he never told the former anything, and also because he was what Count Paul Daru once described him to be un homme qui a toujours su sefaire obetr. On April 19, the Wednesday in the Craven Meeting, 1865, Gladiateur was tried and thus acquitted himself : N RACING. One mile. All three years old. Name Weight Place st. Ibs. Gladiateur .... 9 o First Argences .... 8 o Second Le Mandarin .... 8 7 Third Le Bearnais . . . 8 o Fourth On this occasion Argences was the trial horse, he having on the previous day run well up in the Newmarket Biennial won by Kangaroo, whom Lord Hastings immediately purchased from Mr. Padwick at an usurer's ransom for the purpose of winning the Derby. In ten days time, on April 29, Jennings again tried his Two Thousand candidate, putting in some fresh tackle and increas- ing the difficulty of the task, with a similarly satisfactory result. One mile. Name Age Weight Jockey Place yrs. st. Ibs. Gladiateur . . 3 9 H. Grimshaw First Le Mandarin . 3 7 10 W. Barker Second Vivid . . , 5 8 8 Hunter Third Of these Vivid had, as a four-year-old, beaten Wingrave, Bathilde, a Cambridgeshire winner, Caroline, a smart mare of Mr. Longfield's, and Moulsey, who was the best horse Lord Bateman ever possessed, at weight for age over the Rowley mile. Note also that Gladiateur was here meeting Le Man- darin on ii Ibs. worse terms than when they were first put together. Then came the Two Thousand, won by a neck from Archi- medes, after what the Calendar describes as a magnificent race, with Liddington only beaten the same distance from the second. Either Gladiateur was not wound up or this was a false run race, for though Archimedes did struggle up third in the Leger, neither he nor Liddington was ever within a street THREE- YEAR-OLDS. 179 of the Frenchman. However, a Derby trial was considered necessary, and this is what happened : One mile and a half. Name Age Weight Place yrs. st. Ibs. Gladiateur 3 9 o First Fille de 1'Air . 4 8 6 Second Vivid 5 8 6 Third Soumise . 4 8 6 Fourth Giving 8 Ibs. to the winner of the last year's Oaks, and they laid 5 to 2 against him for the Derby. To each of these three trials is appended the same simple comment ' Won as he liked ' a chapter in four words. He was a difficult horse to train, his fetlock joints, especially when in hard work, causing much anxiety, and on an ankle he bore the scar from one of those paddock fights mentioned in the earlier pages of this volume. N 2 i8o RACING. CHAPTER XII. OVER A DISTANCE OF GROUND. THE practice of trying horses over a long course, viz. of two miles or upwards, becomes, we are informed, yearly more honoured in the breach than in the observance as, for that matter, does the running in public over those distances and comparatively scanty are the illustrations we are able to provide for the guidance of those who may yet wish to subject their horses to this ordeal, which was common enough five-and- twenty years ago. In 1858, if we may venture to take the reader back so far as that remote period, Mr. George Lambert tried Rocket for the Cesarewitch (which he won from the big field of thirty-five runners), to give Queenstown, also three years old, 19 Ibs., two miles, on Lewes Racecourse. The ground was judiciously selected, for they knew Queenstown liked the course, she having won the Lewes Handicap, with 8 st. i lb., and Jem Goater on her back, though the company behind her was very moderate. Ridden by Fordham she won this trial. Custance was, of course, on Rocket, but either he came on rapidly, or the party thought there was a mistake somewhere, for a few days afterwards they tried again the same course, at the same weights, and this time Rocket won cleverly. Tame Deer, a five-year-old of Lord Portsmouth's, was also in the trial, but at what weight, or by whom ridden, we know not. J. Goater was probably the jockey. Rocket's Cesarewitch is very ancient history now, yet that Mr. Lambert can stay as well as anything ever trained in those OVER A DISTANCE OF GROUND. 181 punishing gallops at Findon or Myrtle Grove was attested by the confidently anticipated, and well-backed victory of Don Juan in 1883 ; and people do say that, had Marlborough not been coughing, Plaisanterie would have gained no bloodless victory in the Cambridgeshire of 1885, even if her number had been hoisted at all. Before Julius in 1867 beat the record (long since out- recorded) arid twenty-six horses by winning the Cesarewitch with 8 st. on his three-year-old back, he was tried the course with Silenus, a good sort of third-class horse of his own age, and one who had some pretensions to staying power he had won a mile-and-a-half race at Lewes and to him Julius presented a stone and a beating of fifty yards from the Bushes home, which would have been at least equivalent to putting Silenus into the Cesarewitch at six stone. The following story is a remarkable, perhaps almost unique, instance of private trials over long distances, checked in the first place by a trial in public, and afterwards triumphantly vin- dicated by the actual race. In 1866, the year in which Lecturer won the Cesarewitch, Mr. F. Swindells owned a horse called Abergeldie, which was entered for that event, and which he fancied could stay ; but having nothing of his own to try with, he sought the assistance of a member of the Jockey Club, Mr. W. G. Craven, who being a friend of the Duke of Beaufort, obtained permission to have his mare Gomera, four years old, over from Danebury to Henry Goater's stables at Littleton, and to try her with Abergeldie. A three-year-old filly called Proserpine, up to that time con- sidered a half-miler, and handicapped in the Cesarewitch at 5 st. 7 Ibs., was put in to make the running as fast and as far as she could over two miles and a quarter on Winchester Racecourse. She won easily from Gomera, Abergeldie being beaten a long way ; he could only stay a mile and a quarter, and, as history relates, won the City and Suburban in the following year. Mr. Swindells then voted Proserpine worth backing, and backed her accordingly. 1 82 RACING. After this trial John Day, who trained Lecturer, Ackworth, and Gomera, and who had already tried the two former together, tried Gomera and Ackworth, and, by Lord Hastings' desire, informed the Littleton party that Lecturer had 7 Ibs. in hand of Proserpine. It is to this act of courtesy that we presume Mr. Swindells' biographers allude, when they describe him as saying on this occasion that ' Old John had him like a rat in a trap.' In order to make assurance doubly sure, the Daneburyites then entered Ackworth and Gomera in the Cesarewitch Trial Handicap. In those days the overnight handicaps were supposed to be made by the Stewards of the Jockey Club, though in reality the Admiral seldom if ever brooked any interference. On this occasion, however, he very reluctantly gave way to Mr. Craven, one of his colleagues, who was acquainted with the trials, and who told the Admiral that he was 10 Ibs. wrong in his estimate of the relative merits of Ackworth and Gomera. ' Will you take the responsibility if you alter my handicap ? ' said the Admiral. 'Most assuredly I will,' was the reply, and Gomera was put down 10 Ibs., the Admiral according to his wont vowing and declaring that he would eat his hat if any- thing beat her. Fordham rode Ackworth, and Cameron, who had ridden her in the trial, was on Gomera. Pintail, a five- year-old mare belonging to Mr. George Payne, won by three lengths, 1 and there was a head only between the two Danebury 1 It was notorious that Mr. Payne's horses were always ' beaten a hundred measured yards in the trial.' Pintail, however, may have scrambled within the traditional distance, for she appears to have started first favourite at 5 to 2. He was continually chaffed on the subject of these home failures, being asked when he was going to bring out this wonderful old trial horse that could make everything lie down, &c. As will readily be believed, Mr. Payne could always rather more than hold his own in an encounter of wits, and his assailants usually had the worst of it. Once only do we remember his acknowledging a defeat of the mysterious and perennial schoolmaster. ' Cantiniere made him look silly I can tell you,' was all he said. A volume might be filled with the quaint sayings of this extraordinary man, but, after all, they only sound stupid on paper. It was the twinkle in his eye, combined with the otherwise imper- turbable set of his facial muscles, that, while he was enunciating the most OVER A DISTANCE OF GROUND. 183 trial nags, whose jockeys had orders to ride them out and measure them, so that, as the conjurers say, 'there was no deception,' and * nothing up anybody's sleeve.' Admiral Rous did not eat his hat, but took it off to his colleague, while reserving to himself the right of eating it if Lecturer won the Cesarewitch, which he did easily by half a length from Lothario, who beat Proserpine a neck for second place ; thus the running at Newmarket conclusively proved the accuracy of the trials which had taken place at Winchester and Danebury, though it would be hard to find three more dissimilar courses. Riding them out. Admiral Rous's hatter, whose name has unfortunately escaped us, was no doubt an intelligent and enterprising tradesman, and as such presumably prosperous in his business ; but what a colossal fortune he would have acquired had the Admiral only carried out one half of his threats of devouring astounding paradox, or making an apparently common-place remark, would send a room full of people into roars of laughter, when the same thing said by any- body else would not have provoked a smile. It mattered not to whom he was talking the gravest statesman, the most matter-of-fact money-grubber, the shyest girl ' out ' for the first time in her life, one and all, old or young, left him with the unalterable conviction that G. P. was the most delightful companion he or she had ever come across ; and this charm of manner never left him to the day of his death, at 75 years of age. 1 84 RACING. his headgear in the event of public performance falsifying his private prognostications, while the number of horses he would have consumed under similar circumstances would have kept the Badminton kennels in flesh for a couple of seasons. We have never been able to ascertain with absolute accu- racy what Lecturer's trial for that Cesarewitch really was it has always been given as Ackworth at even weights yet have we some vague recollection of being told by John of Danebury that it was the Duke who had succumbed at even weights to Lecturer. What, however, we do remember most clearly, is old John's account of his blank astonishment and dismay when Lord Hastings threw to him across the table the folded slip of paper which contained his intentions with regard to the forth- coming trial. John thought the task, whatever it was, an absurd and impossible one. Nevertheless he knew he had to obey orders, for the Marquis was master in his own stable, and brooked no denial. Moreover, as John pathetically remarked, with him individually 'it was a case of Lecturer or White- cross Street,' l for he had just been called upon, by the grace of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, to meet a dishonoured bill of several thousand pounds, to which, with his usual accommo- dating spirit, he had unwisely appended his name, ' as a matter of form,' and to oblige well, not Benson. The family ex- chequer too was at that moment at lowest ebb. The story of Lecturer being left in by mistake when Lord Hastings, thinking his horses badly treated by the handicapper, sent to strike them all out, and of how this one happening to be entered by Mr. ' Peter ' Wilkinson consequently stood, is too old to need more than passing mention. It was a lucky coup all round, and came when most needed. Let us have a peep behind the scenes of Hayhoe's stable in 1871, the Baron's year/r excellence. As soon as Hannah had won the Leger, the Baron knew 1 That abode of misery, the debtors' prison in Whitecross Street, or, as it was euphoniously called by its inmates, ' Constable's Hotel,' out of compliment to the Governor, was then in existence. It has long since been abolished. OVER A DISTANCE OF GROUND. 185 that in all probability he had the Cesarewitch at his mercy with Corisande, and a large sum of money to boot if only he could manage a quiet trial. He accordingly ordered Hannah to be despatched at once to Newmarket, greatly to the disgust of his trainer. In vain Hayhoe prayed and remonstrated Meyer de Rothschild was nothing if not a practical man, and he liked the public to * follow the Baron,' not to precede him, in the investment of their money upon his horses. So he had his way, as every owner should. Home went Hannah, and about sunrise on the Friday morning, she and Corisande were tried two miles on the July side at even weights ; and the latter won a head. Beside those immediately concerned not a soul saw this trial except one solitary individual an important exception too, for he was a well-known Newmarket tout. However, he had his price, and promised not to tell what he had seen, on condition of 'standing' with Joseph Hayhoe. It seems that there is honour amongst touts as well as amongst thieves (almost convertible terms, by the way), and so well did the horse-watcher keep his word, that Mr. Perry, the stable com- missioner, was enabled to take 10,000 to 300 on the Saturday. That the trial was good enough no one could doubt, and Corisande, carrying Maidment and 7 st. 12 Ibs., polished off her twenty-six opponents in the Cesarewitch with some ease, amongst them being Cardinal York, who was second, who had won the race the previous year as a four-year-old with 7 st. 8 Ibs., and who on this occasion was giving Corisande 16 Ibs. for the two years between them, or 3 Ibs. more than weight for age. By parity of reasoning, Favonius should that year have won the Cambridgeshire, had he not been pricked in shoeing ; for in 1872, after he had been beaten at Ascot from want of con- dition by Henry in the Gold Cup, and by Musket and others in the Alexandra Plate, he was put into strong work, and tried with Corisande, to whom he gave a stone and beat her easily, thus proving his form to be, when fit, from 16 Ibs. to 18 Ibs. better than the two mares. 1 86 RACING, Verneuil's trials, if he ever had any, are not obtainable ; but he was so thoroughly, and in all respects, the beau ideal of what a Cup horse ought to be, that any details concerning him must be well placed in a chapter dealing with the champions of the long courses. His great Ascot week (1878), wherein he won the Queen's Vase, 2 miles, the Gold Cup, 2 miles 5 fur- longs, and the Alexandra Plate, 3 miles i furlong, is a notable feature in turf history, and the betting on that Gold Cup an amusing episode in the annals of the ring. Silvio, then four years old, was first favourite with 7 to 4 on him, St. Christophe, whose Sundays out had been profitably spent in Paris by winning the Prix du Cadran and the Prix Rain- bow, and who had in the first-named of these two events beaten his stable companion Verneuil at even weights, was supposed at Ascot to be carrying the bulk of the French money, and was made second favourite at n to 2, while 100 to 15 was laid impartially against Verneuil and Hampton, the other two com- petitors ; but Sir Beaumont Dixie, at that time a heavy bettor and one, moreover, who had a playful habit of ' adopting ' other people's horses, took it into his head that Verneuil, and Verneuil only, could win. So he proceeded to back the horse till the extent of his investments excited attention even at that plunging meeting. Still he went on backing, and at last the public, ever more ready to believe in the wholly improbable than in the most obvious truth, arrived at the conclusion that he was * in the know,' and that the mysterious Count had con- fided to him some secret intention. Many people, indeed, became so impressed with this idea that they saved themselves on the horse, or backed him outright, on the plea that ' Dixie could not go on betting like that unless he knew something,' and when Verneuil cantered home six lengths in front of Silvio, could hardly be persuaded to credit Sir Beaumont's assurance that he was doing his own commission. It was a good tip for the Alexandra Plate, and those who were out on the week had a first-rate chance of getting home, though a few of the ultra-sharp division pretended to discover OVER A DISTANCE OF GROUND. 187 that there was to be a reversal of tactics, and that St. Christophe, who was giving 5 Ibs. instead of running with Verneuil at even weights as in the Cup, would win. The fools in their folly suffered accordingly. Much fame accrued to Jem Goater over this threefold triumph. Verneuil's proportions were so magnificent that they are worth giving. He measured thus : ft. h. in. Height . . . . . . .oi62f Girth 606 Round cannon bone . . . . . o o 8f and his fore-feet were six inches across. Naturally he was much coveted by owners for breeding as well as for racing purposes, and soon after his victorious Ascot an American telegraphed to ' Count Lagrange, Jockey Club, Paris ' offering ten thousand pounds for the chestnut. Unluckily for the Count he was seized with a serious illness on his return to Paris, and was absent from the Jockey Club for three or four months, during which time the hall porter of that establishment never thought of forwarding the message to the Count's private address, but calmly awaited his re-appear- ance at the Club. He meanwhile had, through T. Jennings, entered into negotiations with M. Cavaliero to sell Verneuil for 8,ooo/. to the Hungarian Government. It is not difficult to imagine the delight of the owner on finding that the carelessness of a club servant had caused a clear loss of 2,ooo/. ' The Druid, 'indefatigable in research, as he was incompar- able as a turf- writer perhaps, if we except Whyte-Melville, as a sporting writer altogether was able to furnish his readers with accounts of several trials for the Ascot, or Goodwood, or other of the great Cups. We have not been so fortunate in our inquiries, possibly because these trophies are the object of less keen competition than was formerly the case, or it may be that the measure of the stayers is more accurately taken in public. Whatever the cause, we have to confess that the only trial for a recent event of this description which has come with- 1 88 RACING. in our ken, was the celebrated trial match between St. Simon and Tristan in public over the last mile-and-a-half of the Cesarewitch course before the first regular race on Thursday in the Second Spring Meeting of 1884. It was well known that the cause of this friendly contest was to decide which of these two horses should run for the Epsom Cup, as in either case to run for meant to win it. The Duke of Portland said he could not bear to see his horse beaten. M. Lefevre, though he had more than once survived this catastrophe in the case of Tristan, and presumably would have been able to do so again, was by no means anxious unnecessarily to run his faithful servant, who had before him a series of absolutely last performances ; so the match was made as aforesaid, was the medium of a very considerable amount of speculation at 3 to i, and 100 to 30 on the young one, and ended thus Name Age Weight Jockey Place yrs. st. Ibs. St. Simon . . 3 8 o C. Wood First Tristan . . . 6 9 9 Webb Second Credo . . . 5 6 2 Tomlisson Third Iambic . . . 3 5 8 Martin Fourth Won without an effort by six lengths ; the others beaten off. St. Simon literally smothered the chestnut the whole way, who ran as he always did, as true as steel, though it was constantly predicted of him that he would one day put his backers in the hole, by stopping to kick, or in some way showing temper. His disposition was not angelic, yet we believe he was never in his life beaten except by a better horse at the weights Men entendu. Credo and Iambic were put in as pace-makers for their respective stables, and a very poor time the pair had of it. St. Simon of course walked over for the Epsom Gold Cup. Impenetrable are the mysteries of the Manton stable, yet as it may have been over a distance of ground that the cele- brated trial took place which was endorsed ' No Effects,' and OVER A DISTANCE OF GROUND. 189 which was so graphically described by the late Mr. George Payne, who was at the time in confederacy with Mr. Charles Greville, we will give the narrative in Mr. Payne's own words, as recounted by him at the Turf Club on the evening of the occurrence his words : but the manner of the man cannot be rendered on paper. Went down with old Greville to Alec's to try never was such a morning. When we got on to the downs it was worse than ever, blowing great guns, and raining in sheets, I give you my word. There was a haystack with a ladder up against it ; decided to make that the winning-post stuck Greville half-way up the ladder, and told him to look sharp as to how they finished. Says he, ' But I can't see.' * Not see ! Stuff and nonsense, you must see beautiful day for seeing ' [aside : ' Couldn't have seen an elephant fifty yards off to save my life ']. Left him. Alec gone to start 'em fair. I went half-way to see what had the best of it there. On they came, thought it as right as the mail. Alec came bustling up, and we cut on as hard as we could to the haystack. ' Now then, Charles, what's won? what's won?' and there he was with his face to the stack holding on like grim death, and his d d old cloak blown right over his head. 'What's won !' says he. 'How can 7 tell what's won ; this thing got over my eyes as soon as you left, and there it's been ever since.' Never was such a go ! Horses had a regular dusting, boys could tell us nothing. Deuce of a job to get Charles off the ladder ; when he was down swore he was wet to the skin, and would have the gout. Hustled him into a fly and drove him to Marlborough ; couldn't buy a shirt in the whole d d place ; bought him a smock frock though, and clapped that on next his skin, and it scrubbed him like fun all the long way up to town, I'll be bound. Ha ! ha ! ha ! Now then, who's for a rubber? Could anybody ever turn a contretemps to such good account as G. P. ? Mention has more than once been made in the foregoing pages of the now world-famous Rothschild stud and stable. Their almost accidental origin is no less noteworthy than their subsequent development and success. In 1842 a lottery was got up in New Court, the renowned Rothschild place of business in the City, for a valuable emerald. 190 RACING. Baron Meyer drew the lucky number, resold the gem to the jeweller who was the original possessor at a small loss, and with the money bought a mare by Defence out of yEmiliana, and named her Emerald. She appeared a few times in public, and ran well in the Oaks, but it was in the paddock that she proved herself not only ' far above rubies/ but the length of a street in front of all other emeralds, for she gave birth to such illustrious offspring as Mentmore, King of Diamonds, Mentmore Lass, the dam of Zephyr (who in her turn became the dam of Favonius), and also of Hannah. Evening Star by Touchstone, another of the parent stock of the Rothschild stud, was likewise so to speak a come-by- chance. Originally the property of the Marquis of West- minster, he turned her out of training as worthless for racing purposes, and gave her to Mr. Oldaker, the well-known saddler, who passed her on to Baron Meyer. She was covered by Kremlin, won several races while in foal, and produced Daughter of the Star, who bred Venetia, Hippolyta, and Hippia. Daughter of the Star was also goddaughter of Mr. Disraeli, who was staying at Gunnersbury when the filly won a race at Egham, and who then bestowed this name upon her. With regard to this portion of our work which refers to the home doings of equine celebrities, we cannot adequately express our gratitude and sense of obligation to those owners and trainers who have furnished us with a mass of private information, without which our task had been impossible. Amongst owners the names of Sir George Chetwynd, Lord Falmouth, Mr. G. Lambert, Captain Machell, General Pearson, Mr. R. Peck, and Mr. L. de Rothschild have been, and are, conspicuous in recent turf history, while the practical skill, judgment, and industry of Messrs. M. Dawson, J. Dover, J. Porter, T. Jennings, and R. Sherrard, rewarded as these quali- ties have been by a well-merited and oft-repeated success, have long caused these trainers to be recognised as leading members of their honourable guild. To these gentlemen our best thanks are due, and are here OVER A DISTANCE OF GROUND. 191 October Novem t^CO ON ON t^OO ON ON\O OO ON ON >-inoO ON ON t^ ON ON ON S S r r-,oo ON ON-O oo ON ONVO oo ON ON^O CO ON ON "ioo ON ON r^ ON ON ON . II ON ON\O OOONON COONON OC'ONON ^O CO O\ ONVO CX3ONON OOONON t^ONON * y'vOOOONOv-OOOONGN ^MfOOO'-'rOO" "-i O fO ON O ^ t^O"^'*O t^CXD 4J\OCOONON>-'^r^ONON t^ONON t^ONON t^ONONt^ONONON ^ 4 vO oo ON ON >-<" ^O'O'-.OOOO bo rt 6/5 bo rt o3 bo bx) rt rt * ^f o.s .x; .S. as, a 1 192 RACING. gratefully recorded for invaluable assistance willingly vouch- safed. We hope that our method of arranging these chronicles by stables, instead of chronological sequence, will prove acceptable to the reader. For the sake of easy reference we give the scale of weight for age, as at present generally adopted. It may probably ere long be again subject to revision. 193 CHAPTER XIII. UPON TRAINERS. OF the two sister arts, training and riding, which are the chief auxiliaries of the noble sport of horse-racing, there can be little doubt that since the beginning of this century the former has undergone more radical changes and made more decided advances than the latter. Within the memory of many who are still far from old men, two admirable judges of racing have passed away we refer to Mr. Thomas Thornhill, of Riddles- worth, and to the second Marquis of Exeter who were always ready to maintain that between the best jockey ever tossed into the saddle and a good stable-boy there was no very great differ- ence. 1 'Give me three pounds the best of the weights,' Lord Exeter was in the habit of exclaiming with a characteristic chuckle, ' and I will run the match over again to-morrow, with Norman, whom you call " the post-boy," upon mine, and with anybody you like upon yours.' Sir Joseph Hawley, again, was of opinion that a competent jockey could always be found if the horse was good enough. The fourth Duke of Grafton used to say to Robson, his trainer, ' Let us first find the horse, and then it will be an easy matter to find a jockey to ride him.' But between the best trainers of to-day and their predecessors of sixty years ago and more there is, in some particulars, as much difference as between an express train and an old stage-coach. Speaking broadly, there are now, and there have from the beginning been, but two styles of training the lenient and the severe. No better exponents of these systems could perhaps 1 We strongly hold a contrary opinion, which every day's experience con- firms, as to the very great difference that exists between jockeys, and the advantage of securing the best. ED. O 194 RACING. be found in the last generation than John Scott and John Barham Day ; nor would it be easy to pronounce off-hand which upon the whole was the more successful of the two. Both, however, had learnt all that they were capable of acquiring before two-year-old races and short handicaps had begun to reduce all other contests upon the Turf to insignificance, and if either the ' Wizard of the North ' or the founder of Dane- bury had lived thirty years later, he would perhaps have found it a losing game to compete with Matthew and Joseph Dawson or with old Tom Jennings as trainers of early two-year-olds. Just about the time when John Scott, old John Day, and Thomas Dawson were beginning their careers Robert Robson, who was long spoken of as ' The Emperor of Trainers,' was withdrawing from the profession which had brought him wealth and honour in abundance. Seven Derby winners Waxy, Tyrant, Pope. Whalebone, Whisker, Azor, and Emilius went forth to victory at Epsom from Robson's stables at Lewes and Newmarket between 1793 an d J823, and none of the seven ever started for a two-year-old race. It goes, there- fore, without saying that in the preparation of competitors for two-year-old spins, and for short handicaps, Robert Rob- son and his contemporaries were not 'in it ' with their modern successors. 'Practice makes perfect,' and in the days when great racehorses like Plenipotentiary and Bay Middleton rarely faced the starter until the Craven meeting of their third year, it could not be expected that trainers should be adepts at getting two-year-olds ready for engagements in March and April. On the other hand, the old school of owners and trainers would never have consented to ruin a big colt like Wild Oats, or a slashing filly like St. Helena, by training them for races calcu- lated to tax their powers prematurely with the result attributed in French phrase to men who are resolved at all hazards 1 manger leur ble en herbe? Having made these few initial remarks, we shall proceed to show what strides in advance the art of early training has made since James Edwards, William Chifney, Robert Robson, James UPON TRAINERS 195 Croft, and Richard Boyce were among its most capable exposi- tors. At the commencement of this year, a nobleman was still living, the venerable Earl of Stradbroke, whose undimmed memory recalled not only the battles of Salamanca and Vittoria, at which he was present in 1812 and 1813 in company with his regiment, the Coldstream Guards, but also the best Newmarket trainers at the close of George III.'s reign. To talk with him of other days seem'd converse with old Time, He remembered feats of Bunbury and Mellish in their prime ; Sir Joshua and Filho seem'd but yestreen from his lips Fell tales of colts by Diomed, of matrons by Eclipse. In a communication recently addressed by the late Lord Stradbroke to a weekly journal, the patriarchal owner of Henham Hall gave the exact particulars of the trials in which Sir Joshua (the property of Mr. Neville, afterwards Lord Braybrooke) took part just before the memorable match at Newmarket in which he beat Filho da Puta in 1816. 'I think it very probable,' said Lord Stradbroke, 'that Filho was a little overtrained. The Chifneys, at whose stables he stood, were notoriously severe trainers.' In another letter, Lord Stradbroke added that Mr. Boyce, to whom Lord Stradbroke's father, Mr. Neville, and Lord George Caven- dish (great-grandfather to Lord Hartington) entrusted their horses was ' a most respectable man, but not so clever as Rob- son and the Chifneys.' In no other way, perhaps, can we more forcibly exhibit the alterations and in some respects the im- provements which training has undergone within Lord Strad- broke's lifetime, which ended on January 27, 1886, than by dividing the last seventy-five years into three periods of twenty- five years each. The first, extending from 1810 to 1835, will comprise the careers of Robert Robson, James Croft, Tommy Sykes of Malton, William Chifney, Richard Boyce, and James Edwards. Within the second, extending from 1835 to 1860, will be included those of William Edwards, John Scott, old John Day, 1 1 Young John Day trained Hermit, winner of the Two Thousand Guineas, and Andover, winner of the Derby in 1856. ED. O 2 196 RACING. John Forth, Thomas Dawson, Thomas Parr, Fobert, Thomas Taylor, Montgomery and William Dilly, Henry Wadlow, and the Kents. The third, ranging from 1860 to 1885, will bring us down to the ' spacious times ' of Matthew, Joseph, and John Dawson, of. William I'Anson, Thomas Jennings, and Alexander Taylor, of young John Day, and William Day his brother, of the Osbornes, and Goaters, of Thomas Wadlow, James Dover, Thomas Brown, John Porter, and Robert Peck. To exhaust the materials suggested in the last few lines, it would be necessary to compose a work a longue haleine. With- in the space at our command, we can at best but hope to trace with substantial accuracy a few typical portraits en silhouette. How crude were the notions of our forefathers about the mystic art of training may be gathered from many books, but most of all from Gervase Markham's work, ' How to Choose, Ride, Traine, and Diet both Hunting-horses and Run- ning-horses ' a work published in 1599, and plentifully cited by Mr. J. P. Hore in the first volume of his interesting ' History of Newmarket and Annals of the Turf.' In Chapter IV. (says Mr. Hore) Gervase Markham divulges ' The secrets and art of trayning and diettingthe horse for a course : which we commonly call running Horses.' After contrasting the cocktail with the racer, and pointing out the difference be- tween the former and a horse whose shape, countenance, and demeanour promiseth assurance of great swiftness, it is necessary, in the first place, to see that being fair and fat, when taken from grass, he conforms, in all points of diet, dress, and order, to the rules and regulations set down and observed in training the half-bred horse. For the space of three weeks or a month he should be fed on wheat-straw and oats. Then hay was substituted for the straw, and bread had to be provided, ' which bread shall be made thus : Take a strike of beans, two pecks of wheat, and one peck of rye, grind these together, sift them and knead them with water and bran, and so bake them thoroughly in great loaves ; and after they are a day old at the least your horse may feed on them, but not before.' The orthodox sheeting, exercises, etc., are then set forth in detail. These we need not recapitulate here ; suffice it to UPON TRAINERS. 197 say that when within a fortnight of the date of the race many quaint and exacting duties have to be promptly done and performed. ' Now, lastly,' observes our author, in conclusion of this remark- able chapter, 'as touching the day in which your Horse mustrunne for your wager, thus shall you use him : First, the night before, you shall giue him but a verie little supper, so that he may be passing empty in the morning, when you are to haue him out and ayre him an howre or two before day, taking great care that he empty himselfe thorowly while he is abroade, and then bring him in ; and after you have well rubd all his foure legges, and anoynted them thorowly either with Neates-foot oyle, Treane oyle, Sheepes- foote oyle, or Linceede-oyle, all which be the most excellent oyles that may be for a horse. Then give him this food : Take a good bigge penny white loafe and cut the same all out into toastes, and toaste them against the fire, then steep them in Muskadine, and lay them betweene hote cloathes, and dry them, and so give them to your Horse. This be so comforting and pleasant that your Horse's empties shall little aggrieve him. When he hath eaten this, put on his mussell, giue him great store of lytter, unloose his sursingle that his cloathes may hang loosely upon him, and so let him stand e to take his reste till the howre in which he must be led forth to runne, not suffering any man to come within your stable, for fear of disquieting your Horse. When the howre has come for you to leade him out, gyrd on his cloathes handsomely, bridle him up, and then take your mouth ful of strong Vinegar, and spirt it into your Horse's nosethrils, whereof it will search and open his pypes, making them apt for the receite of wind. This done, leade him to the race, and when you come at the end therefor where you must unclothe him, having the vinegar carried after you, doo the like there, and so bequeath him and your self to God, and good fortune.' Che sard sard. That a great improvement in training was effected between the end of the sixteenth and the commencement of the nine- teenth century is attested by the following passage which we quote from ' Nimrod's ' celebrated, but most inaccurate, article upon the Turf, which appeared in the ' Quarterly Review ' of Juty 1833. That noble gift of Providence, the horse (writes ' Nimrod '), has not been bestowed upon mankind without conditions. The first demand upon us is to treat him well ; but, in order to avail 198 RACING. ourselves of his full power and capacity, we must take him out of the hands of nature and place him in those of art. The * Gentleman's Recreation,' published nearly a century and a half ago, must draw a smile from the modern trainer, when he reads of the quackery to which the racehorse was then subjected, a pint of good sack having been one of his daily doses. Another wiseacre gravely in- forms his readers that only one month is necessary to prepare a horse for a race ; but if he be very fat and foul, or recently taken from grass, he might require two. The same authority has also his juleps and syrups, finishing with the whites of eggs and wine internally administered, and chafing the legs of his courser with train oil and brandy. If these worthies could be brought to life again, it would astonish them to hear that twelve months are now considered requisite to bring a racehorse quite at the top of his mark to the post. The objects of the training groom can only be accomplished by medicine, which purifies the system ; by exercise, which increases muscular strength ; and by food, which produces vigour beyond what nature imparts. To this is added the neces- sary operation of periodical sweating, to remove the superfluities of flesh and fat, which process is more or less necessary to all animals called upon to engage in corporeal exertions beyond their ordinary powers. With either a man or a horse his skin is his complexion ; and whether it be the prize-fighter who strips in the ring, or the racehorse at the starting-post, that has been subjected to this treatment, a lustre of health is exhibited, such as no other system can produce. . . . Some nonsense has been written by the author of a late work (' Scott's Field Sports ') about omitting sweat- ing in the process of training ; but what would the Chifneys say to this ? They are acknowledged to be preeminent in the art, but also to be very severe, perhaps too much so with their horses in work ; and without sweating them in their clothes, they would find it necessary to be much more so than they are. It is quite certain that horses cannot race without doing severe work ; but the main point to be attended to is, not to hurry them in their work. As to resting them for many weeks at a time, as was formerly the case, that practice has long been exploded, and ex- perience has proved that not only the ^acehorse, but also the hunter, is best for being kept going the year round at times, of course, gently. With each, as with man, idleness is the parent of misfortune. It was well known to ' Nimrod's ' contemporaries that he UPON TRAINERS. 199 was a consummate judge of hounds and horses, and of every- thing connected with what Mr. Delme Radcliffe calls ' the noble science of fox-hunting.' Mr. Charles James Apperley's or 'Nimrod's' books, such as ' Remarks on the Condition of Hun- ters, the Choice of Horses and their Management ' (London, 1831); ' Northern Tours, a Description of the principal Hunts in Scotland and the North of England' (London, 1838); 'The Life of a Sportsman' (London, 1842), possess a value from which time can subtract little : but they have reference solely to the hunting-field. ' Nimrod ' was also a fairly good coachman and judge of driving, and had at any rate a long and practical ac- quaintance with the mails and stage-coaches running upon the great high roads which led to London. But when it came to writing about horse-racing, he had to acquire most of his infor- mation at second-hand. As a gentleman jockey he occasionally put in a not discreditable appearance at Hunt meetings, but the frequenters of Newmarket hardly knew him by sight, and he had at best but scanty knowledge of the pedigrees and perform- ances of famous racehorses. The results of his unfamiliarity with the Turf may be seen in swarms of inaccuracies which deface the third and least valuable of his ' Quarterly Review ' essays. To begin with, it owes many of its best passages to acknowledged and unacknowledged plagiarisms. In addi- tion to long quotations from ' Holcroft's Memoirs,' for which credit is given to that jockey-dramatist, 'Nimrod' borrowed largely from Taplin's ' Sporting Dictionary,' published in 1803, while his sketch of Colonel Mellish, said by ' The Druid ' to be the best thing in his Turf essay, was mainly taken from one of Pierce Egan's books. Perhaps, however, the most ridiculous of ' Nimrod's ' many mistakes will be found in the following passage : After quitting Newmarket, his late Majesty (George IV.) was a great supporter of country races, sending his horses to run heats for plates ; and he particularly patronised the meetings at Brighton and Lewes, which acquired high repute. But Bibury was his favourite raceground, where, divesting himself of the shackles of 200 RACING. State, he appeared as a private gentleman and an inmate in Lord Sherborne's family, with the Duke of Dorset, then Lord Sackville, for his jockey. During the last ten years of his Majesty's life, racing appeared to interest him more than ever, and, by the en- couragement he then gave to Ascot and Goodwood, he contributed towards making them the most fashionable and agreeable meet- ings in the world. Perhaps the day on which his three favourite horses, Fleur-de-Lis, Zinganee, and The Colonel, came in first, second, and third for the Cup at the latter place, was one of the proudest of his life. It is not a little remarkable that this last sentence should have been allowed to stand in edition after edition of ' The Chase, the Turf and the Road,' by ' Nimrod,' which the great house of Mr. John Murray has published since 1840. Every- one who was alive in 1830 and took an interest in the Turf during that year could hardly have failed to be aware that the Goodwood Cup won by Fleur-de-Lis was run upon August i2th, and that George IV. died upon June 26. The three horses in question belonged to the ' Sailor King,' William IV., who, when asked by his trainer, William Edwards, what animals were to be sent to Goodwood, characteristically replied, ' Take the whole fleet ; I suppose some of them will win.' It will be inferred, then, that ' Nimrod's ' remarks upon the physiology of the Turf do not seem to us deserving of much attention. Moreover we entertain little doubt that Robert Robson, who retired from the active pursuit of his profession in 1828, would have taken exception to 'Nimrod's' words that ' in order to avail ourselves of the racehorse's full power and capacity, we must take him out of the hands of nature and place him in those of art.' It is notorious that Robson made it his practice to train in conformity with the laws of nature ; that he abhorred hot stables ; that he aimed always to bring his horses full of flesh to the post ; and finally that he set his face resolutely against excessive sweating. So long as Robson lasted, the fourth Duke of Grafton was almost invincible at Newmarket, Ascot, and Epsom ; but when Robson ceased to train his Grace's horses, ' the Grafton scarlet ' was no longer UPON TRAINERS. 201 the object of terror it had long been. While the Chifneys were persistently inflicting upon their Derby horses eight- mile sweats two or three times a week, Robson won the great Epsom race in 1823 with Emilius, to whom he never gave a sweat at all, and it was a saying often on Frank Buckle's lips that in the preparation of a delicate horse Robson was seven pounds ahead of any other trainer. It may, in fact, be fairly doubted whether Matthew Dawson, John Porter, Thomas Wadlow, or any other living trainer is superior to Robert Robson, or to his contemporary James or ' Tiny ' Edwards, in the preparation of three-year-old horses and upwards for their engagements. 1 It was said of James Edwards, whose chief patrons were the fifth Earl of Jersey and Sir John Shelley, that ' he particularly shone in training Derby horses,' and Mr. J. C. Whyte extols him above all his fellows, as ' having acquired the enviable and difficult science of bring- ing his horse into a condition sufficient not merely to win one race but many.' There never was a more fiery and hot- tempered animal, and one more difficult to subdue, than Lord Jersey's Bay Middleton, the last Derby winner that ' Tiny ' Edwards ever had in his hands. Turning for one moment from the art of training to that of soldiership, we may remark that in General von Muffiing's ' Memoir of the Campaigns of 1813, 1814, and 1815,' there is a striking passage which details a con- versation in which Napoleon the Great for once did justice to his English rival, for whom it was well known that he habitually 1 In this connection we may perhaps be permitted to quote the following passage from a letter recently written by Matthew Dawson : ' I do not think the best trainers of to-day are superior, if equal, to Robson, Tiny Edwards, or John Scott in the preparation of three -year-olds and upwards. The younger horses, owing, I believe, to a better system of rearing and of paddock treatment, are more forward and come sooner to hand as yearlings than they did in former days, which, added to a better and more gentle method of training, enables the trainers of to-day to run their two-year-olds earlier, more frequently, and with more precision than they did thirty or forty years ago, and, I may add, with less harm to the animals. How often do we now see two-year-olds run through a season, and winding up, in some cases, by beating the speediest old horses at weight for age in the Houghton Meeting, and coming out in the following spring with fire and stamina quite unimpaired ! ' 202 RACING. cherished a profound dislike and jealousy. Speaking of the Duke of Wellington Napoleon said, * In attack he is almost my equal ; in prudence and patience he is decidedly my superior.' It is from no disposition to undervalue the present that we pronounce Robson, James Edwards of Newmarket, and James Croft of Middleham, to have been fully the equals and, perhaps, the superiors of any trainer now living, in prudence and patience. The preparation of Filho da Puta for the St. Leger of 1815 by James Croft, and of Bay Middleton for the Derby of 1836 by James Edwards, were, at any rate, manifesta- tions of skill, temper, and patience to which, in the more hurried rush of modern times, it would not be easy to show a parallel. Between 1810 and 1835 there were, in addition to Robson, Edwards and Croft, two other trainers deserving of special remark. The first was ' old Tommy Sykes,' as he was habitually called, who lived at Norton, near Malton, and occupied the house and stables now in the possession of Charles Lund. Tommy Sykes was nothing more than a rough training groom of the old-fashioned type, and had also the reputation of being under John Gully's thumb ; but he was identified with all the early triumphs of the horses which belonged to Mr. Richard Watt of Bishop Burton, near Beverley, by whose successes, chiefly for the Doncaster St. Leger, the foundation of Gully's fortunes was laid. Writing of the latter in 1832, just after he had been elected to Parliament by Pontefract, Mr. Charles Greville says : ' About the same time Gully connected himself with Mr. Richard Watt of Yorkshire by betting for him ; and this being at a time when Watt's stable carried all before it, he won large sums of money by Watt's horses.' The secret of the success obtained by Altisidora, Barefoot, Memnon, and Rock- ingham, who won the St. Leger in 1813, 1823, 1825, and 1833 to say nothing of the mighty Blacklock, who, to Mr. Watt's inexpressible disgust, was beaten by Ebor for the same race in 1817 was that their owner superintended their training no less than their breeding with acute and watchful eyes. UPON TRAINERS. 203 ' Dicky Watt ' was pronounced by Lord George Bentinck to be the finest judge of a yearling in the world, and many a lesson in Turf management and in the mysteries of pedigrees was imparted to the future owner of Crucifix by the owner of Black- lock in the Bishop Burton paddocks. Concerning William Chifney, the last of the five trainers whom we have included in the first chapter of our trilogy, a volume might easily be written. It was the custom to speak of him and of his still more famous jockey brother, Samuel, habitually as ' the Chifneys ; ' but all the credit of training Priam, Zinganee and Shillelagh rested with William, the elder of the two. It is but four-and-twenty years since William Chifney died at the age of seventy-eight, but no Turf writer of a younger generation had energy or curiosity enough to gather up from his lips the fragments that remained, so that nothing might be lost. For years before his death (says Mr. Rice, in his * History of the British Turf), William Chifney had been in very poor circum- stances, living in the model lodging-houses at Pentonville, and getting down to his dear Heath when the state of his exchequer admitted of a third-class return ticket to Newmarket. Even then he was sometimes too feeble to get farther than the top of the town, where, with his back to the cemetery wall, he would watch the horses returning to the stables after the races. When it was one of his good days, he braved the blasts of the Heath in an ancient blue coat, and a hat made secure by a parti-coloured ban- dana. In appearance he was like a tall, thin, elderly clergyman, and rather lame ; but he retained all that high-bred manner which marked him as a relic of the Prince Regent's prime. He was gar- rulous, and laudator temporis acti. In his London lodging, or at a Newmarket tavern, he would occasionally gather round him a knot of such as were willing to listen to the traditions of the giants of old. Of his father, of Buckle and Robinson, of Conolly and his own nephew, Frank Butler, he would talk by the hour, but his brother, Sam, he rather affected to pooh-pooh. Then, with pipe in his mouth and a mug of ale before him, William Chifney be- came ' Sir Oracle,' though it was of men rather than horses that he discoursed, Zinganee being the only animal he ever mentioned with pride. 204 RACING. The father of William and Samuel Chifney died within the rules of the Fleet Prison in 1807 at the age of fifty-two. He had been the Prince Regent's jockey from 1784 until 1804, when he was arrested by a saddler named Latchford for debt and thrust into prison, from which death set him free two and a half years later. He had ridden the Prince's Escape in those two memorable races in 1792 which made his Royal Highness eschew Newmarket for ever, and had written * Genius Genuine ' a somewhat flimsy performance in 1795. Like himself, his two sons were destined to bite the hard crust of adversity. When * Nimrod ' wrote his Turf article in the ' Quarterly Review ' of 1833, he spoke of 'the houses of the Chifneys at New- market as stylish things. That of Samuel, the renowned jockey, is upon a large scale and very handsomely furnished ; the Duke of Cleveland occupied apartments in it for several years during the meetings. That of William Chifney, the trainer, is still larger, and perhaps, barring Crockford's, the best in Newmaket.' Such was the text as it came from ' Nim- rod's ' pen ; but in a note appended at the foot of the page occur the following melancholy words : ' We are sorry to have to state that a reverse of fortune has been the lot of the Chifneys, and that the houses mentioned above are in the hands of their creditors.' Samuel the jockey died at Brighton, a pensioner upon Frank Butler, his nephew, and is buried in Hove churchyard; William died in 1862, as we have already stated, in very poor circumstances. Both brothers were far too easy-going and careless in money matters : but the end of William, who was as industrious and active as Sam was the reverse, should have been very different. It was necessary for a horse to have limbs of iron and a constitution a toute epreuve to stand William Chifney's training ; but those able, like Priam and Zinganee, to endure it seldom failed to stay home. It was on the model of the Chifneys that old John B. Day, and his two sons John Day and William Day, laid down the rules which guided them in their racing operations, and in his useful and instructive work, * The Racehorse in Training,' the latter UPON TRAINERS. 205 remarks, ' Show me a better system and I shall be happy to adopt it.' The second period upon which we have set ourselves to discourse, extends from 1835 to 1860, and includes William Edwards (the son of James Edwards), John Scott, old John Day, John Forth, Thomas Dawson, Thomas Parr, Fobert, Thomas Taylor, the Dillys, Henry Wadlow, and the Kents. At the beginning of this epoch there were but 210 two-year- olds pulled out in the course of a twelvemonth, whereas in 1860 no less than 608 animals of this age faced the starter. Within these twenty-five years, the three-year-olds, of which there were nearly 400 in 1840 against 213 two-year-olds, sank in 1860 below the two-year-olds, of which, in the latter year, there were 608 against 521 three-year-olds. The mischief had thus been started of which, within our own time, it may be truly said : Hoc fonte derivata tabes In patriam populumque fluxit. We entertain no doubt that the excess of two-year-old racing and of short handicaps has exercised a deteriorating effect upon the noble animal all over the world, and that ' while '- in the words employed by General Peel before Lord Rosebery's Committee ' as good horses are bred now as ever, there are not so many of them relatively to the bad.' Nevertheless, between 1835 and 1860, the forcing system of training which has now been developed, and especially at Newmarket, to the highest pitch of perfection, had hardly commenced. Perhaps the three most typical trainers of the era in question were John Scott, old John Day, and Thomas Dawson. Whatever other differences there may have been be- tween them, all three were of one mind in requiring a horse, when about to run ' for the stuff,' to be in good condition, but as to what good condition meant there was some diversity of opinion between them. Almost without exception every animal, of whatever age or sex, trained at Danebury by old John Day was brought to the post light. There were horses under his 2o6 RACING. charge, like Venison, who could thrive on any amount of galloping, and they had it to their heart's content. But of the colts and fillies got by Bay Middleton, which belonged to Lord George Bentinck, and passed through John Day's hands, a vast majority broke down from overwork before they came to the post at all. When Gaper, who gave John Scott the greatest fright of his life in Cotherstone's Derby, left Hampshire as a yearling and was handed over to the Kents at Goodwood, the master of Danebury thought that the horse's legs would never stand training ; yet under the able management of the Kents, he started twenty-one, and won nine, times, and was still sound when taken out of training. The truth is, that when old or young John Day got hold of a hardy animal like the Hero, Virago, or Lecturer, they brought him or her to the post fit to run for a man's life. But in the severe system adopted at Danebury as many horses gave way as under the Chifneys. As an instance, we may mention the case of Oulston, by Melbourne out of Alice Hawthorne, who was probably the best horse of his year, except Wild Dayrell. Oulston belonged to Mr. Padwick, and was trained by old John Day at Findon. He was laid against steadily for the Derby, as the public fancied him and stood him for a lot of money, his owner believing all the time that he had as good or a better horse in St. Hubert. After the Derby, for which Oulston did not start, he was pulled out for the Queen's Vase at Ascot, with the expectation thai: his sup- posed want of condition would stop him, and that he would run last. To the consternation of his owner and trainer, the horse was never headed and won in a canter, squandering five competitors. Young John Day not unnaturally conceived that if Oulston when in no condition was so good, he could make him a 2 1 -Ib. better horse after a few weeks at 'Danebury. Accordingly, he induced the late Mr. Elwes to give Mr. Padwick 6,500 guineas for the spanking son of Alice Hawthorne. The horse passed into the Danebury stable, and might as well have passed into his grave. For the Ebor St. Leger he met and was easily beaten by \Vild Dayrell, who carried 6 Ibs. extra for winning the UPON TRAINERS. 207 Derby, and had a leg which prevented his being trained, and broke him down soon afterwards in the Doncaster Cup. Oulston was brought out to run at York as thin as a hurdle, or, in other words, a worse animal by 2 st. than when, with no preparation, he had galloped away with the Queen's Vase at Ascot. Precisely the same circumstance happened in 1884 with Stockholm. The mare won the Goodwood Stakes with- out difficulty when she had done little work ; but when elabo- rately prepared for the Cesarewitch, in which she was heavily Trained light and running big. backed by her party, she ran a 2i-lb. worse animal than at Goodwood. The truth is that nature, like whist, never forgives a mistake. There are horses which require to be trained, as the phrase runs, round a pocket-handkerchief; there are others which can hardly have too much galloping. The error, as it seems to us, of the system adopted by the Chifneys and the Days, is that they treated all their horses alike, and subjected them to a Spartan discipline which some, and, as we think, the majority, could not endure. William Day tells us, in his ' Racehorse in 2o8 RACING. Training,' that John Scott tickled the public taste by making believe that horses ran best when fat. ' In reality, the horses which he ran big were those that were bad. His good horses he took care to run light, as other experienced trainers did.' William Day adds that the lightest two-year-old he ever saw run was Dervish at Epsom, and the lightest three-year-old West Australian at Doncaster. But he forgets that against these two instances may be set a host of others, in which horses trained at Whitewall ran big, and won great races. There are few now living who witnessed and can recall Satirist's St. Leger in 1841. Yet it is notorious that Lord Westminster's colt was at least a stone worse than Coronation, whom he beat by superior con- dition : that condition did not prevent his coming big to the post a requirement which the Marquis of Westminster exacted from his trainer in regard to all the Eaton horses. One of the finest manifestations of John Scott's judgment was displayed in connection with Mr. G. Watts's Irish colt, The Baron, who was beaten in 1845 for the Liverpool St. Leger, and with whom John Scott undertook to win the Doncaster St. Leger about seven weeks later, if the horse were sent to Whitewall. That promise was faithfully carried out ; and when The Baron won the St. Leger, and again when he won the Cesarewitch, he was pronounced by the great Sir Tatton Sykes to be fit to carry a heavy man out hunting. Again, the condition of Lord Derby's Canezou, when she ran second, after a desperate race, to Lord Clifton's Surplice for the St. Leger of 1848, left nothing to be desired on the score of bigness. The fact is that, trained light, Canezou could not beat a hack. Finally, no animal ever came to the post in more superb fettle than Newminster, when he won the St. Leger of 1851, and, being the most delicate of horses, he required very gentle and judicious handling. There were undoubtedly some legitimate grounds for censuring the administration of John Scott's stable, upon which we need not touch ; but in his diagnosis of the animal entrusted to his charge, no trainer ever had a clearer vision than the ' Wizard of the North.' His preparation of three-year-olds and of old UPON TRAINERS. 209 horses, when he wished them to go to the post in first-rate form was admirable, and, alone among trainers, he never allowed his Derby or St. Leger favourite to gallop on the day before the race. As regards the training of two-year-olds, he had become an old man before he seriously understood that thenceforward he would have to regard it as the most important part of his professional business. Perhaps the best all-round trainer of the three was Thomas Dawson, from whom his three brothers Matthew, Joseph, and John Dawson learnt in great measure the mysteries of their difficult and responsible craft. Thomas Dawson, who trained at Middleham from 1830 until he died there in 1881, was not supported, as a rule, by such wealthy and fashionable patrons as gave their adhesion to Danebury and Whitewall. He dealt, therefore, with a rougher class of animal than his two great rivals, and turned them f as it must be admitted, to excellent account. Perhaps the brightest ex- emplification of his skill was displayed in the preparation of Lord Eglinton's Blue Bonnet for the St. Leger of 1842, of Admiral Harcourt's Ellerdale for the Great Yorkshire Stakes of 1847, and of his Ellington for the Derby of 1856. It was always the keynote of Tom Dawson's system, as of that of his three brothers, that horses differ as much in temperament and constitution as human beings. A recent writer has spoken of him thus : Mr. Thomas Dawson, of Middleham, is the originator of the modern and improved system of training thoroughbreds. He was the first to see the fallacies of the old method, and to act upon his own well-considered opinions. He did away with the drenchings, profuse sweatings, and short supplies of water, introducing in their stead plenty of old oats and hard work. Mr. Matthew Dawson to this day often quotes ' My brother Tom ' as an oracle on horseflesh, and the thanks of owners are justly due to him for the radical and salutary change he has effected in the training world. Upon this passage we may remark, first, that Joseph Daw- son was more in the habit of quoting ' my brother Tom ' with p 210 RACING. admiration than Matthew Dawson has ever been ; and, secondly, that, as we have already shown, the first great improvement in the art of training was introduced at Newmarket by Robert Robson. It is true, however, that a finer trainer than Thomas Dawson, especially for long-distance races, never entered a loose box, and, like all his brothers, he deservedly enjoyed the repu- tation of being one of the best fellows and most honest men that ever breathed. Before quitting the second chapter of our trilogy, we have a few words to say upon the vast advantage which it is to a trainer to have a good wife. Two of those mentioned in our list old John Day and William I'Anson owed almost every- thing to the women whom they married early in life, and found, in Solomon's words, to be more precious than rubies. There is no calling, indeed, in which industry, early rising and sobriety are of more value than in that of a trainer, and its richest prizes fall, as a rule, to those who most deserve them by hard work, rigid attention to business, and temperate habits. This portion of our narrative will not be fitly closed without a brief recital of the labours endured by the still living John Kent when he trained for Lord George Bentinck and the late Duke of Richmond, between 1841 and 1846. During most of that time John Kent, junior (his father was still living, but the heat and . burden of the day fell upon the son), had under his charge about 120 horses in training, 60 brood-mares, from 40 to 50 yearlings, and the same number of foals, four or five stallions, and 28 cart-horses. The latter were constantly employed to do work upon the racecourse and gallops at Goodwood, such as removing soil, rolling turf, making roads, and carting tan from Chichester. Turning from the equine to the human contingent, we find that John Kent had 95 men and boys to manage in the stables, 14 or 15 in the paddocks, and at one time not less than 125 labourers en- gaged in making and improving the gallops upon which the squadron of horses in training took their exercise. Five women were also employed daily in filling in and levelling the tracks UPON TRAINERS. 211 and indentations made by the feet of the horses when they gal- loped. On the average of each year Kent had from 40 to 50 horses running at the Goodwood meeting, and one year he started no less than 75 during the four days, all of which he saddled with his own hands. Upon one occasion the home stable won i4,ooo/. (then regarded as an enormous sum) during the week, including such stakes as the Ham, Gratwicke, 300 sovs. for four-year-olds, 300 sovs. for two-year-olds, the Lavant, the 200 sovs. for two-year-olds, the Racing Stakes, and several more. The engagements which Kent made yearly for Lord George were enormous, involving in forfeits alone such annual sums as i5,ooo/., i6,ooo/., and, in 1845, i8,ooo/. As might naturally be expected, the management and control of such a stud imposed an amount of labour upon its head the like of which no other trainer was ever subjected to. Lord George, as Mr. Greville says of him, ' did nothing by halves ; ' and his correspondence with Kent, consisting often of letters filling four, five, and even six sheets of note-paper, gave earnest of the capacity for work which he devoted during the last two years of his life to his newly-assumed duties as a politician. It will readily be believed that Kent seldom had more than four hours in bed, and that during the racing season he was travelling most nights, always, however, in a first-class railway carriage, upon which Lord George insisted for more reasons than one. The annual expense of travelling with Lord George's horses amounted to about 3,5oo/. or 3,6oo/. ; but, before the railway era had commenced, the work of getting from Goodwood to various race-meetings was still more laborious. It took, for instance, seven days to go with horses from Goodwood to Newmarket, four to Epsom and Ascot, and nearly a fortnight to Doncaster. In a single day Kent had often to employ three horses, under saddle or in harness, to get through the work. After the introduction of vans, first designed by Lord George in 1836, the expenses of locomotion were prodigiously augmented. In order to convey his horses to the scene of action, it was frequently necessary for Kent to leave Goodwood with three double and two single vans, p 2 212 RACING. which altogether required eight pairs of post-horses to drag them, at a cost of two shillings per mile for each pair, includ- ing ostler, post-boy, and turnpike gates. Not a single race- horse would Lord George ever allow to travel on the hoof when vans had been introduced. Even his yearlings were conveyed in vans from Danebury to Goodwood ; and Kent, who superintended their removal himself, had to travel backwards and forwards day after day with three double vans, starting from Goodwood at 4 A.M., and getting back there at 8 P.M. the distance there and back being 94 miles each day. Gaper (wrote Kent recently to a friend) was broken as a yearling by me. He ran three times as a two-year-old in 1842, winning a small stake at Goodwood, and the Criterion at New- market, in which he beat Cotherstone. He ran fifteen times as a three-year-old, and won seven races. Like his sire, Bay Middleton, he was a very high-couraged horse, and did not like to be checked or harshly ridden, to which Sam Rogers more than once subjected him. In his trials at home he was a good horse, Abdale being upon him, without whip or spur. About a week before the Derby he beat Discord, an old horse, a long way at 7 Ibs. over a mile and a quarter, and with four others in the trial. Discord then went to Epsom and won the Craven Stakes, beating Alice Hawthorne and Knight of the Whistle. As regards my personal labours and fatigues, I have long felt certain that I could not have endured them but for great abstemiousness and non-smoking. When Princess Alice won the Champagne at Doncaster, Lord George gave instructions that, in addition to supplying champagne at the dinner held that evening at the Turf Tavern (then kept by Mrs. Bowe, the widow of Mr. Bowe, in whose name his Lordship's horses used once to run), an unlimited amount of wine of all kinds was to be distributed. I remember that my bill for the extra wine and cigars consumed that evening was 73/. Again, when Miss Elis won the Goodwood Stakes and Cup in 1845, Lord George won 26,ooo/., and gave presents to everyone employed in his racing establishment. All this was a great tax upon me, and at last my health gave way, and I was obliged to rest for a time, but soon recovered, and think I could go through the whole again as well as ever. Such was the every. day life of a still active and evergreen UPON TRAINERS. 213 trainer, who certainly was not ' rocked in the cradle of luxury ; ' nor was he of the same type as some of his modern successors. John Kent and his contemporaries belonged to a very dif- ferent school, and the labours which he ordinarily endured were greatly augmented when Lord George was at Goodwood. Upon those occasions John Kent, after passing the whole day with his exacting master, was frequently sent for after dinner, and kept up until i or 2 o'clock A.M. Whenever Kent went to London, Lord George's positive orders were that he should report himself at Harcourt House, Cavendish Square, be the hour of his arrival what it might. . Sometimes (he adds) I was engaged trying a few horses, and exercising others at 3 P.M., when I would set out for London. Upon arriving, I used to go to White's Club, in St. James' Street, where his Lordship dined, generally about midnight. He would talk to me the whole time at dinner, and for some time after, and would then order a cab and drive with me to Harcourt House, where he kept me talking till three, four, or even five o'clock in the morning. I then had to leave London by the first train, and frequently had only time to wash and eat breakfast, which his Lordship ordered for me. I verily believe that if I could have fancied fried sove- reigns I should have had them at his table. There was, in fact, no limit to his Lordship's thoughtfulness and kindness. For such a noble and generous master I felt I could never do enough. If supported by energy, zeal, and fidelity, his Lordship would provide means to any extent. We come now to the last act in our little drama, which essays within a few brief pages to sketch the outlines of an art which has been in vogue ever since Gervase Markham pub- lished his quaint old book in 1599, and even from a still earlier date. Between 1860 and 1885 the exhaustive system of dis- counting the prowess of a three-year-old by running him ten, twelve, or perhaps twenty times as a two-year-old, has estab- lished itself so firmly as to forbid its eradication in the years to come. We have no objection to the early and repeated starting of small and compact two-year-olds, and it is of course possible that the totally unparalleled victories of The Bard in 1885 214 RACING. may have no ill effect upon his performances later in life. For better or for worse, it seems to be an inexorable law that nearly one thousand two-year-olds should now be stripped in public during the course of each successive twelvemonth, and, such being the case, no nation in the world can compare with ours in the skill of the trainers who handle and bring again and again to the post young and delicate racehorses, which, in the words employed by Edmund Burke in a very different connection, ' are still in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of maturity.' The method seems to answer, in that it sheds increased lustre upon the Turf by the excellence of the two-year-olds which it brings to the post. For many years there has not been such a batch of good youngsters seen in public as Minting, Ormonde, Saraband, The Bard, Philosophy, Bread- Knife, Braw Lass, Kendal, Modwena, Gay Hermit, Travancore, Mephisto, Volta, Miss Jummy, The Devil to Pay, Jacobite, Ste. Alvere, Deuce of Clubs, and Prince lo. Had it been possible that a race between this lot could take place for the Two Thousand Guineas or Derby, it would have pleaded trumpet - tongued for the style of Turf management which could produce a contest invested with so thrilling an interest. The old school of trainers would have been powerless to do full justice to the host of fine upstanding two-year-olds which went into winter quarters after the season of 1885. It remains for us at present to describe in a few words the arts and appliances by which animals not yet twenty-four months old are able to wear the appearance of mature hunters presented by Minting, Ormonde, Saraband, Kendal, and Gay Hermit. Of the forcing system now applied to stallions, brood-mares, foals, and yearlings, there were no two better exponents than the late Joseph Dawson and the late William Blenkiron. As regards his stallions, the latter exacted from them as much slow exercise as a first-class rider across country imposes upon his hunters in the months of September and October. Resi- dents in the neighbourhood of Eltham were familiar with the spectacle of Blair Athol, Gladiateur, Marsyas, Breadalbane, UPON TRAINERS. 215 King John, and other sires, as they walked or trotted for hours daily along the adjacent roads, led by a man on foot, or in some cases by one mounted on a pony. As regards their brood- mares, the old slovenly system which found favour in the eyes of Sir Charles Bunbury, Sir Charles Monck, Admiral Harcourt, Sir Tatton Sykes, and Thomas Dawson, gave place, under the supervision of Joseph Dawson and Mr. Blenkiron, to greater discrimination in the choice of food and to less exposure to rain ' Many a foal wore the appearance of a yearling.' and weather. When the foal was born, Joseph Dawson was of opinion that 'the best was not good enough for him.' How- ever fecund a milker his mother might be, the founder and owner of Bedford Lodge insisted that the foal should drink the richest Alderney milk. Stimulating food of all kinds, suited to his delicate digestion and tempting to his immature appetite, was placed within his reach, the result being that, before Christmas came round, many a foal gambolling in the paddocks behind Joseph Dawson's house wore the appearance of a yearling. 216 RACING. Shortly after the first recurrence of his birthday, the youngster began to stretch himself out in the gallop as though he under- stood the business for which he had come into the world. The finest Scotch oats, imported to Newmarket from the Carse o' Cowrie, and crushed before consumption, old hay (such as the last Lord Wilton but one, or Mr. Stirling Crawfurd, would have given to their hunters), mixed with carrots or vetches, ex- panded the youngster's powers, assisted his growth, and tended to convert him into a galloping machine. His handling when broken, his early trials in the autumn, and the training to which he was subjected throughout the winter, if wanted to run at Lincoln or Northampton, had the natural effect of developing in him a precocity at which John Scott and the trainers before him had no notion of aiming. Such was the system by which Joseph Dawson gained his reputation as a consummate artist in the preparation of early two-year-olds, a system in which Matthew Dawson and Thomas Jennings are equally proficient. Critics who believe that the highest aim and object with which the thoroughbred foal comes into the world is not that he should be a superlative two-year-old, and should go out of training at the end of his third year, have abounded in the past, and will, we entertain no doubt, continue to abound in the future. The three most noticeable members of this school within the last thirty years were Sir Charles Monck, of Belsay Hall, Northumberland ; Mr. Thomas Parr, of Benhams, near Wantage; and Mr. E. Phillips, of Bushbury, near Wolverhamp- ton. Each of the three owned and bred a lot of good horses in his time, and each was always ready to maintain his unalter- able conviction that superior three-year-olds and stout mature horses are more likely to be secured by scanty food, including hardly any oats, by rough treatment, and plentiful exposure to the elements in their youth, than by the forcing and pampering system which goes to the creation of Brocklesby and Althorp Park winners. ' I give them plenty of Belsay grass, hay, and water, and nothing else,' exclaimed Sir Charles Monck to afriend with whom he was inspecting the Belsay yearlings, among which UPON TRAINERS. 217 Vindex, by Touchstone out of Garland the winner of the Champagne Stakes in 1852, and as fine a colt as ever looked through a bridle was included. Thomas Parr maintained that to the Spartan discipline, the ice-cold stables, the one light rug over their loins in the depth of winter, and the scanty feeds of oats with which he regaled the appetites of his horses, were due the successes of Fisherman and Rataplan, of Weathergage, Mortimer and Saucebox. To a still higher degree, however, than the other two, Mr. Phillips of Bushbury carried the starving regime to which he attributed the birth in his paddocks of Truth (by the Libel), who won the Cambridgeshire in 1851, of Gunboat, Lifeboat and Kohinoor. Among the freaks and vagaries of the ' Stud Book ' that storehouse so suggestive of endless thought and study to those who are capable of digesting it aright nothing is more curious than the history of Sir Her- cules, by Whalebone out of Peri one of the most celebrated stallions ever reared in these islands. Sir Hercules was born in 1826 and died in 1855. Three or four years before his death he became the property of Mr. Phillips for a few sovereigns. When he reached Bushbury the gallant old horse was a bag of bones. Under the judicious care of Mr. Phillips he soon revived, and from the first mare mated with him, when he was twenty- seven years old, sprang Gemma di Vergy. In the same year (1853) Sir Hercules got Gunboat, in 1854 Lifeboat, and in 1855 Topsail all of them being from the same mare, Yard Arm by Sheet Anchor. We have perhaps said enough to indicate our conviction that in the management of big three-year-olds and four-year- olds, it would be hard for any modern trainer to teach much to Robson, Edwards, Croft, the Days, John Scott, the Kents, or Tom Dawson. It is, however, equally certain that the best living professors of the art of preparing horses for their engage- ments have made enormous strides in advance of their prede- cessors as regards the rapid development of two-year-olds, and the faculty of bringing them out to run frequently in public. We must not omit to notice that, in transporting his horses 2i8 RACING. backwards and forwards from England to France, and getting them to run up to their best form in both countries within a few hours of their arrival from a long land and sea voyage, Tom Jennings has had no rival for the last thirty years. To these giants of the past a younger generation of trainers, not inferior in merit to their able predecessors, is rapidly suc- ceeding. At Newmarket, Joseph Cannon, private trainer to Lord Rosebery ; Hayhoe, acting in the same capacity to Mr. Leopold de Rothschild ; Gilbert, who trains for Lord Cadogan ; Charles Archer, who numbers ' Mr. Manton ' among his em- ployers ; and young John Dawson, who is patronised by Lord Ellesmere and Mr. Rupert Carrington, give excellent promise of attaining the highest position in their trying profession. At Danebury, Thomas Cannon, although blessed thus far with little luck, is so intelligent and well-mannered, and has such sympathy with the horses under his charge, that we trust a revival through his agency of the ancient glories of the Stock- bridge Downs is not far distant in the future. John Porter, honoured at Kingsclere with the distinguished patronage of the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Westminster, maintains the record of triumphs he won in Sir Joseph Hawley's era. The mention of Sir Joseph Hawley also specially calls to mind Alex. Taylor, of Manton, a thoroughly honest and most capable man, who has in his time done admirable service for Sir Joseph, Mr. George Payne, Mr. Charles Greville, the Marquis of Ailesbury, Mr. Stirling Crawfurd, of bygone celebrities, and still gives the most complete satisfaction to the Duke of Beau- fort, Mr. ' Manton,' and other employers. Among the many races which have been won by horses under Alex. Taylor's care may be mentioned the Derbies of 1851 with Teddington and of 1878 with Sefton ; the Oaks of 1881 with Thebais ; the St. Leger of 1860 with St. Albans, and of 1878 with Craig Millar. At Beckhampton, young Sam Darling has enlarged and improved the stables formerly occupied by the horses of Sir William Gregory and Mr. Graham, and bids fair soon to turn out another Clermont, and another Regalia and Formosa. At UPON TRAINERS. 219 Lambourne, Humphreys and Jousiffe are steady, careful, and vigilant trainers ; while at Stanton, Thomas Wadlovv still ex- hibits the same skill and secrecy which long ago won him the favour of the first Lord Wilton, and of that superlative judge of racing, Colonel Henry Forester. Finally, there is one trainer the doyen of his profession who has just retired from the command of the largest and most successful training establishment in the world, to enjoy, we hope, many years of well-earned repose. It is now not far from six- and-forty years since Matthew Dawson accompanied Lord Kel- burne's Pathfinder from Gulhane in Scotland to Epsom, where the colt ran unplaced for the Derby of 1840. From that day to this the same experienced trainer has been actively and laboriously engaged in the pursuit of a profession which has brought him abundant laurels, and crowned him with as many triumphs as ever fell to any of his predecessors or contem- poraries. To enumerate the winners of the Derby, Oaks, St. Leger, Two Thousand, One Thousand, and of a hundred other races winners which have come forth from Matthew 7 Dawson's stables at Middleham, Russley, and Newmarket were equi- valent, in Virgil's phrase, ' to counting the waves which beat on the Libyan shore.' The last year of his career at Heath House witnessed, perhaps, the proudest of Matthew Dawson's many triumphs. With Melton, despite the horse's bowed sinew, he carried off the Derby and St. Leger ; with Minting, one of the biggest and heaviest two-year-olds that ever ran, he achieved five victories without once experiencing the bitterness of defeat. As Sir Joshua Reynolds, lecturing for the last time at the Royal Academy, desired that the final words syllabled by his lips in that place should be ' the immortal name of Michael Angelo,' so we cannot end this necessarily brief and imperfect disquisition upon trainers more appropriately than by recom- mending future votaries of that arduous craft to emulate the unblemished integrity, the strict attention to duty, and the large-hearted sympathy which have won world-wide fame for Matthew Dawson. 220 RACING. CHAPTER XIV. UPON JOCKEYS. ALTHOUGH it is the fashion among the younger generation to imagine that every winner of a handicap who carries an unusually high weight is 'the horse of the century,' it is obviously becoming difficult to apply this high-sounding and hypothetical title to each of the swift succession of animals by which the record of the past has been broken of late years. Within the last decade the title in question has been be- stowed upon eight animals Rosebery, Isonomy, Barcaldine, Robert the Devil, Foxhall, St. Gatien, St. Simon, and Plaisan- terie the last five of which established their right to bear the title at the early age of three years. In like manner, we shall probably awaken irritation in the breasts of those who have not been on the Turf for more than a dozen years if we say that there have been many jockeys between 1785 and 1885 who were at least the equals of the four or five * consummate artists ' now lauded and extolled to excess by the contributors to the daily sporting press. There are, to say the truth, certain exercises and accomplishments in which the human frame cannot attain a higher perfection in one age than in another ; and of these the art of jockeyship is undoubtedly one. Simi- larly (if we may use such a comparison), Lord Macaulay tells us, in one of his famous essays, that ' as regards natural religion revelation being for the moment altogether left out of the question it is not easy to see that a philosopher of the present day is more favourably situated than Thales or Simonides.' Between the perfection of Job Marson's finish upon Nutwith for the Doncaster St. Leger of 1843 and Fred Archer's pre- UPON JOCKEYS. 221 cisely similar finish upon Jannette for the same race in 1878, there is, for instance, no more difference than between the value of the rationalistic speculations as to the immortality of the human soul indulged in by Thales twenty-five hundred years since, and those indulged in by Benjamin Franklin at the close of last century. Putting revelation aside, to which Thales was anterior, and in which Franklin was no believer, the earlier philosopher had before him just the same evidences of design in the structure of the universe, arguing the existence of a Creator, as were open to the later. Thus, if we may be per- mitted for a moment to compare the very little with the infinitely great, there was nothing conducive to skill in horse- manship which Frank Buckle, who flourished from 1783 to 1831, had not as much at his command as the celebrated jockey who won the Two Thousand Guineas, the Epsom Derby, the Grand Prix de Paris, and the Doncaster St. Leger during the year 1885. We may go farther, and say that Frank Buckle gifted, perhaps, with as fine a character as a pro- fessional jockey ever bore was as great a favourite with our predecessors of three generations since as any of his living successors is with the racing world of to-day. When, in 1823, Buckle (for the third time) carried off the Derby and Oaks, upon Mr. Udny's Emilius, and the Duke of Grafton's Zinc, ' poetry,' in Pierce Egan's words, ' greeted him with her landings,' which we here present to our readers : Though long by the beaux reduced to disgrace, The Buckle's the gem, and the pride of the race. P'or, lo ! this bold jockey's neat dexterous strokes Have crowned him the conq'ror of Derby and Oaks ; When back'd by this rider's consummate address The high-mettled racer feels sure of success. Eclipse was the horse of all horses that ran, But whate'er be our horse, surely Buckle's the man. Oh ! where is a match for a treasure so rare ! Look round the wide world and ye'll ne'er find a pair ; For, trained to the Turf, he stands quite alone, And a pair of such Buckles was never yet known. 222 RACING. We propose in the next few pages briefly to analyse the performances in the pigskin of some of the greatest orna- ments of the British Turf from the commencement of this century to the present hour. Among the dead, there will pass under our review such masters of the art of race-riding as Francis Buckle, Samuel Chifney the younger, James Robinson, Harry Edwards, J. B. Day, William Scott, Tommy Lye, Job Marson, Sam Rogers, Elnathan Flatman, Francis Butler, Alfred Day, 'Tiny' Wells, Thomas French, and Thomas Aldcroft ; while among the living, George Fordham, Henry Custance, John Osborne, James Snowden, Fred Archer, Fred Webb, Thomas Cannon, and Charles Wood will naturally claim notice in these pages. The list both of dead and living jockeys deserving of mention might, perhaps, be still further extended, but we doubt whether we have omitted from it a single name borne by a professional horseman of the very highest rank. Thus from the dead we have excluded Sim Templeman, Charles Marlow, Sam Darling, Arthur Pavis, Patrick Conolly, and James Grimshaw, as belonging to those who, in French parlance, ' brillent au second rang ; ' while among the living there will doubtless be two or three whom their admirers would wish to add to our category. We have, however, set ourselves a task which will more than exhaust the patience of our readers and the space at our command. Every variety of riding and of character demands investigation and analysis at the hands of those who undertake, however perfunctorily, to glance at the careers of the twenty-three jockeys named above. Among the dead we have included but one Tommy Lye whose performance in the saddle was not of the highest class, and him we select more ' to point a moral ' than to ' adorn a tale.' 'We may venture to aver' (exclaimed 'The Druid,' in his * Post and Paddock ' ) ' that a more brilliant quartet of horsemen than Buckle, Chifney, Robinson, and Harry Edwards never issued side by side from the Ditch stables.' Mr. John Gully, who was as intimately acquainted with the dessous des UPON JOCKEYS. 223 cartes of the Turf as any man of his time, has left on record the opinion that, within his experience, which hardly extended beyond 1856, he had known but three inflexibly honest jockeys. His caustic remark applied, of course, to professional horsemen who are now no more, and we shall be wounding no suscepti- bilities by saying that in Mr. Gully's incorruptible trio Frank Buckle was included. The latter was the son of a saddler at Newmarket, and commenced as a lad in the Honourable Richard Vernon's stables at ^ a very early age. His first appearance in public was on Mr. Fantastic tricks at the post. Vernon's bay colt Woll, in 1783, when he rode i Ib. short of 4 st., including his saddle. He continued riding in public until his sixty-fifth year, and from first to last he could go to the scale at 7 st. 1 1 Ibs. with ease. At the very end of his career he showed that his nerve was still unshaken by winning upon Lord Exeter's Green Mantle in the Second October Meeting of 1828, after the mare had played all sorts of fantastic tricks at the starting-post. 224 RACING. And here we may remark that the style in which Buckle and his great contemporary, Sam Chifney, particularly shone was in riding a waiting race. Like Frank Butler and Alfred Day in a later generation, they both abhorred making running, and in this respect both fell under the lash of that consummate judge of racing, the late Mr. Thomas Thornhill of Riddlesworth. * None of your lying off and winning in the last stride for me,' would the owner of Euclid exclaim, with an oath which shook his ponderous frame. ' Lie right in front from the first, and if your horse has a fancy to make running, indulge him with the lead. I'll warrant that he'll get home as well as any of the others.' The Squire of Riddlesworth was of one mind in this respect with Jacob, the stout blacksmith who for many years shod John Scott's horses, and was in the habit of addressing a remonstrance more forcible than polite to Frank Butler, when the latter was tossed into the saddle to ride a Whitewall favourite. ' If I win by the length of my arm, Jacob, won't that do as well,' inquired the great jockey, ' as a couple of lengths ? ' ' Nay, lad, thy foin finishes shorten a man's loif,' rejoined the blunt blacksmith, in his racy Yorkshire dialect. ' What's t'use of having a nag fit to roon if thee wonna mak' use on 'im ? ' It is well known that Robert Robson, ' The Emperor of trainers,' had a great antipathy to jockeys who, in days long anterior to railways, performed their journeys upon wheels. For this reason Frank Buckle, who was for many years the first jockey in Robson's stable, found it necessary to keep some of the best hacks that ever, stepped. Although the winner of the Derby five times, of the Oaks seven times, of the St. Leger twice, and (in his own words) 'of all the good things at Newmarket,' never had occasion to exhaust himself by hard sweating, the life of a jockey between 1800 and 1830 was very different from that of his successors between 1850 and 1880. If we compare (says William Day, in his ' Race-horse in Train- ing ') the work done in old days by jockeys with what is done to-day, we shall find how great are the extremes, and, it may be added, how different the work done by stable-lads as well. It was UPON JOCKEYS. 225 once no uncommon sight to see daily at Newmarket ten or a dozen wasting jockeys returning from an eight-mile walk, thoroughly exhausted. Now, such a thing is scarcely known. Jockeys were then to be seen riding over Newmarket Heath with a light saddle round their waist, in their boots and breeches, carrying their own saddles to the scales, and saddling their own horses. Now, most of them ride in carriages to the course dressed as gentlemen in the very height of the fashion, and having their horses saddled for them. What would such jockeys think of riding from Exeter to Stockbridge on a small pony with their light saddle tied round their waist after the races, and arriving at the latter place in time to ride there ; and then starting in the same fashion for Southampton races? Mr. Montgomery Dilly and my father both did this, when boys, for two consecutive years. Old Mr. Forth, as a boy, used to rise from his bed and walk wasting during the night, in order to keep himself light, besides doing his daily work. And when my father trained he often wasted by walking on the downs while the horses were taking their exercise, which is much more tiring than walking on the road. And yet with all his riding, and with one hundred horses under his charge, he had no one to wait upon him neither valet, amanuensis, nor clerk. Similar cases might be given by scores ', but enough has been said to show how great is the change for the worse, not only as regards the physical capability of, but the in- clination to exert themselves in, the jockeys of the present day. * Take that silly gimcrack away, and bring me a plain snaffle.' Such were the words employed by Sam Chifney the elder, when the Prince Regent, at the close of last century, sent a horse called Knowsley, whom he had bought in Yorkshire, to Guildford, to run for the King's Plate. Knowsley was one of the hardest pullers that ever looked- through a bridle, and had run away in the north with every jockey that crossed him. Great doubts were expressed as to the ability of old Sam Chifney to manage such a refractory brute, and many of the Prince's friends went down to see the fun. The horse was brought out with a tremendous curb bridle such as the Mexicans use for breaking their bronchos in his mouth ; but was sent back to his stable with the contemptuous request that a simple snaffle should be substituted for the curb. Sam Chifney then got into the saddle, and it became evident at once that he had Q 226 RACING. entire control over his insubordinate mount. Knowsley won in a canter, and as he passed the Judge's chair, his jockey leant back, according to his wont, in the saddle, and left the slackened rein upon the horse's neck. There have been many Newmarket jockeys who exemplified more forcibly than the Chifneys, father and son, the truth of the Psalmist's axiom, ' So long as thou doest well to thyself men will speak well of thee ; ' but two finer horsemen were never seen upon the classic Heath. Their names are inseparably connected with the Chifney rush and the slack rein, and their style of finish was admirably portrayed in the picture of Baronet, by Stubbs, with the elder Sam Chifney upon his back. To explain his idea as to the way in which a horse should be ridden the same jockey wrote ' Genius Genuine,' in which the following passage occurs : As the horse comes to the last extremity, finishing his race, he is the better forced and kept straight with manner, and with fine touchings of his mouth. In this situation the horse's mouth should be eased of the weight of his rein ; if not, it stops him more or less. If a horse is a slug he should be forced by his rider's manner up to this style of running, and particularly so if he has to make play, or he will run the slower and jade the sooner for want of it. The phrase at Newmarket is that you should hold your horse together so as to ease him in running. When horses are in great distress they cannot face that visible manner of pulling; they must be allowed to ease themselves an inch at a time as their situation will allow. This should be done as though you had a silken rein as fine as a hair, and were afraid of breaking it. Trained from his earliest childhood by an intelligent and vigilant father, young Sam Chifney was the beau ideal of a long- legged jockey. He was born in the autumn of 1786, and began to receive lessons in riding from his father when no more than three stone in weight. Many was the race upon a course of 300 yards, laid out under cover of the Warren Hill plantation, in which the pair rode against each other, the elder on his hack, and the boy upon a pony. Every phase of finishing (says ' The Druid ') was compressed within the lesson. Sam would make running, and then his father UPON JOCKEYS. 227 would get to his girths, take a pull, and initiate him into the mysteries of a set-to. The tactics would then be reversed, and Sam taught to get up and win by a head in the last stride, and to nurse his pony and come with a tremendous rush, which, however, did not supersede the favourite slack-rein system. Sam almost lived on his pony, and Dennis Fitzpatrick, who died in his forty- second year, used to look forward to the day when the father and son would challenge him right and left at the winning chair. ( By the powers,' he used to say, as he cantered by them when engaged ; " ^^^^ !i ^ i ^i^ : r^^ 'H5&--. Paternal instruction. at this game, ' it's not fair ; Buckle and I will be having old Sam and Sam's son down on us soon.' Yet with all their artifice and resource in the saddle, no one acquainted with their lives and deaths would care to set the two Chifneys up on high as examples worthy of imitation by their successors. The father died, as we have recorded in the previous chapter, at the age of fifty- two in the debtors' ward of the Fleet prison. The son, who, together with his trainer- brother, Will, had sat as a boy upon the Prince Regent's knee, and received a guinea from his royal hand, was far from meriting the character given to his rival and contemporary, of whom it was said that the sun might as easily be turned Q 2 228 RACING. from his course as Frank Buckle from the path of honour and duty. The younger Sam Chifney was, indeed, the laziest of mortals. Mount after mount was refused by him rather than exert himself to travel a few miles away from New- market, and even upon the Heath itself he was constantly too late to ride a trial or a race in which he had promised to take part. Although the title of ' Old Screw ' was bestowed upon him by his contemporaries, it had nothing to do with financial thrift. To the close of Will Chifney's life we adverted in the last chapter, and that of Sam Chifney ended at Brighton, where he had long been in receipt of a pension from Frank Butler his nephew. In one respect, however, residents of the British metropolis have been gainers during the last thirty years by the dishonesty of Sam Chifney, the younger. For the Derby of 1812 Mr. W. N. W. Hewett's Manuella, ridden by Chifney, started first favourite at 7 to 2. She failed to get a place, and her owner, who had backed her for a very large sum, was ruined. In the Oaks she started at 20 to i, and was ridden by William Peirse. One single bet of 2000 to 100 was taken about her, not by her owner or trainer, but by the jockey who had ridden her for the Derby, and knew that she would win the Oaks in a canter, which she did. Mr. Hewett, accompanied by a large family of boys, transferred himself to Paris, and it was in the hospitals of the French metropolis that one of his sons acquired the rudiments of surgery. In this manner a later generation of Englishmen have had cause to thank the corrupt riding of Chifney in the Derby of 1812 for one of the most accomplished surgeons that ever lived the present Sir Prescott Hewett. A better illustration of the rascally and unscrupulous type of jockey than the one-eyed Harry Edwards it would be impos- sible to select from the list given above. He was one of the many sons of James, or 'Tiny,' Edwards, who trained for Lord Jersey and Sir John Shelley, and astonished the Prince Regent during one of his visits to Newmarket by ' the multi- tude of jockeys ' to whom he and his wife had given birth. UPON JOCKE YS. 229 Among these sons were included William Edwards (who was George IV.'s last trainer, and received a pension and the lease of the Palace stables at Newmarket for life after the decease of * the voluptuous monarch '), and George Edwards, who won the Derby on Phosphorus. Harry Edwards was one of the most accomplished finishers that ever got into a saddle, but, in the words of the author of 'The Bye-Lanes and Downs of England,' ' he would rather nobble for a pony than get a hundred by fair means.' He was engaged for some years as second jockey to John Scott's stable, but was dismissed after he had pulled Epirus in a race at Wolverhampton under the very eyes of Bill Scott, who was himself mounted upon the favourite, but had backed Epirus heavily through Colonel Anson. Harry Edwards's end was such as might have been expected and as he himself deserved. When he could no longer command a mount upon the English Turf, he transferred himself to Nantes, in France, where he trained, rode, and nobbled in a small way. Even on the other side of the Channel, where pulling was said by the late Captain Lockhart Little to be reduced to a fine art, Harry Edwards was too unscrupulous for our vivacious neighbours to stomach. He returned to England, settled down at Carlisle as a veterinary surgeon, and died in abject poverty. Had he pos- sessed a grain of principle, Harry Edwards would have been among the three or four most successful jockeys of his day. As matters stood, he was buried in a pauper's grave, leaving behind him a name so unsavoury that his surviving relatives, of whom we believe there are many, may felicitate themselves upon the thought that, owing to the shortness of human memories, the name is already * writ in water.' The history of Jem Robinson the fourth of ' The Druid's ' brilliant quartet much resembles that of Sam Chifney the younger, upon whose style the rider of Cadland and of Bay Middleton fashioned his bearing in the saddle. Among the Newmarket veterans whom time has still spared, Bob Sly (who finished second to Mincepie in the Oaks of 1856 upon Lord Clifden's Melitta) has often been heard to aver that he has 230 RACING. known two incomparable match riders in his time : Jem Robinson during the last, and George Fordham during the present, generation. The former was the son of ' Joppa ' Robinson, who, according to the prevailing rumour of to-day, was a small trainer at Newmarket, and supported by the patron- age of Mr. Bullock and of William Crockford (better known as * Crocky '), but whom, upon the authority of Mr. J. F. Clark, the much- respected Judge at race meetings under the jurisdic- tion of the Jockey Club, we believe to have been a farm labourer. Jem Robinson had the good fortune to commence his career by passing thirteen years in Robson's stables, where he soon attracted the notice of Frank Buckle, who conde- scended to give him many hints for his future guidance. The pair were destined to struggle against each other in many a future match, and that in 1821 between Lord Exeter's b.c. by Ardrossan out of Vicissitude with Robinson up, and Mr. Udny's Abjer with Buckle on his back (which ended in a dead heat), was never forgotten by those who witnessed it. The Ardrossan colt had ' savaged ' Robinson in the Ditch stables a week before the match, and had bitten off the thumb of his stable lad when he got home after being beaten in his trial. When the match came off Robinson had his revenge, and the punishment inflicted by him on his refractory mount was never forgiven by one of the sulkiest horses that Newmarket ever saw. Two years after, when Robinson visited Burleigh, Lord Exeter persuaded him to enter the colt's box, on the plea that his temper was quite subdued. His first glance at Robinson dispelled the illusion. The savage brute behaved as Ellerdale did when she heard Tom Dawson's voice, as Mentor when he saw Mat Dawson, and as Muley Edris when he had Fred Archer within reach of his teeth. It is, in fact, a well-established truth that the antipathies sometimes conceived by horses against human beings are extinguished only with the lives of the former. It is difficult within the few lines at our command to give a correct idea of Robinson's matchless seat in the saddle, but if ever the expression ' dropped from the clouds ' was justly UPON JOCKEYS. 231 applicable to a jockey, the races in which Rathmines won the Houghton Handicap, Russborough ran a dead heat for the St. Leger, and Flatcatcher triumphed for the Two Thousand, might be quoted as fitting illustrations of the above words. Few frequenters of Doncaster races are now left who witnessed the memorable dead-heat between Job Marson on Voltigeur and Jem Robinson upon Russborough for the St. Leger of 1850, but none who saw the struggle will ever forget how the Irish horse swooped down upon the Derby winner in the last dozen strides. ' It was,' in the late Lord Exeter's words, * as fine an exemplification of Jem Robinson's style of finish as had been exhibited by him during the previous fifty years ; ' nor should it be forgotten that the artist who made a dead heat with a horse of far superior quality was himself nearly sixty years old when he rode Russborough. Again we have to chronicle that Robinson's concluding days were passed in poverty and gloom. In his hour of prosperity (far less re- munerative, by the way, than that of his modern successors) it was remarked that all the money gained by him during the racing year was wasted in riotous living in the metropolis during the following winter. From the close of the Houghton until the first day of the Craven meeting Newmarket saw nothing of its crack jockey, while the London lodgings in which he and his equally improvident wife were ensconced from October to March might have suited a nobleman of fortune. But for the kindness of the Dukes of Bedford and Rutland, the rider of Azor, Cedric, Middleton, Mameluke, Cadland, and Bay Middleton for the Derby, of Matilda, Margrave, and Russborough for the St. Leger, of Augusta and Cobweb for the Oaks, and of nine Two Thousand winners, might have died in the workhouse. It was, indeed, with difficulty that his widow was preserved from this fate during the few years for which she survived her husband. To attempt within a few brief pages to trace the career and to portray the character of Bill Scott, the most famous north- country jockey that the Turf has ever known, were an im- possible task, although it is not a little singular that the lives of 232 RACING. John and William Scott have never been undertaken by a com- petent hand. No other jockey ever won the St. Leger nine times, although John Jackson with eight winners scored a capi- tal proxime accessit. The leading features of Bill Scott's life are well known, and a brief glance at his thirty-three years in the saddle will suffice here. To his nine St. Legers he added four victories for the Derby, three for the Oaks, and three for the Two Thousand ; but his fame and re- putation, in the opinion of those who knew him best, rested chiefly upon the superlative excellence of his judgment as a trier of horses. No crack jockey that came from Newmarket to take part in a Whitewall trial was ever allowed to know which was the best horse engaged therein. That precious in- formation was reserved for the ears of John Scott and of Colonel Anson, by the latter of whom the stable commission was worked with admirable discretion. "\Vhen Bill Scott died in 1848 at the age of fifty, the event was said to have eclipsed the gaiety of Yorkshire, whose favourite jockey he had long been. His racy sayings ; his mysterious midnight departures from his house on the edge of Knavesmire at York for White- wall as the Two Thousand Guineas stakes drew near ; his tips, always veracious, to one or two tried friends like Mr. George Swann, the York banker, but generally misleading when imparted to casual acquaintances ; his tremendously energetic finishes when riding a coarse slug like Mundig, out of whom he cut the Derby with whip and spur ; his inimitable stories, with Captain Frank Taylor of the i3th Light Dragoons (the owner .of Ainderby, who once beat the Queen of Trumps), and also with the still living Mr. W. H. Rudston Read, with little Charley Robinson, the sporting chemist of York, and with Sim Temple- man for audience ; these, and a thousand other memories, will long keep the name of Bill Scott l alive in the racing metropolis of the north. 1 That Bill Scott was scrupulous cannot be said. In the Derby of 1840 the first, and we believe the only, one ever seen by the late Prince Consort Scott was on Launcelot (brother to Touchstone) and Macdonald on Little Wonder. Scott had backed his horse heavily, feeling confident of success ; UPON JOCKEYS. 233 When in his best form (wrote one of his contemporaries) Bill Scott was surpassed by no man as a horseman upon the flat, and was rarely excelled in his knowledge of a horse's powers. He won the St. Leger on Satirist, and defeated the Derby winner, Coronation a better horse by at least a stone after one of the most brilliant displays of judgment and fine riding ever witnessed upon a racecourse. Patience, hands, and the act of coming at the precisely right instant, landed him a gallant winner by a short half-length in advance of his formidable opponent, steered by old John Day. The many traits of charity, generosity, and good The energetic and the quiet styles. feeling which might with truth be placed to Bill Scott's credit leave a considerable balance due to him in the account current of character. It would be idle to pretend that Bill Scott, or his frequent rival, old John Day, were fit, as jockeys of the elegant and fin- ished type, to hold a candle to Jem Robinson or Frank Butler among the dead, or to George Fordham or Tom Cannon among the living. To say the truth, the riders of Sir Tatton Sykes and of Crucifix were butchers, who considered that they but when they had rounded Tattenham Corner and almost reached the Bell, Little Wonder evidently had the race in hand. ' A thousand pounds for you if you stop him, Macdonald ! ' Scott shouted out. 'Too late, Mr. Scott, too late ! ' was the answer. Little Wonder was said to be six years old. He was certainly more than three. ED. 234 RACING. had not earned their fee unless they punished a horse to excess long after all hope of his winning had passed away. No better contrast between a perfect and an imperfect style can be ima- gined than was exhibited by the race for the Grand Duke Michael Stakes of 1836, in which Jem Robinson upon Bay Middleton defeated old John Day upon Elis. The former never moved in the saddle and never lifted his whip, while, in the case of John Day, the upraised arm and the restless heel were cease- lessly at work. It is easy to understand therefore why it is that Matthew Dawson should with good cause pronounce Bill Scott, old John Day, and Sam Rogers to have been ' good rough jockeys,' capable of getting the last ounce out of a sluggish horse, but little fitted to shine in those ' delicate mouth-touch- ings ' of which the Chifneys, Jem Robinson, Alfred Day, Frank Butler and George Fordham were such accomplished expo- nents. 1 Upon one occasion, Sam Rogers punished The Ban, one of Sir Joseph Hawley's chief favourites, so severely and un- necessarily that ' the lucky Baronet ' registered a vow never to put him up again, and kept his word. One maxim, however, was laid down by Bill Scott who, with all his eccentricities, had a capital head on his shoulders which is of universal applica- bility, and deserves attention 'from all who desire to shine as winners of great races. * I have a horror,' the famous north- country jockey would exclaim, in phraseology too impolite for reproduction here, 'of seeing a fellow ride twice as quick as his horse is going.' Bill Scott's theory was that no jockey could do justice to his mount in the Derby the most difficult and dangerous course, in his opinion, that it was possible to con- ceive unless hand and seat kept perfect time with the horse's action. The Derby is generally won, according to Bill Scott, by the horse which strides farthest down hill ; and any failure on the jockey's part to encourage his animal to stretch himself out to the utmost is necessarily fatal to the chance of both. Upon only one other jockey of the past have we space to dwell at any length, but it were an injustice to omit to mention 1 F. Archer should not be excluded from this list of jockeys. ED. UPON JOCKEYS. 235 that, although many finer horsemen than Elnathan Flatman or * Nat ' have got into a racing saddle, there is no name more de- serving of honour than that of the incorruptible rider of Orlando in the Derby of 1844, of Voltigeur in the Doncaster Cup of 1850, and in the great match at York with the Flying Dutch- man, in 1851. He was born at Holton St. Mary, a village in the south-eastern corner of Suffolk, in 1810, and made his way to Newmarket as a very tiny boy in the spring of 1825. Good fortune attended him from the first. Upon making application The Derby is generally won by the horse which strides farthest downhill. for employment in the stable of William Cooper (who was for many years private trainer to General Peel, Lord Strafford, and Captain Gardner) Nat was lucky enough to attract the favourable notice of Mrs. Cooper, who persuaded her husband to give the boy a chance. Of that ' chance ' the pages of the * Racing Calen- dar ' show what good use ' the boy ' was able to make. For seven years from 1846 to 1852 inclusive Nat was always first on the list of winning jockeys, and between 1830, when he first began to catch the public eye, until 1859, when he rode his 236 RACING. last race, no jockey had so many mounts. It is, however, more to the purpose to repeat that a more faithful, respectful, modest, trustworthy and inflexibly honest servant than Nat never donned the silk jacket of a member of the Jockey Club. No such rewards as those now lavished upon successful jockeys fell to his share, but of the modest competency bequeathed by him to his still living widow and his two surviving sons, not a guinea had been earned by finessing or trick. ' Evil,' says a recent writer, ' will be the day for New- market when the memory of Elnathan Flatman shall cease to be held in honour.' By his strict attention to business, his inviolable secrecy, his honourable discharge of every duty that he owed to his racing masters in public, and to his own family at home, the jockey whom for thirty years Newmarket and all its temptations could not beguile to do wrong, and who having passed away, like Bill Scott, in his fifty-first year, now lies under the shadow of All Saints' Church, well deserves to be held up as a model for succeeding generations. Admirable in his deft and delicate management of two-year-olds, almost always the first to jump off when the flag fell in earnest, and as scrupulous as John B. Day and Alfred his son in eschewing the coarse and ribald phraseology which generally prevails at the starting-post, Nat had also the great merit of reprobating and avoiding the unsparing use of the whip, which Bill Scott, Sam Rogers, Tom Aldcroft, and others, wielded with such terrible effect. Before we endeavour to make a few comments, in conclu- sion, upon the style of riding and the general character which distinguish five or six of the most famous jockeys who are now alive, we have a few words to say upon the widely different conditions under which the business of their profes- sion is now carried on when compared with those prevailing half a century since. It is now all but sixty years since Mr. Petre's Matilda, ridden by Robinson, beat Mr. Gully's Mame- luke, ridden by young Sam Chifney, for the St. Leger of 1827, after thirty or forty false starts, which delayed the race for UPON JOCKEYS. 237 nearly two hours, and were subsequently found to be the result of a corrupt bargain between the starter (who was dismissed from his post in consequence) and a knot of rascally betting- men, who had laid heavily against Mameluke. From that time, until a comparatively recent date, the art of starting horses, as practised by the late Mr. McGeorge, and at present by Lord Marcus Beresford, had not been invented. The same system prevailed as that referred to in Pick's ' Authentic Historical Racing Calendar of all Plates, Sweepstakes, Matches, &c., run at York from 1709 to 1785.' Thus we find that, upon August 21, 1759, there was a great two-thousand-guinea match at York over four miles of ground, between Lord Rockingham's Whistlejacket by Mogul, and Mr. Turner's Brutus by Norris's Bolton. ' This,' says the primitive reporter, 'was an exceedingly fine race, being strongly contested the whole four miles, and won by a length only. Whistlejacket was rode by John Singleton, and Brutus by Thomas Jackson, who both showed great skill in horsemanship, and so jealous were they of each other gaining advantage at starting that they called one another back several times.' Turning to the records of Crucifix's races about eighty years later, the same tactics, as we shall find, were still maintained. Lord George Bentinck's famous filly made her first appearance in public for the July Stakes in 1839, which she won in a canter, with young John Day on her back. Two days later she was again pulled out for the Chesterfield. After an amazing number of false starts all got away except Merle, who was left behind. Notwithstanding that the flag was still up, they went right through and made a good race of it, Lord Albemarle's Iris winning by half a length ; Crucifix was second, having by her immense stride made up for a very bad start. This, unfortunately for that popular nobleman, Lord Albemarle, was pronounced to be no race, and all ran it over again after several more false starts. The running in the second heat was made by Crucifix as far as the hill, where Iris took it up, and enabled young John Day to ease his mare ; on reaching level ground, he resumed his lead, and won in a canter by two lengths. 2 3 3 RACING. Small wonder can be felt if, under these circumstances, many noble patrons of the Turf occasionally assumed the duties of starter at provincial meetings. The late Lord Derby and his father sometimes officiated in this capacity at Prescot and Liverpool ; the first Marquis of Westminster and the fifth Earl of Glasgow took the flag in hand respectively at Holy well and at Catterick Bridge ; and upon one memorable occasion Lord George Bentinck started a large field of horses for the Great Yorkshire Handicap at Doncaster in 1843. The efforts of these amateurs were, as might naturally be expected, not more successful than those of gentlemen and ladies with a so- called talent for acting, who undertake to play 'The School for Scandal ' and ' She Stoops to Conquer ' at St. George's Hall for a local charity. In the north of England and the south of Ireland jockeys did what seemed to them good in their own eyes. 'Win, tie, or wrangle,' were the conditions under which they generally rode in Yorkshire, and nothing was more common than to see a couple of them engaged in endeavouring to punish each other towards the close of the race more lustily than the horses they bestrode. We have said enough to show that half a century since, when the prize-ring was still a firmly rooted institution, it was necessary for a jockey, in addition to knowing how to ride, to be endowed with undeniable pluck, and to be tolerably handy with his fists. The natural result was that the famous horse- men of George IV. 's and William IV. 's reigns were of a coarser and rougher type than the jockeys whose names are now on every racing tongue. In some of those who belonged to the old school there was a surliness and a readiness to take umbrage which bespoke a low origin and total lack of education. Job Marson, who, upon horses which suited him, had few if any superiors in the saddle, looked upon a Newmarket rival with ill-concealed aversion. When informed that some crack south- country jockey had come north to ride a favourite in some great race which he thought himself sure to win, he would reply in his gruff way, ' Do he ; then I tell ee that he woant.' Bill Scott's UPON JOCKE YS. 239 banter, addressed to some jockey whom he interpellated as * Mr. Newmarket,' was more feared before the race than his finish at the close. It was because Jem Robinson's sunny temper could never be ruffled that he was able to outride Bill Scott for the Derby of 1828, after the dead-heat between Cadland and The Colonel. When, however, the great northern jockey encountered Patrick Conolly for the St. Leger of 1839, which ended in a dead-heat between Charles XII. and Euclid, the rider of the latter had to undergo such a pitiless pelting of chaff and * Billingsgate ' from his antagonist that he was totally unfitted to ride the deciding heat. When Phosphorus won the Derby of 1837 with George Edwards on his back, the latter was violently attacked by Arthur Pavis, who was second upon Caravan, and had to pay a fine for losing his temper, and using his whip upon his opponent's person. It will thus be seen that the milder manners and greater refinement of the present age have contributed not a little to the elevation of the jockeys who are now at the head of their profession. A better specimen of this class than George Fordham, who withdrew from the saddle just before the Two Thousand of 1884, which, had his health permitted, he would undoubtedly have won upon Scot Free, it would be impossible to select. Every attribute that a great jockey should possess such as perfect temper and patience, exquisite hands, first-class nerve, consummate judgment, and a thorough comprehension of the animal under him was combined in George Fordham with an honesty a toute epreuve. No finer judge of horse-racing was ever seen than the late Lord Howth, by whom the rider of Epaminondas for the Chester Cup of 1854 was pronounced to be the most wonderful light weight that ever got into a saddle. There is scarcely a race-meeting at which there have not been one or more superb finishes, and it would, therefore, be invidious to pick out a particular race as having been won by more excellent jockeyship than any other. But if ever a confirmed jade was coaxed by delicate mouth-touching into winning against her will we should say that Lord Rosebery's Levant, 240 RACING. when, ridden by George Fordham (who pro hdc vice took the place of Constable), she won the July Stakes in 1875, was a case in point. The example of George Fordham is deserv- ing, moreover, of citation in another respect. His best finishes, such as those upon Mr. Graham's Formosa for the Two Thousand of 1868, and upon the Duke of Beaufort's Petronel for the same race in 1880, were ridden with- out the use of either whip or spur. When, again, Mr. George Lambert's Don Without the use of either whip or spur. Juan won the Cesarewitch in 1883, the horse's rider, Martin, was advised at the last moment by Fordham to surrender his whip in order that he might not be distracted by his effort to use it when, as Fordham anticipated, the critical struggle between Hackness and Don Juan took place as they breasted the hill at the end of the Rowley Mile. If Fordham has been UPON JOCKE VS. 241 less fortunate than some of his younger rivals in the rich presents given him for winning races, he may at least console himself with the thought that he retired from the active pursuit of his profession with a popularity and esteem which have never been exceeded in the present century, and equalled only in the instance of Frank Buckle. Since the withdrawal of Fordham from the pigskin, the name of Fred Archer has taken greater hold of the public fancy than that of any other jockey j x known from the days of Tregonwell Frampton to the pre- First at the post. sent hour. In many respects, and especially upon the Epsom course, where two Derby winners, Bend Or and Melton, owe their victories mainly, if not entirely, to his superior judgment and horsemanship, Archer is undoubtedly deserv- ing of his pre-eminent fame. No jockey ever lost fewer races which he ought to have won ; and if, as in the case of Paradox for the Two Thousand of 1885, he occasionally fails to make the most of his mount, no one is more ready to confess his mistake and to amend it as happened last year in the Grand Prix de Paris when he rides the same horse again. In attention to R 242 RACING. business, in being always at the post in time to secure the best berth, and in resolute riding when the race necessitates it, he has never had an equal upon the British Turf. The place which he has now occupied for many years at the head and not only at the head, but facile princeps of his rivals attests his extraordinary industry and merits, and although his length of limb and increase of weight forbid the supposition that he will be able to go to scale for as many years as Frank Buckle, Tommy Lye, Nat, Sim Templeman, Bill Scott, John Osborne, George Fordham and James Goater, he has already inscribed his name so deeply upon the annals of Turf history in his time that, in all probability, the epoch through which we are now passing will hereafter be known as the Archer era. Of all the jockeys now in possession of a licence, Archer would have been most certain to win commendation from that most censorious and difficile of judges, the late Squire Thornhill of Riddlesworth. Among Archer's contemporaries, Tom Cannon and C. Wood are perhaps the most conspicuous, the former for exquisite hands nnd general judgment, the latter for decision in riding a race. There are, however, contests and notably the two St. Legers in which he rode Lord Clifden and Apology, and the Two Thousand in which he rode Prince Charlie where the skill and strict attention to orders displayed by John Osborne merit the highest praise. Although blessed with little luck, Fred Webb is surpassed in the determination of his finish by none of his contemporaries, and his triumph upon Florence over such a horse as Bendigo, and such a rider as Jem Snowden, for the Cambridgeshire of 1884, was perhaps the brightest example of his style. The strong seat and resolute courage of Custance were seen to great advantage when he rode the insubordinate Broomielaw for the Chesterfield Cup at Goodwood ; and, speak- ing summarily, the racing men of to-day may boast that half a dozen living jockeys are equal we do not think them superior to the 'brilliant quartet' selected by 'The Druid' in the last generation as primi inter pares. It cannot, however, be denied that the times through which UPON JOCKE VS. 243 we are now passing possess the peculiarity, and in one respect the disadvantage, of surrounding the crack jockeys of the day with temptations to which their predecessors were strangers. For reasons which partly defy human analysis, but are in the main attributable to the universal diffusion of railways and electric wires, there has during the last twenty years been such a shrinkage of speculation upon future events, that it has be- come altogether impossible to land the heavy stakes by betting which were so familiar to men like the late General Anson and Sir Joseph Hawley, or even to living patrons of the Turf like Mr. Chaplin and Captain Machell. The natural result is that finessing and trick, to an extent heretofore unknown, are imposed upon owners of horses who desire to back their favourites for heavy sums. In their anxiety to anticipate the forestallers who, without even leaving the metropolis, await the ticking of the tape in the Strand, in Wellington and Fleet Streets, and in almost every public-house in the heart of London, Manchester, Liver- pool, Leeds, Glasgow, Dublin, and every great provincial town, the rightful backers of horses belonging to them are too often forced to resort to artifices which were wholly unnecessary when the powerful stables at Whitewall, Danebury, and Middleham were in their prime. It goes without saying that to render these artifices successful, the intervention and assistance of jockeys are frequently invoked by their masters, and sometimes by others who are secretly in league with the. crack riders of the day, The oft-repeated fulminations of the Stewards of the Jockey Club against betting jockeys, and against the dangerous practice of their receiving handsome presents from men who are not their masters, are, we fear, neither more nor less than idle threats. As a necessary consequence, the 'consummate artists ' of the pigskin enjoy an immunity from the control and supervision which rendered their predecessors more amenable to the direct influence of the noblemen and gentlemen whose colours they wore. The mischief and a very grave and dangerous mischief it is has now attained its highest proportions, and, more than any other cloud hovering upon its horizon, it is R 2 244 RACING. beginning to overcast the vitality and threaten the future pros- perity of our great national sport. It must never be forgotten that, as was lately remarked by a writer of authority, ' the greatest drawback to the Turf is, and will always be, that the most inflexibly honest master such, tor instance, as the late Lord Glasgow and the most upright of trainers, are both of them necessarily and entirely at the mercy of a lad who is frequently born in the gutter, whose education has generally been utterly neglected, whose principle is sorely tried, if not radically sapped, by his early surround- ings and associates, and who is girt about with dangerous temptations to do wrong as countless as the motes that dance in the sunbeam.' No trainer of experience will attempt to deny the impossibility of detecting by ocular observation whether the jockey whom he employs ' drops anchor ' or does his best to win a race. Under these circumstances, it neces- sarily follows that very large fortunes, won in a few years by jockeys who commenced without a sixpence, must always be viewed with jealousy and suspicion by the outside public. Fortunes of this nature have been swollen of late years by the prodigious and, as some think, disproportionate presents lavished upon fortunate riders who win great races. In his ' Racehorse in Training,' William Day, with fifty years of racing experience to guide him, denounces the enormous re- wards now given to jockeys with an energy and directness to which nothing can be added. In this connection we are re- minded of an incident which happened at Newmarket within living memory. In 1850, the late Earl of Airlie was the owner of a racehorse named Clincher, which was trained by Henry Wadlow, and subsequently started first favourite for the Derby won by Voltigeur. Clincher was brought out to run at the Craven Meeting against a fairly good horse, called Compass, belonging to the late Duke of Richmond. In a race across the flat, Clincher, ridden by Frank Butler, gave 6 Ibs. and an easy beating to Compass. Immediately after the race, Lord Airlie rode up to Butler upon the Heath and presented him UPON JOCKE YS. 245 with ioo/. It chanced that year that John Scott's powerful stable was without a horse likely to start for the Derby, and Lord Airlie was naturally anxious to secure the services of Frank Butler to ride his horse at Epsom. Nothing could be more legitimate than a present given to the great Whitewall jockey under these circumstances ; but such was Butler's astonishment at receiving ioo/. for winning a little race at Newmarket, that he instantly put the money back into Lord Airlie's hand, and requested him to back Clincher for him with it for the coming Derby. When evening came Lord Airlie dined (as was then the usual custom) at the Jockey Club Rooms. Tidings of the present which he had given to Butler reached the late Lord Derby's ears, and after dinner he pro- ceeded to lecture Lord Airlie in very stinging language upon the impropriety of demoralising a jockey by such unusual generosity. Lord Derby's remonstrances were heartily echoed by General Peel and Lord Glasgow, with the result that upon the following morning Lord Airlie shook the dust of New- market off his feet, and retreated to London in order to escape a renewal of the reproaches which had been launched at his head. It is but thirty-six years ago, yet how different is the atmo- sphere by which we are now surrounded ! Instead of ioo/., presents of five times that amount, and even more, are now constantly bestowed upon jockeys for winning races at New- market and elsewhere, compared with which the triumph of Clincher over Compass, a few weeks before the Derby, was a matter of great significance. The status and condition of our modern professional horsemen have, as a natural consequence, been elevated to such a disproportionate degree that it becomes the Jockey Club to take up their parable against the unwhole- some system of lavishing extraordinary rewards in return for very slight services. It is impossible that jockeys can be kept in their proper position when successful members of the riding fraternity are enabled to realise fortunes of ioo,ooo/. and more, within a dozen years of their first appearance in the saddle. 246 RACING. CHAPTER XV. BETTING. Kat TOV Trai'OTTTrjv KVK\OV fiifiXiov KaAcu. Prometheus Unbound. BETTING may or may not be intrinsically immoral, but if it is, then undoubtedly the English character leaves much to be de- sired on the score of morality, for the love of betting, and more particularly of betting on horse-races, is thoroughly ingrained in the average Briton. Not that it is his all -pervading idea, his raison d'etre, as in the case of the industrious ring-man who, on his return from an early walk during which he had, or was supposed to have, called on the butcher, was asked by his frugal wife, * What's the price of mutton, John ? ' and replied without hesitation, ' Six to one.' ' Six to one ! ' said the lady, * what do you mean ? What nonsense you are talking ! ' ' Well then, a hundred to fifteen to YOU, and don't bother' after which there was no further offer. Not all men, we repeat, are thus saturated with the spirit of the ring ; but not one Englishman in fifty can resist the temptation of backing his own or somebody else's fancy for a race, if the opportunity offers itself : and if it does not, he is very willing to go in search of it, nor has he far to seek ; while of regular racegoers and it is with them we are chiefly concerned a very large majority would endorse the opinion, that racing without betting would be like an egg without salt, like cod without oyster-sauce, like anything in fact that is flat and unpalatable. Of course we all grumble occasionally at the noise, and, especially when losing, curse that infernal din of 'Six to four bar two.' Moreover, BETTING. 247 in the construction of our stands, we endeavour to place the ladies as far as may be out of reach of what they call the shrieking of those horrid ring-men ; but let us be honest, and confess that we do this rather because we want the fair ones out of the way when we are transacting business, and that nine out of every ten of them would, if they had their choice, prefer being so situated that they could bet in running, which in their case means an imaginary possibility of betting after the winner's number has been hoisted. Let any turfite try to picture to himself the appalling gloom of a ring silent before the race. The hush which follows the success of a heavily backed favourite is, we admit, not altogether ungrateful to the nerves of his overwrought supporters. One thing, however, is certain that as long as we have racing we shall have betting that ceaseless war between layers and backers will still be waged ; though the odds (in every sense of the word) are so enormously in favour of the former, yet are the ranks of the latter quickly closed up after defeat by fresh champions, Each stepping where his comrade stood The instant that he fell. At present we see no sign of a final Armageddon. Of these two opposing armies, the paradox of whose life is, that neither could exist without the other, precedence shall be given to the layers of odds the betting fraternity as they are rightly called their cohesion and identity of purpose giving them just claim to that title ; for they act as much in unison as a Roman legion, though each man has to fight singly and desperately for his own hand, as was the case with that fierce soldiery. The generic term ' Bookmakers' is now almost a misnomer, implying, as it does, that a man who lays claim to that title makes an all-round book on any and every race where the possibility of so doing presents itself i.e. that he is willing to bet against each runner if the market is good enough, or, in 248 RACING. other words, if the public support a sufficient number of horses at such prices as to enable him to win by most or all of them, the latter alternative for choice. Considering that he himself sets the market, the process is not so difficult as it might appear to the inexperienced. Say, for instance, that the names of six runners appear on the telegraph board, that the bookmaker has a hundred-pound book, and the betting rules thus : 100 to loo v. A loo to 50 v. B 100 to 30 z/. C loo to 20 "v. D i oo to 1 5 v. E 100 to 5 11. F it is not easy to see where the loss can come in ; and this is no extravagantly hypothetical case. It is, on the contrary, an unusually liberal quotation ; for as a matter of fact he would not lay 100 to 5 against F, or anything of the sort far more likely 100 to 10 unless he had good reason for thinking that F was fat, or lame, or otherwise ' not on the job ; ' and if by chance that outsider does poke his nose in first, the layer, after the irrepressible cheer which follows the hoisting of the number, quickly pulls himself together, and mindful always to pose as the victim of circumstances, replies to some backer's query of, ; Well, you had a good race that time ? ' with, 'Worst a' had ; laid all book agen winner, and never got to lay favourite,' in the tone of one who, having had a couple of hours of the thumb- screws, is about to try the rack for a change. One of the regular all-round bettors, a man who has every right to give his opinion on the subject, has been heard to declare, ' There's no denying that it's a good game ; if they all paid on Monday it would be too good, but as it is it's good enough.' Of another, who has as large a business as any in the ring, it is said that he will bet with any man who has a decent coat on his back ; no introduc- tion of any sort is required, and he defends himself against the charge of recklessness by saying, ' If they bet with me at all, they must bet my prices, so that I know they carit go on winning, and they generally pay in the long run, because they want to come back and bet again.' BETTING. 249 A large number of the so-called bookmakers, however, do not under the modern system make regular books. The races on which there is any betting beforehand worth speaking about may almost be counted on the fingers of one hand ; the public taste of to-day is for post-betting, the hurry and scramble of which render real bookmaking a laborious occupation ; while the prices which can be laid against favourites are so utterly unrepresentative of their actual chance, that to stand against one and see it out on every race hardly comes under the denomination of gambling. 1 But even such slight risk as is here implied is not necessarily incurred. * The field a monkey ! ' - shouts Mr. Kute the ring-man, as soon as the numbers go up. ' Done,' says Mr. Hastie, who has his own and the owner's commission (both heavy ones) to execute. ' And with me too, Captain,' 2 implores Mr. Keenenext on the roster. 'And with you too,' replies the excited commissioner. A word and a nod from the layers and a couple of emissaries hie them 'to the back,' where the takers are a trifle sharper, and the odds a little more elastic. If Messrs. Kute and Keene can each get an average of 500 to 400, or 600 to 500, they may well rest content with standing a hundred to nothing on the field or the favourite as the case may be, and with the pleasant consciousness of having obliged a customer. This prompt hedging business is perhaps chiefly, if not exclusively, the privilege of those members of the ring who, from seniority or some sort of prescriptive right which never appears to be disputed, occupy the coveted positions ' next the rails,' in Tattersall's enclosures, to which the higher rank of backers do mostly congregate. At the back of this more or less select sanctum, or in the outer rings, of which there are generally two or three of various degrees of respectability and 1 To lay 6 to 4 ON a ten to a seven at hazard, would be fair main and chance compared to the odds which backers often eagerly bet on horses about which the only thing that is certain is, that they are really bad, and have an unknown quantity to beat. - It is a recognised fact that, in default of actual, a backer is always entitled to military, rank. 250 RACING. solvency, the betting is carried on in more genuine fashion. The ready-money bookmakers especially, who can make no bad debts, not uncommonly continue to lay against all or nearly all the horses in a race ; and as these gentlemen when once they have established a clientele seem to prosper exceedingly, it is fair to suppose that the all-round book is not unremunerative even at prices which satisfy a very shrewd class of customers ; for it is a noticeable feature in the ready-money trade that a wrangle over the odds is never heard, as is so frequently the case where the transactions are 'on the nod.' When the terms are ' Cash,' bargaining seems to be out of the question. ' How much So-and-So ? ' inquires the would-be backer, and if the answer does not meet his requirements, he turns away without more ado, and takes his money elsewhere. Why the Legislature should have set its face against ready-money betting surely the fairest method of speculation which can be imagined it is not easy to understand. If the authorities acted with any hope of suppressing betting, they must have been grievously disappointed ; for not only does wagering go on more briskly than ever, but the impossibility of preventing the immediate exchange of coin of the realm is demonstrated on every racecourse, both before and after every race. Even at Newmarket, the most that can be done is to issue a manifesto against illegal betting, and against the use of clogs, stools, umbrellas, or any too flagrant symbol of the forbidden trade, and then more or less to take it on trust that people will bet legally, whatever that may mean. A Cabinet Minister once said that * In legislating on the subject of ready-money betting, you have to consider whether a man is more likely to steal money in order to enable him to make a bet at all, or in order that he may pay after he has lost.' An utterance which was not rendered the less enigmatic by the speaker refraining from expressing his own opinion on the knotty point. One of the stock arguments against the posting of money in advance by the backer is that it is such an unfairly one-sided BETTING. 2 $i arrangement, as it leaves the layer of odds free to levant with his plunder during the progress of a race, and the takers with the barren consolation of cursing him, as they gesticulate with their dishonoured pawn-tickets over his deserted location. The plea is, to a certain extent, true, and is justified by the fact that especially on badly-managed courses the confidence trick is not unfrequently practised ; yet it may be urged as per contra that it is easier for many to watch one man than for one man to watch many, and if they have doubts as to his honesty, they can stand by to pounce on him if he attempts to stir. They know that he has their money, and probably a good deal more besides ; it is not the poverty but the will that makes most welshers, and it is tolerably evident that the bagman who bolts during the few moments he has to spare for the purpose would be a singularly unlikely person to be found awaiting his creditors on Monday in or outside of Tattersall's had he, furnished only with book, pencil and the ces triplex which is not kept in the pocket, been betting legally according to the law. Nothing too could be simpler, one would imagine, than for the veriest novice to discover, if only from the nature and number of their customers, which are the trustworthy operators in any ring ; but on the theme of welshing it is useless to dilate. The human race, and notably the human racegoer, in the matter of folly, is, always has been, and always will be, audax omnia perpeti. A singular anomaly in the law is, that you may legally pay or receive payment the instant a race is over, and may make this arrangement with your bookmaker to your heart's content. Unless there is a deposit beforehand, it is not ready-money betting. Mr. Bumble was not altogether wrong when he said, ' The law is a hass.' It would be ungracious to conclude this brief and therefore imperfect notice of the ring without mention of two most meritorious attributes of that body. Imprimis, when they lose 252 RACING. they pay punctually, and, so far as is consistent with the cha- racter of true-born Britons, pay without grumbling. Secondly, their generosity, individual and collective, is proverbial. If a jockey gets a fall either on the flat or over a country, or is incapacitated by other illness from pursuing his calling ; if a trainer dies suddenly leaving a wife and children unprovided for ; in fact, if misfortune in any way overtakes men whose living depends upon Turf pursuits, a subscription is forthwith started and nobly responded to in the ring ; and when the object of their charity is beyond the reach of human aid, they club purses and bury him decently. ' The community of backers ' is a favourite newspaper phrase, yet, except in the very broadest sense of the term, no such community exists at all. There are a lot of men who back horses, and who growl in chorus over the insufficiency of the odds, but here the common feeling begins and ends. The backers are not split into sections, as is said to be the case with the Liberal party ; they are divided into units, and of necessity, for by very virtue of his occupation the more chary a backer is of imparting his knowledge, however acquired, the better chance he has of profiting by it. His position is the exact con- verse of that of the bookmakers. He wants to take long, they want to lay short odds, and it stands to reason the more the good thing is put about, the better for them and the worse for him. A certain interchange of confidence amongst owners of horses there must of course be. ' Scratch my back and I'll scratch yours ' is a precept which holds good in all trades, but on the Turf, the scratching (of the back) is done as discreetly and with as much reservation as possible. To the general public the owner, at any rate if he bets, is habitually and rightly reticent why should he be otherwise ? Why should he divulge to some threescore intimate acquain- tances the trial of his dark flyer, or the secret of the jostle, cross, bad start, or other misadventure which deprived a public per- former of previous victory ? The threescore would be at work BETTING. 253 in the ring while he was talking to his trainer, and would then with splendid candour give the straight tip to any and every- body they met. Small chance has the rightful heir to the odds under these circumstances ; so, as a ruie, he holds his tongue, or fences the question with the retort courteous or the counter- check quarrelsome, preferring if he wins to run the gauntlet of 'You never said a word to me] 'You might have given me a hint,' ' You put me off/ to the universal cry of ' How could you tell us to back such a brute as that ? ' which will assuredly be his consolation for the defeat of a published certainty. The professional backer is the greatest of all nuisances to the proprietary interest. An habitue of most race-meetings, the smaller ones for choice he dearly loves racing round London he has an immense circle of acquaintance amongst owners,, trainers, jockeys and touts ; he insists on being told something by everybody, and on finding out all that is to be found out respecting every stable. He it is who helps to set the market and to make favourites, two or three of them very often, for he likes having more than one string to his bow. Woe betide the owner on whose horse the professional has set his affections, and who thinks that by biding his time he may get on at a reasonable price ! Under his very eyes are the scanty odds snapped up, leaving him to be content with such crumbs of ' even ' as fall from the forestalled table ; and his best chance often is to give his natural enemy the commission, so as to secure even a portion of goods. ' What a bore Forehand is ! ' said a heavy betting owner, as he compared the fearful probability of loss with the inadequate possibility of gain before a plunging selling race. ' Why do you employ him then ? ' asked the friend to whom the remark was made. ' Why do I employ him ? Why, because I get something on, whereas if I let him have first run I should get nothing. I must start my horses sometimes, and he goes everywhere.' There is no greater mistake than to suppose that money is never made in the long run by backing horses. Many of the 254 RACING. professional backers earn a very good living by it, and many of course are broke, but their ruin has no deterrent effect upon others \ fresh hands are always appearing on the scene, and the extinction of the species is not likely to occur before the millennium. The backer in a small way, who bets in small sums, though he may bet frequently, does not count ; his investments in no way affect the market, and no one grudges him such success as he may achieve. He has this pull over the heavy punter, that he can afford to wait, as there is always time to make such small wagers as he deals in up to the fall of the flag. There are many men of this class, too, who earn a few hundreds a year, and many more who annually lose a similar amount. . The one class of backer whose interests are persistently overridden or ignored is yet after all the one who alone has any real claim to sympathy, and to protection if the law could afford it to him. This is the class which consists of men who own racehorses whether as a matter of business or pleasure, signifies not one iota. They bear the expense and the risk of the most precarious pursuit in the world, and to them rightfully belong the fruits of success. What is actually their position ? The work done by their horses is regularly touted, and as regularly described with more or less accuracy in the newspapers. To this perhaps there would not be so much objection were it not that trials are equally watched and laid bare to the public ; for who when he reads that ' Homer, y^Eschylus and Euripides were then stripped, and, ridden by Archer, Watts, and Goater, were sent six furlongs at their best pace,' does not know that Homer at any rate came in first in a private spin ? though it seems that such an announcement does not actually infringe the strict letter of Racing Law. How it fares with the owner when personally or by deputy he proceeds to the betting ring has already been partially described. He must either take what his own knowledge tells him is an utterly false price, or he must forego (according BETTING. 255 to the view he takes of racing) the pleasure and excitement of speculation, or an opportunity of receiving a dividend on in- vested capital with the result that if his horse wins he will be openly derided by the jumpers on ; if beaten, and the fact of his abstention from betting becomes known, he is almost told to his face that he ' was not having a go.' This on a post-betting race ; in the rarer instances where books are open for some time previous to an event, the public are even more confident that every man's horse is their pro- perty. ' Regardless of grammar (and of everything else) they all cry that's him ! ' and in they dash where the owner, by this time in no angelic frame of mind, has the gravest fears of treading. Then, if in a fit of temper, or simply because he chooses to wait for a more convenient season, he runs the pen through the favourite's name, what an outcry arises ! How magnilo- quently does ' Magpie ' of the ' Daily Stump,' or * Lurker ' of the ' Weekly Liar,' discourse of the ' blow inflicted on the credit of the Turf,' the ' bitter discouragement of staunch adherents,' the ' nauseating transactions connected with the forthcoming race,' the ' outrageous disregard of public rights ' ! Public rights ! The public have two rights as regards betting, and two only : the first is that an owner shall not directly or indirectly lay against his own horse except for purposes of the most strictly fair and straightforward hedging ; the second, that if a horse goes to the post he shall, so far as lies in the power of his jockey, be made to do his best and win if he can. Given these two conditions honourably fulfilled, the owner is perfectly at liberty to do what seemeth good in his eyes. It is true that, if he elects to sit and suffer, he will gain some tem- porary popularity, should he set store by that very perishable article. Hardly worth mentioning are the backers who come in for a hit-or-miss dash at the ring * to go for the gloves,' as it is called in Turf parlance. Stray individuals of this class do periodically crop up, who for one or two meetings have a 256 RACING. miraculous but short-lived run of luck. Rari nantes, they soon disappear in the vast whirlpool, and scant mercy do they re- ceive at the hands of the usually long-suffering bookmakers. They are the subject of a Monday's lamentation and are heard of no more, unless indeed the meteoric passage across the racing firmament has been of sufficient brilliancy to justify a hope that the memory thereof may be resuscitated, in which case after many days may appear an advertisement to the effect that 'Jones the defaulter- issues his unrivalled falsehoods to an ever- increasing circle of Jugginses,' or some such pithy and alluring appeal for alms. The casual settler, the backer whom an easy-going ring allow to get heavily in arrear with his payments, is the most helpless case of all. He belongs to the ' lost legion ' con- tinually struggling against overwhelming odds (or the want of odds). Usually a man of some social position, he is either credited with means which he does not possess, or with expec- tations which are purely imaginary ; hence the leniency with which he is treated, and which more than anything else con- duces to his ultimate relegation to that mysterious bourne, the Fiddler's Green of the Turf, known as ' outside.' He may, and he generally does, pay away considerable sums of money during the course of the year, but he is never quits with his creditors, there is always a bit owing. Strange, even paradoxical, as it may appear, the ring look upon him from their point of view as a lucrative customer. Said a veteran bookmaker to a veteran backer, ' Of course, sir, we like to bet with you, because you've been about so many years and you're an old friend, but you're no real good to us.' 'Why not?' inquired the astonished turfite, conscious of an income sorely diminished by his love of speculation. ' Because, sir, your account is always there on Monday, and as you pay regularly, so you will have the top o' the odds such as they are, and then you can win sometimes. Now, sir, we like the gentlemen that let it stand over ; they generally pay, or pay most of it in the long run, though of course we make a lot of bad debts ; but then they can't win, for BETTING. 257 they must take anything we choose to offer, and we never have to pay them. 9 In the serpent's coils with a vengeance ! But though this was the avowed opinion of one man, and is pro- bably the theory of many, it must, even to its upholders, be a rotten and unsatisfactory state of things one which could cer- tainly not exist were ready-money betting the legal rule instead of the illegitimate exception. Of unwillingness or inability to part, there were many curious stories told in the old days when TattersalFs was in Grosvenor Place, and the gentlemen used, as a rule, to settle their own accounts, instead of doing it, as at present, by deputy. Then of course it was necessary to put in an appearance after a big meeting, as the total absence of an account was sure to be severely commented on, and to be able to carry it off with an air was sometimes almost as good as having the bank-notes. ' You owe me fifty, my lord,' said a nervous bookmaker, sidling up to a notoriously unready settler. ' Quite right, I do,' was the prompt response ; then, after a pause, * What the devil are you waiting for?' ' For you to pay me, my lord.' 'Pay you ! Haven't I told you you are quite right, and isn't that enough for you ; go away, man, and don't bother me.' Retire- ment of crestfallen creditor. 'Now, Humby,' said another backer hailing from Short Street, in the middle of one of the busiest Monday afternoons of the whole year, * it's long since you and I had a regular settlement of accounts, and it's quite time we did it.' So the pair, mutually pleased with each other, sat down at one of the small tables, and set to work comparing bets over many past weeks of heavy and incessant wagering. Both proved to have kept admirably accurate record, the books tallied in every respect, and when at the end of two hours the work was concluded, and a balance declared in favour of the bookmaker to the amount of 6o6/. ios. t he felt that, though he had neglected the rest of the settling, yet that, having got rid of an account so long outstanding, he had by no means lost his day. Then, with a satisfied air, rose the backer, s 258 RACING. not the less satisfied perhaps that he, also, had been too obviously engaged to attend to other matters, and drawing forth six pounds ten shillings, he laid it on the table, with the remark, 'Now, Humby, I'm thoroughly glad to have sifted all this. I owe you 6oo/. and we can start fresh ' saying which, with head erect, and looking neither to right nor left, he marched triumphantly out of the room, while the forlorn book- maker collapsed literally speechless on his chair. Memorable from their monstrous absurdity, these and such like were nevertheless more or less isolated cases, and bad though they undoubtedly were, yet were they not altogether so bad as they seem ; for this sort of game would not bear frequent repetition, and as aforesaid, if a backer absented himself from ' the Corner,' he soon began to be talked about at the Clubs as a defaulter, to lose caste, and to be avoided by his compeers, whereas it is to be feared that in these days the fact of ' being on the slate with the boys ' is too frequently regarded as in the nature of things, and as having no bearing on social status. To backers who have, as it were by accident and without malice aforethought, overstepped the limits of prudence and of their tether at their bank, the ring-men have invariably proved themselves kind and forbearing to the last degree, easily assent- ing to reasonable composition, or allowing almost any time for payment in full, once they are assured of the good intentions of the debtor. On such occasions their confidence is seldom misplaced. The situation is not unfrequently such as was thus summed up by a well-known Baronet to a friend whose ambition had been momentarily larger than his pocket, and who in despair sought advice as to the course to be pursued on the following Monday. ' The question is, do you think it worth while to pay sixty per cent, for the immediate acquaintance of the ring ? That it is has always been my opinion, and on those terms you may probably find the money ; if you don't happen to agree with me, go to your lawyers and begin making arrangements for an BETTING. 259 insurance at once, and send round word to Tattersall's that you are so doing. You may depend upon it no one will bother you.' To a young gentleman entering on his novitiate of backing, or for that matter to most persons concerned in this pleasant but perilous pastime, no better counsel could peradventure be given than that vouchsafed by the author of ' Racecourse and Covert-side.' Here it is quoted in full : What, then, it may be asked, should be done by the race- goer who likes to feel some greater interest in the race than the mere spectacle of the struggle can afford ? There is something to be said for the plan of backing favour- ites ; because a horse is not likely to attain that favouritism unless it has done good work at home, and commanded the confidence of its stable. Favourites are, of course, made and worked up in the market on occasions for deceptive reasons ; but, as a rule, to ' follow the money ' is judicious. The searcher for winners will also probably have found that one or two of the sporting prophets write with knowledge and judgment. Some of them, on the other hand, do not ; but he must take pains to find those who do, and note their advice. It will be well for him, perhaps, furthermore "to study ' the book ' and make himself acquainted with the form of the horse he is in- clined to fancy. He should also consider whether it belongs to a stable worthy of confidence, presided over by an efficient trainer, and whether the jockey is a master of his craft. If he knows any- thing of horses, he should then carefully look it over in the paddock, and during its preliminary canter, noting also how it goes in the market. Having done all this, and convinced himself that the horse is likely to win, he will be in a position to advise his friends men on a racecourse usually take any advice that is confidently offered from any quarter to back the animal. He had better not do so himself, as there are numerous chances against him of which he knows nothing. Should they take his advice, and win, he can congratulate himself on the benefit he has conferred ; should they not show faith pecuniarily, he can reproach them with their folly in missing the ' good thing ; ' while, should they lose, he will have no difficulty in finding numerous reasons to show that the defeat S 2 260 RACING. is an unexampled piece of bad luck, which, however, rather vin- dicates his judgment than otherwise. Amongst the accessories of betting, before or after the fact as bettors' abettors the professional commissioner or com- mission agent plays an important part. More often than not himself a converted bookmaker, he is thoroughly well acquainted with the fraternity, belongs to their clubs, lives with them, and knows exactly the scale and scope of each racing-man's business, and can, there- fore, form a " "~ ::\ tolerably just Carefully look it over in the paddock. estimate whether a horse is being backed by the right people, or peppered by the wrong ones. On the smaller events he is largely employed by owners who, through idleness, or an idea that, by not personally appear- ing on the scene, they will get better odds, are disinclined to make their own investments. On the larger, or p.p. races, his services are almost a necessity, especially when the owner BETTING. 261 wishes within a few hours to back his horse all over the country. Due notice of this intention having been given to the com- missioner, his agents are forewarned, cyphers and ke^s prepared, and when the telegraph signal flashes forth, operations are conducted almost simultaneously in London and in the remotest provinces. The old system of an owner dropping into TattersalPs on a Monday afternoon, and backing his horse for a Derby, Cesarewitch, or other race, has almost entirely dropped into desuetude, and the heavy business is left altogether in the commissioner's hands. Sometimes, when the transaction is exceptionally promising, it is undertaken by one of the leading bookmakers, who * goes for it,' and endeavours as far as may be to fleece his brethren, but this device entails the obvious disadvantage to the proprietor of missing a leading book. Whether the commission system as at present carried out tends to the welfare of backers, those who employ it should be the best judges. It is for the most part fairly and honestly conducted, the agents of course finding their profit in the special and early information, which enables them to invest and hedge their own money with that of the stable. The hedging perhaps is the most difficult part of the whole affair ; for, unless a horse comes with a sudden rush in the market, necessi- tating an equally hasty ' getting out ' on the part of those who have overlaid themselves, the appearance on the scene of the accredited commissioner with palpable laying orders often causes a reaction in favour of the ' bears ' and defeats the object in view. The settlement of backers' accounts after each meeting is now practically altogether in the hands of the commission agents a modern improvement of magnitude. They do the work promptly, and thoroughly, while in cases of difficulty their tact and discretion are beyond praise ; that semi-fraudulent manipulation of accounts the drawing all, and paying as little as possible, formerly so frequent (more especially when during the Newmarket meetings a daily settlement was supposed to take place), is now, let us hope, a thing of the past. 262 RACING. 1 Two nice matches,' said one of the shy parting division, many years ago ; ' I do like matches because you are always sure of winning some ready.' * Sure ! how the devil do you make that, out ? ' replied Mr, Payne, who was the recipient of this confidence. * Oh ! because I always back them both, and then to-morrow I must have someone to receive from ! ' Touting has now become a recognised profession ; more shame to those, be they of high or low degree, by whom the nefarious trade has been fostered and encouraged, till it has attained its present immense proportions. Touts are thieves who steal stable secrets, either by spying on horses in their gallops and trials, or by bribing servants to betray their masters, and to reveal any important information acquired in the opportunities of observation which the nature of their work necessarily affords. The employers of touts are simply receivers of stolen goods, who hope for profit by themselves making use of their ill-gotten intelligence, or by retailing it in such fashion as finds the best market. Like the slave trade of old, the openness of the traffic renders it none the less abominable. Its suppression seems impossible, though the Jockey Club has issued some stern edicts on the subject. You cannot close public highways or footpaths, nor can you always lock up stablemen, and if you could, Quis custodiet ipsos custodes ? Tipsters are almost all swindlers, though to this rule there may be exceptions, as will presently be pointed out. But the Tom Archers, and Fred Cannons, and Billy Wattses, and that crew of sorry knaves whose advertisements sully the columns of sporting papers ! What are they ? and what is it they want somebody, or a great many somebodies, to believe ? Just this : that the 'moral certainties,' 'dead snips,' 'priceless finals,' and all the rest of the promised rigmarole, issue at first hand from the eminent jockeys whose surnames are borrowed for the occasion. The device is so transparent that one BETTING. 263 would suppose no living creature could be gulled by it, yet that it pays, its constant repetition must be taken as conclusive evidence. Of a somewhat different type is that philanthropic gentle-, man from Sharpshire, who is intimately acquainted with several of the leading owners and trainers within that favoured district, and who is anxious to enter into correspondence with other sportsmen on topics which may prove of mutual interest and advantage. Which being interpreted means, ' A traitor in two or three camps wishes to put his treachery up for purchase by the highest bidder.' Not, one would think, a tempting negotiation, even for speculators of tough moral fibre to enter upon yet if nothing is ever caught, why is the trap so constantly baited ? The pos- sible exceptions (to which allusion has been made) to the broad rule that tipsters are mostly swindlers may be found in certain industrious students of public form from book or from personal observation on racecourses, who print and privately circulate yearly, monthly, or weekly analyses of past racing, with reason- able deductions as to their bearing on future events. These men also send to their subscribers daily telegrams indicating a certain number of probable winners. Whether the game is worth the candle to the subscriber, no sufficiently scientific data are forthcoming to assure us. Often during a meeting are heard such expressions as these : ' That's a wonderful man of mine hardly ever wrong, spotted five winners out of six to-day,' or ' If I'd only followed Trinket's advice, I should have won a monkey ; ' but to the query, * Did you back the wonderful man's five winners ? ' or * Why did you not follow Trinket's advice,' come almost invari- ably the melancholy rejoinders : ' Because I got the telegram too late,' or ' I put it in my pocket and forgot it,' or ' I wanted to follow his tips and was talked out of them all at the last moment.' So in the long run the priceless information would seem to profit no one but the sender, who, whatever his intel- lectual shortcomings may be, is no doubt wise enough to 264 RACING. refrain from wasting the subscription money on any of his own selections. Once, and once only, did the writer of these presents press home the question as to who the much-vaunted issuer of certain daily prophecies really was, and after a severe cross-examina- tion elicited that the seer was, as far as anybody kneiv, a French waiter at a London hotel much frequented by Americans ! ! But rack and thumbscrew would have failed to extort the secret of why one palpably possessed of second-sight was content to remain a waiter. It must be clearly understood that in the above somewhat sweeping denunciation of tipsters are not included the prophets of the sporting press. They are generally wrong, as everyone must be who attempts the impossible feat of naming every winner for each day's racing ; but at least they do not pretend to in- fallibility, they often back up their forecasts by excellent reason- ing, and there is no extra charge for admission to the Wizard's Cave. As the Jockey Club ostensibly ignores betting, two courts, the Committee of the Rooms at Newmarket, and the Committee of Tattersall's, have been organised for the purpose of arbitra- ment and judgment in all matters of dispute having connection with betting transactions.. These two Committees have a code of rules which, though not officially sanctioned by publication in the Book Calendar, are yet virtually recognised as binding by all Turf authority. The first named, the Committee of the Rooms at New- market, assembles at Newmarket only during the progress of a meeting, but can be appealed to each morning before the com- mencement of the races by notice duly lodged with the secre- tary on the previous evening, so that he may have time to warn the defendant to appear. The Committee of Tattersall's, of which five form a quorum, meets in more spasmodic fashion, and is not so readily con- vened at its own residence ; hence adjournments, delays and inconvenience often result. BETTING. 265 It has, however, a special power of holding impromptu meetings on racecourses when called upon by the stewards ; drumhead courts-martial, whereat cases of disputed bets' and of default in bets may be speedily adjudicated on, an arrange- ment which has much terror for evil-doers, who might other- wise by dexterous manoeuvring defy for many weeks those whom they have defrauded. It is said that the joint committees are about to appoint delegates thoroughly to overhaul and revise the Rules of Bet- ting, of which No. 1 8 seems to stand in urgent need of a simple amendment. At present it runs thus : If a declared defaulter (the italics are not in the book, but are intended to call attention to the point) does not satisfy the claims of his creditors within twelve months, he shall not be entitled to receive any debts which may be due to him for the race in which he was in default ; but if his debts are paid within the prescribed time, viz., ' one year,' i.e. 365 days, inclusive of the day when the money was won, the Committee will support his just claims to receive payment from his debtors. Nothing could be in intention fairer than this ruling, for a man is hereby de facto given a whole year wherein to discharge his betting liabilities, with full right within that time to exact payment of such sums as may be owing to him ; though he may not, as a declared defaulter, appear in the interim on any racecourse ; while if he fails to fulfil these comparatively easy conditions, he is justly fined for his non-compliance, by the forfeiture of money which otherwise he would have received ; but the little word declared has recently caused considerable complication, and enabled the more unscrupulous of the sharp division to drive the traditional coach -and-four through this enactment. It has already been shown that bookmakers who are the sufferers in ninety-nine out of a hundred of these cases are extremely lenient to their debtors ; this in a great mea- sure out of good nature, but also partly from self-interest ; for to declare a man a defaulter is a very serious proceeding, so 266 RACING. serious indeed that it is hardly ever resorted to. It means posting the name of the culprit in any conspicuous place decided on by his judges, and certainly in the Rooms at Newmarket and Tattersall's ; it means also reporting him to the Stewards of the Jockey Club ; he is branded for life, and if he has any shred of self-respect left, he never more attempts to appear on a racecourse, or if he does, is liable at any moment to summary ejectment but he is at the same time deprived of all in- ducement to pay ; though the wheel of fortune should in time bring him affluence, and plenty wherewith to satisfy his cre- ditors, and to render him indifferent to the loss of what may be owing to him yet the stigma remains ; he has been posted, and he has lost his status on the Turf. The ring know this well enough, and they know also that in many instances it would not only be unwise but unjust to post a man who is sure ultimately (though mayhap not within the specified year) to be able to pay, and equally sure to pay as soon as he is able ; thus starting from admirable premisses, they arrive at a somewhat false conclusion, and never, or hardly ever, post or declare anybody, however wanton and hopeless his default may be. This system of ' sentence deferred ' answered well enough so long as those in actual if not in official default abode by the spirit of the law, and were content to suffer the fine if only an extension of the grace-term might be allowed them ; but cases have already happened which the Newmarket Committee fear will recur with alarming frequency, where men have simply ignored their creditors till such time as it was more convenient to pay than to remain outside, and on paying, demanded in turn payment in full of money justly forfeited by the Turf statute of limitations, alleging in support of the monstrous claim, that never having been declared defaulters they were legally exempt from the penalty attaching to that position ! ! It is therefore probable that one of the earliest amendments made in the code will be by the omission of the word * declared ' in the first line of Rule 18. BETTING. 267 Possibly before these pages appear in print l the rule will have been altered ; if so, they may serve the purpose of explanation. The sooner the evil is remedied the better. The races which are legally considered as l play or pay ' 2 under the rules of betting are but few to wit, the Derby and Oaks at Epsom, the St. Leger at Doncaster, the Two Thousand Guineas, the One Thousand Guineas, the Cesare- witch and Cambridgeshire at Newmarket, the Ascot, Good- wood, and Doncaster Cups, and all handicaps above 2oo/. value with two forfeits, the minor of which shall not be less than 5/. ; and it is furthermore declared in Rule 17, which deals with this matter, that the Committee of Tattersall's and of Newmarket will take no cognisance of any disputes respect- ing play or pay bets on any other races, or of any bets made upon handicap races before the weights for such races are published. Custom, however, in England not only frequently supple- ments but often supersedes law, and as regards p.p. betting, the ring have in their own interests established a custom which they effectually contrive to enforce as law ; and this they have done with such success, that all races on which anyone chooses to open a book some time beforehand, are in fact considered p.p., and dea't with accordingly. It is true that the system of post betting has closed many books till the numbers go up, but those which are open claim the benefit of custom. Take for instance the Hunt Cup at Ascot and the Stewards' Cup at Goodwood. Neither of these has any minor forfeit at all, yet on each there is a certain amount of betting, often a considerable amount, during several days preceding its determination. How would the ring-men rage were the backers of scratched favourites to decline parting, on the 1 Since these words were written the Rules of Betting have been revised and re-arranged by a joint committee of Newmarket and Tattersall's, and the desired alteration as to default has been made. All races, matches excepted, have been made p.p. 2 By the revised Rules all races have been declared play or pay. 268 RACING. perfectly legal ground that there was no run for the money ! In practice the backers continue to pay and the ring to look pleasant, but were a case referred to the tribunals, the book- makers would not have a leg to stand on. Take again betting on the Cesarewitch and Cambridgeshire before the weights are published. It is said that the backing of horses for these two races begins soon after Ascot, and the double-event betting certainly begins as soon as the entries are published, though the weights do not appear before the middle of September ; yet do we ever hear of the repudiation of bets on account of a crushing weight allotted to a too early favourite, or even in case of non-acceptance ? If to ' suffer and be strong ' is a moral purification, of a truth the premature backer on the big handicaps must be as one seven times passed through the fire. Who does win all the money on the Turf? is a question which constantly suggests itself to the curious, and is asked even by many who have had some experience in its mysteries. The ring, undoubtedly at first hand into their pockets flows the perennial stream of the savings, the stealings, or the superfluities of the backing million, and thence parca manu some portion is distributed amongst those whose acuteness, perseverance, industry, and mayhap dishonesty, enable them successfully to cope with what is almost an arithmetical certainty. Floreat Sdentia. STEEPLE-CHASING ARTHUR COVENTRY AND ALFRED E. T. WATSON NOTE BY THE EDITOR. THE conditions under which this book is written make it im- possible for the authors to include the first gentleman-rider of the day, Mr. Arthur Coventry, whose name appears on the title- page. To omit mention of him would be to leave out a pro- minent figure on contemporary racecourses. In steeple-chases, hurdle-races, and on the flat, Mr. Arthur Coventry has alike dis- tinguished himself, proving a worthy successor of his brother, who carried off the Grand National on Alcibiade. This race has never fallen to the subject of the present note, who, however, won the Grand National Hunt Steeple-chase from fifteen com- petitors in 1879 on Mr. Vyner's Bellringer. The course at Derby, where the meeting took place in that year, was an ex- tremely severe one, so much so that a protest against its severity was made by some of those interested in the event. Mr. Arthur Coventry, on being consulted, declared it to be in his opinion an excellent course, which any alteration would tend to destroy ; and the result proved that he at least found it suitable. The Great Metropolitan Steeple-chase at Croydon he also won on The Scot, a Blair Athol horse, in 1881. Many other races over a country and over hurdles have been won by him ; so highly is he regarded that his appearance on a horse invari- ably shortens the odds against it. His knowledge of pace is unfailingly acute ; he has wonderful 'hands,' and emphatically rides with his head. But it is, perhaps, on the flat that Mr. Arthur Coventry excels. If his horse be only good enough, he 274 S TEEPLE-CHA SING. holds his own against the very first flat-race jockeys of the day ; and this is quite exceptional in a gentleman-rider, who is not seldom equal to professional 'cross-country riders, but, for the most part, not within very many pounds of the Archers, Cannons, and Fordhams. With these and other leading horse- men, Mr. Arthur Coventry has successfully disputed victory. His finishes are extraordinarily well timed, and there can be no question that this admirable horseman thoroughly merits the reputation he has gained and the estimation in which he is held. BEAUFORT. CHAPTER I. THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF STEEPLE-CHASING. IT is easy enough to understand in what way those cross- country competitions known as Steeple-chases had their origin. As men rode after hounds together a certain spirit of emulation was naturally aroused in them. The question which was the better horse, which the better man, and the extent to which horsemanship could make one animal beat another a little his superior in speed and in powers of fencing, must often have come up for solution ; and the best way to settle the point was obviously to ride over a given distance of country independently of hounds, which might check or run into their fox before the matter was settled. Sportsmen more frequently found occa- sion to gallop over a country together than to go at full speed over level ground ; and admirers of steeple-chasing may there- fore maintain with some show of reason that the former is really the more natural kind of race. It is at least the race in which gentlemen, who have always held their own in the saddle against professional riders, can take the greatest personal interest. Steeple-chasing can be traced back as far as the year 1752, and Ireland seems to have been the land of its birth. An old MS. in the possession of the O'Briens of Dromoland records a match run in this year over four and a half miles of country between Mr. O'Callaghan and Mr. Edmund Blake, the course being from the Church of Buttevant to the spire of St. Leger Church. Such matches were probably common enough, but T 2 276 STEEPLE-CHASING. it is not till 1803 that what is spoken of as 'the first regular steeple-chase ' was got up, still in Ireland. The festivity of a hunt dinner inspirited the matchmakers, who agreed to ride for a sweepstakes neither place, course, nor figures are given. The ' added money ' was a hogshead of claret, a pipe of port, and a quarter-cask of rum. A steeple-chase is mentioned by 'The Druid' as having been run in Leicestershire about 1792. The distance was eight miles, from Barkby Holt to the Coplow and back. Mr. Charles Meynell, son of the M. F. H., won, with Lord Forester second, and Sir Gilbert Heathcote third. * There is very little real tradition respecting it,' the writer quoted says, ' except that Sir Gilbert's horse was rather fat, that Lord Forester was favourite, and that Mr. Needham of Hungerton said to his lordship, " I'll save you a hundred yards, if you'll come through my garden and jump the gate into the road " ! a remark which tells something as to the pace and style in which chases were run. Such races, however, had a value of their own, as proving excellence on the part of the animal, and testing the horseman- ship of the rider. In 1805 a number of 'The Sporting Magazine' contained an account of ' An Extraordinary Steeple-chase,' and from the wording of the record it seems as if the sport were quite novel. The account says : On the last Wednesday in November came on for decision a match, which had created much interest in the sporting world, and which amongst that community is denominated a steeple-chase the parties undertaking to surmount all obstructions, and to pursue in their progress as straight a line as possible. This contest lay between Mr. Bullivant of Shroxton, Mr. Day of Wymondham, and Mr. Frisby of Waltham, and was for a sweepstakes of one hundred guineas staked by each. They started from Womack's Lodge at half-past twelve (the riders attired in handsome jockey dresses of orange, crimson, and sky-blue, respectively worn by the gentlemen in the order we have named above), to run round Woodal-Head and back again, a distance somewhat exceeding eight miles. They continued nearly together, until they came within a mile and a half ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT. 277 of the goal, when Mr. Bullivant on his well-known horse Sentinel took the lead, and appearances promised a fine race between him and Mr. Day ; but unfortunately in passing through a hand- gate, owing partly to a slip, Mr. Day's horse's shoulder came in full contact with the gate-post ; the rider was thrown with great violence-, and, as well as the horse, was much hurt. Nevertheless Mr. Day remounted in an instant and continued his course. Mr. Bullivant, however, during the interruption, made such progress as enabled him to win the race easily. The contest for second place now became extremely severe between Mr. Day and Mr. Frisby, and Mr. Day only beat his opponent half a neck. The race was performed in 25 min. 32 sees. There is no question of * steeples ' here, and of course a steeple was originally the goal towards which, as the name of the contest implies, the riders steered. Sometimes much latitude was permitted to the riders, they being merely told to ' leave that church on the left, pass to the right of the clump, and finish on the hill beyond ; ' sometimes men were concealed in ditches, and rose, holding up flags at a given signal when the starters were at what did duty for a post. Such incidents are reported at somewhat distant intervals, and we find, still under the head of ' Steeple-chasing,' an account the date is 1816 of a match against time under- taken by a Major Wilson on his Popylina mare ; the wager being against his riding twenty miles across country in i hour 10 min. After one fall the Major was declared the winner with i min. n sees, in hand. Twenty miles is a long journey, but it was not exceptional. The publication already quoted, in the volume for 1817-18, gives an account of a still longer race : A match for one hundred guineas a side was rode on Tuesday, January 6, by a Mr. R. Melprop, and Mr. Arnold of Stamford Hill, Middlesex. The parties started from the Coleshill to go across country to a house of Mr. Arnold's, four miles from Wade's Mill, Hertfordshire. The distance as a crow would fly, to use a sports- man's phrase, is computed to be twenty-six miles. Notwithstanding the hazy foggy weather, Mr. Arnold did his ground in i hour 52 min., 278 STEEPLE-CHASING. having swam his horse through a river to cover his ground. Mr. Melprop arrived within the two hours, having been thrown out by the river. It is considered a masterpiece of performance of the sort, and neither even touched a road but to cross it. Some daring leaps were made without accident. Irish sportsmen were in no way behind their English brethren, and in 1819 steeple-chasing is found described (in these early days, unfortunately, it was thought necessary to use slang phrases in writing of sport, an evil that has been too common ever since) as * a sort of racing for which the Paddies are particularly famous, and in which, unless the rider has pluck and his prad goodness, they cannot expect to get well home.' By this time the all-important question of weight seems to have come up for consideration. In a four- (Irish) mile chase at Dungarvan for a plate of fifty guineas and a sweepstakes of five guineas each, riders carried twelve stone. Another at Lismore was * a complete tumble-down race.' The winner, Mr. Foley's Brown Bess, fell four times ; the third horse had been down six times. 'In all,' the report says, 'twelve falls, but nobody killed. Betting : even at starting that there would be six falls.' No odds against any of the field of six are quoted. ' This system of horsemanship, dangerous in the extreme, has become a favourite amusement with the young fox-hunters of the day,' a writer of this period says; and another (1821) sarcastically terms steeple- chasing ' this very rational and con- siderate branch of the tree of sport, perhaps three centuries old, which has been withering neglected and nearly defunct during a long course of years, but has within a late period encountered resurrection, vegetated, bloomed, and budded anew.' The danger of ' hunting church-steeples ' is dwelt upon, and with good reason the cruelty of preposterous twenty-mile contests. Oftentimes courses seem to have been chosen mainly for their impracticability, as at Dundee, in 1824, where there was ar- ranged ' one of those sights termed a steeple-chase, from the top of Dundee Law to Kilpurnie Hill, distance seven and a half miles, though the shortest practicable route was nine or ten. ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT. 279 There were three starters ; two tried the shortest way, but the third, who took a circuitous route, won by a mile, a sufficiently decisive victory. Men ventured large sums on the ability of their horses to cross a country. Thus, about 1824 or 1825, there was a steeple- chase match between Captain Horatio Ross and Lord Kennedy for 4,ooo/. over a course already named, from Barkby Holt to the Coplow. Captain Douglas rode for Lord Kennedy, Captain Ross rode his own horse, and won. The match was probably made over the dinner-table, as was the first steeple- chase on Burton Flat, since then the scene of so many encounters. The match in question was arranged at a dinner at the Old Club, Melton. Captain Ross expressed his willingness to back a really good mare he then had, called Polecat, against any animal in England at fourteen stone for 2,ooo/., he himself riding. Mr. Gilmour, who was no gambler indeed, hardly ever betted offered to take up the challenge and run for the more moderate sum of ioo/. The match was accordingly made, Mr. Gilmour naming Plunder, a horse he had already ridden in a match against Captain Ross, which has been described, though not quite accurately, by Dick Christian in ' Silk and Scarlet.' On this occasion Messrs. Maxse and Maher, who then lived at the Old Club, were asked to choose the line. The start was on the south side of the river Wreake, i.e. the opposite side to Melton, about half a mile short of Burbidge's covert ; the finish was in a field close to Adcock's lodge, five miles on the Oak- ham Road. Field Nicholson, a steeple-chasing farmer, rode for Mr. Gilmour who was not able to get down to the weight and won very easily. In these early days the competitors were usually two or three in number, and the St. Albans steeple-chase in March 1831 was a notable event. It was won by Moonraker, who had been bought for i8/., with his sinews quite callosed from hard work, out of a water-cart ; but he could jump undeniably, and cleared the Holloway Lane in the course of an exercise canter. 2 So 5 TEEPLE- CHA SING, By this time the sport was assuming something of the shape in which we know it, and names still familiar to the younger generation of sportsmen, and conveying to the older generation reminiscences of fields well fought and battles won, begin to appear in the pages of journals devoted to such matters. Squire Osbaldeston, Sir Harry Goodricke, Lord Clanricarde, Mr. Peyton, Captain Ross, Captain Berkeley, Colonel Standen, Mr. Gilmour, Mr. White, became familiar personages to the reader. It would be interesting to record some of their achievements did space permit, but the allotted limits forbid. Ireland was still prominently to the fore. At the Mayo Spring Meeting the capabilities of men and horses were nicely considered. The gathering extended over three days. On the first day there was a sweepstakes of ten sovereigns each, fifty sovereigns added, over the Mayo course, four miles, with six 5 -foot walls, the only specification as to weight being 3-year- olds 9 stone. On the second day the walls were reduced 6 inches. The height was then 4^ feet, and on the third day six 4-foot walls formed the course. Steeple-chasing is reported from France at this period, and seems to have been an eccentric and a decidedly dangerous amusement, far more dangerous than big jumps on a fair hunting course. In 1834 the start for a chase was 'down the Rabbit Mount, a short but steep declivity full of holes.' Several ugly places were then crossed, including a river and swampy meadows. It is not a matter for surprise that ' sport ' such as this should have found opponents. The great drawback to chasing as a popular spectacle at this time will be obvious to readers. Unless a man were mounted, and prepared to ride with the competitors, or unless the course were chosen with a view to the amusement of those who drove along roads commanding a sight of the race, very little of the exciting incidents of the contest was to be seen. There were manifest objections, moreover, to having friends and foes of the opponents about the course. Fences were ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT. 281 broken down to clear the way for confederates ; a horse in- clined to refuse could always reckon on a lead over from some one concerned for the rider's success, and in these days, when perhaps a rider was in an enclosure by himself, a persistent refusal might lose him the race. While the too ready backers of the crimson were eager to do all they could for that jacket, some of them were at least equally desirous of interfering with the rival blue. A fair field and no favour for the competitors, and an opportunity of witnessing the progress of the contest for spectators, were imperatively demanded ; and the first adequate attempt to secure these desiderata seems to have been at Liver- pool in 1836, three years before the institution of the Grand National Steeple-chase, which, since its origin in 1839, has been, and to all appearance is likely to remain, the principal cross- country event of the year. On Monday, February 29, 1836, the first Liverpool steeple- chase was run near Aintree, twice round a two-mile course, and a commentator says : ' A strong recommendation to it was that nearly the whole of the performance could be seen from the Grand Stand.' The conditions were 'a sweepstakes of ten sovereigns each, with eighty added, for horses of all denomina- tions ; 12 stone each ; gentlemen riders. The winner to be sold for two hundred sovereigns if demanded.' Captain Becher (after whom Becher's Brook was subsequently called) won on a horse called The Duke. The sport had meantime become increasingly popular. Important meetings were annually held at St. Albans, Newport Pagnell, Aylesbury, Leamington, and other places ; but Liver- pool at once took up its position as the head-quarters of steeple- chasing, and in 1839 the Grand National supplanted the selling race, particulars of which have been given. Fifty- five subscribers were secured for the race y ' a sweepstakes of twenty sovereigns each, with one hundred sovereigns added ; 12 stone each; gentlemen riders; four miles across country. The second horse to save his stakes ; the winner to pay ten sovereigns towards expenses. No rider to open a gate, or ride 282 STEEPLE-CHASING. through a gateway, or more than 100 yards along any road, footpath, or driftway.' Seventeen starters went to the post, an Irish horse called Rust being favourite at 7 to i. Another Irish horse, Naxon, was at 8 to i, and a point more was procurable against Lottery, ridden by Jem Mason, * though, 5 to i taken just before starting ' is parenthetically noted. How Lottery won with some ease has often been told. It was said at the time that the good horse cleared ten yards over the last hurdle a big jump at the end of a four-mile race but this is doubted by some chroniclers. The Irish division was much dissatisfied, and protested against the made fences. That these were as fair for one as for the other, and that objections should have been made before instead of after the race, were obvious and sufficient .answers to the expressions of discontent. As the sport grew in popularity, the want of some authorita- tive governing body became more and more apparent. Those who were most anxious on behalf of steeple-chasing felt most strongly that a judicial tribunal to govern and regulate steeple- chasing, as the Jockey Club legislates for flat-racing, was an urgent necessity. The first move was made by Mr. W. G. Craven, Mr. B. J. Angell, and Mr. E. C. Burton, the first two well- known owners of horses, and the last-named one of the most successful of cross-country riders. Regular meetings increased in all directions, and as the sport grew popular it grew infamous. It was, indeed, the recognised refuge of all outcasts, human and equine, from the legitimate Turf. There was no sort of control over the conduct of a steeple-chase meeting. Clerks of courses, owners and riders, did what seemed good in their eyes ; and the worst seemed good. Stewards of meetings there were ; but their power was nil. The gravest punishment they could inflict on an offender was to suspend him for the remainder of the meet- ing ; and it might have been in the last race of the meeting in which the rascality occurred : if not, very likely the culprits ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT. 283 had no interest in races subsequent to that with regard to which they were summoned before the stewards. * A disgraceful affair, which I was called upon to investigate,' Lord Suffolk (then Lord Andover), one of the earliest and most judiciously energetic members of the Grand National Hunt Com- mittee, writes to us, ' was at Croydon, when the owner of a horse which came in second for a steeple-chase charged the owner of the winning mare with slipping weight to his jockey as he returned to scale. I was requested to act for Lord Coventry, who had a horse running, or was otherwise interested ; and, with another steward of the meeting, 1 investigated the case at Tattersall's. The verdict was " not proven ; " but I have not the faintest idea what sentence that would have had the slightest effect we could have pronounced in the event of our having found the accused parties guilty.' The Jockey Club refused to take cognisance of any disputes connected with hurdle-racing or steeple-chasing. Whether the Club would have confirmed a sentence passed by stewards of a steeple-chase meeting is in the highest degree doubtful. Men who were prone to chicanery began to feel and to exercise their power. But the remedy was at hand, notwithstanding that some members of the Jockey Club opposed the formation of the suggested junior body of legislators for cross-country races. The determination and influence of Mr. Craven and of Lord Suffolk were not exerted in vain. Lord Coventry was heartily on their side. The Duke of Beaufort and Lord Westmorland presently gave their adherence to the project ; at last Mr. George Payne was induced to support the movement, and the battle was won. In the autumn of 1866, the Grand National Hunt Com- mittee having been formed, its rules were recognised and en- forced, to the infinite advantage of steeple-chasing ; and from this date ' Weatherby's Steeple-chase Calendar,' which bears date 1866-7, has been issued. Earlier than this the first Grand National Hunt steeple- chase had been run. The date of the contest is 1860, the 284 STEEPLE-CHASING. place Market Harborough, and Mr. Burton beat thirty oppo- nents on Mr. B. J. Angell's Bridegroom. In these races the original idea of the sport has been maintained as much as pos- sible. A natural country is chosen, and the fences are admit- tedly large. 'The Market Harborough course,' a member of the Grand National Hunt Committee who has always been an advocate of big jumps confesses, ' was really an awful one. The aboriginal oxer prevailed ; the brook the river Welland was cut clean to the width of eighteen feet. I have no idea of the depth, but the scenes which occurred here were remark- able. A good many of the provincial riders required a con- siderable amount of "jumping powder " to induce them to face this brook and other equally formidable fences. A lady well known in the sporting circles of her day, however, cleared the water before the assembled multitude in cold blood.' The owner and rider of Bridegroom supplied and steered the winner, Queensferry, the second year. The first Grand National Hunt recorded in ' Weatherby ' is the race at Bedford in 1867, when the late Captain Coventry rode Emperor III. and won by six lengths. That was as stiff and big a course as could well be found. There was a double post and rails ' improved ' with a ditch, which most of the jockeys objected to, and it was consequently decided that one of the rails should be taken down at a particular spot, so as to give riders the option of an easier place. Captain Coventry made no objection to this, as he saw that by going straight over the double he could gain considerably on those who diverged to the gap ; and he carried out his plan most successfully. If any proof were needed of how necessary it was that some sort of law and order should be brought to bear upon the steeple-chasing fraternity, readers may be referred to the short preface to Messrs. Weatherby's first * Steeple-chase Calendar.' This is the paragraph : In preparing for press this first volume of ' Steeple-chases Past,' considerable pains have been taken to obtain pedigrees, and such information as would enable us to distinguish or identify in the ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT. 285 index horses of the same name. This has often been found difficult, and corrections of any errors or omissions that may be observed in this or other parts of the book will be gladly received and attended to. The names of the original members of the committee will be found in this book. The practice of appointing five of their number to act as stewards, who retire yearly by rotation, seems to have been adopted later. For motives which need not be detailed, it was considered desirable, at the end of the year 1883, to dissolve the Grand National Hunt Committee. The dissolution was, however, nothing more than a preliminary to re-formation. The hitherto existing Committee had done excellent service to the cause of steeple-chasing and of that offshoot of the sport, hurdle-racing, which, by means of the amount of money to be won at it, and the fact that it was to be won by animals halfway between racehorses and chasers by half-schooled chasers with a great deal still to learn has done so much to interfere with chasing proper. But it was felt that even better service might be per- formed by a re-organised Committee which would for several reasons be more closely allied to the Jockey Club itself. As a matter of fact the great majority of the names which appeared as a first draft of the new Grand National Hunt Committee in a number of 'The Racing Calendar' for February 1884, had been on the Committee which was dissolved. There were found to be a few accessions, who were likely to have influence to further the best interests of the sport, among these thirty members whom the stewards had power to elect as a nucleus. They included Lord Marcus Beresford Mr. E. C. Burton Col. T. E. Byrne Hon. R. Carington Viscount Castlereagh ^Sir Geo. Chetwynd, Bart. *Earl of Coventry *Mr. W. G. Craven Colonel J. A. T. Garratt Lord Fitzhardinge Colonel Harford Earl of Harrington Members of the Jockey Club, 286 STEEPLE-CHASING. *Lord Hastings Hon. Cecil Howard Mr. W. H. P. Jenkins *Sir F. Johnstone, Bart. *Viscount Lascelles Captain Machell Lord Manners Captain W. G. Middleton *Duke of Montrose Colonel the Hon. F. C. Morgan *Mr. G. E. Paget Hon. G. D. Pennant Major Gilbert Stirling *Earl of Suffolk and Berkshire Sir Wm. Throckmorton, Bart. Earl of Wilton Lord Wolverton Several of these, it will be seen, are members of the Jockey Club. Future elections are as heretofore the business by ballot of the whole Committee. The stewards have at all times the power of electing 'qualified riders,' who are proposed and seconded by members of the Grand National Hunt Com- mittee. Members of the Jockey Club. 28; CHAPTER II. THE SELECTION OF THE CHASER. THE steeple-chase horse is partly born and partly made ; that is to say, no horse by the unaided light of nature could be expected safely and successfully to make his way over a course so as to win in good company, while speed and stamina are first essentials. In the thoroughbred horse these qualities, together with high courage and that endurance or staying power which so frequently turns the tables at the last moment of a severe race, are found united as they never are in underbred stock. Except, of course, for the heavier forms of draught-work, thoroughbred horses are, it may be said, the best for all purposes. It has been asserted that few of the class have sufficient substance of bone to withstand the shocks of jumping, and that they cannot carry over a course the weights often put upon them ; but neither assertion is tenable. On modern courses it is an exceedingly rare thing to find in a steeple-chase at any good meeting a starter that is not clean thoroughbred ; and very much rarer still to see such a one win. As regards bone, a thoroughbred seems to have less bone than a horse of mixed breed in fact, the further he is removed from thoroughbred the more bone he appears to have ; but the appearance is de- ceptive, for the bone of the thoroughbred horse is almost of the consistency of ivory, while the common animal has bone of quite a different and altogether inferior quality. An enormous proportion of the steeple-chase horses that are now in training, all but a very few indeed, have served their apprenticeship, frequently of several years' duration, to racing 288 S TEEPLE- CHA SING. on the flat. As chasers, many of them that have been looked on as T.Y.C. animals stay with ease for three miles or more there are several winners over the four-and-a-half miles of the Grand National course, indeed with a turn of speed for the run home ; and over a country such horses frequently carry with success twice the weight they have been accustomed to gallop under for five or six furlongs. Formerly the hunting-field was the place where chasers A chaser. were sought, and that chasers were hunters was so generally understood that we find the writer ' Cecil ' expressing doubts as to whether Lottery was an agreeable horse to ride to hounds, with a significance which implies that keeping Lottery exclu- sively for steeple-chasing was considered rather sharp practice. 1 Superiority in the hunting-field seemed to give promise of superiority between the flags ; but this is no longer the case. 1 Lottery was, however, often hunted by Jem Mason during his steeple- chase career and long afterwards. We have seen the pair out with the Queen's staghounds twenty times or more. ED. THE SELECTION OF THE CHASER. 289 Horses for the most part jump in widely different fashion when they carry a scarlet coat and when a silken jacket is worn by the rider. A chaser, or rather the rough material out of which a chaser can be made, is much more likely, as things are at present managed, to be found at Newmarket than following after a pack of hounds ; if only and this is a most important point the animal's temper has not been seriously affected by his career on the flat. Here is the danger ; for if a horse does not take kindly to the business, he is likely to be a source of continual disappoint- ment, and at the best it must occupy a very much longer time to make him anything like trustworthy than if he entered kindly and willingly into the sport, as many horses do. It is often possible to coax or drive him along for a few furlongs ; the position is greatly changed when he is called upon to run in a steeple-chase, where so much more is, as it were, left to his discretion, and so many more temptations to cease persever- ance are likely to arise from the incidents and mishaps of the struggle. To obtain the perfect chaser it cannot be said that we go the best way to work : and the frequent successes of Irish horses may be accepted as a proof of this. But a very small proportion of the capital which is invested on the Turf here is invested in Ireland ; the Irish get more for their money be- cause they lay it out more judiciously. There the question of breeding the chaser is studied, with the results which we see ; and, moreover, chasers are not knocked about on the flat as they are in England. In all that appertains to teaching the chaser his business, English trainers such as Tom Cannon, his brother Joseph, Richard Marsh, James Jewitt, Mr. Arthur Yates, and others, have no superiors in the world. The Irish on the whole, however, do better with inferior material to work on, because they bring up a horse in the way he should go, begin- ning earlier the task of teaching him his business. That certain recruits from the flat have distinguished themselves over a country does not affect the argument that, as a rule, flat-racing u 290 STEEPLE-CHASING. is a bad preparation for the jumper. At the best it causes delay in putting him to what is to be the business of his life. The science of breeding the chaser and if cross-country contests are to retain their popularity this matter will claim -attention is not at present even in its infancy. It is unknown ; and to seek guidance from the history of past winners would be an exceedingly perplexing task. One of the very last sires whose stock might have been ex- pected to make Liverpool winners was Teddington ; yet, in two successive years, his daughters Emblem and Emblematic won the Grand National. It has been generally asserted that the Trumpeters did not train on, and, as a three-year-old, Casse Tete, a daughter of this sire, ran precisely a score of races with only one win. At seven years old she carried off the Grand National, in quick time, from twenty-four opponents. Com- motion was a very moderate horse on the turf, and scarcely saved himself from being written down a failure at the stud ; but his son Disturbance, with a steadier of 1 1 st. IT Ibs. in the saddle, was successful at Liverpool in a field of twenty- eight. Reugny's breeding made his chances of victory in great races seem slight, yet he too won the great race at Aintree, and many other examples might be adduced to show that there is much haphazard in the selection of steeple-chase horses. The Irish chasers that have lately won races have been bred from comparatively few sires. Solon, Xenophon, Uncas, and The Lawyer have been the chief of them ; and surely amongst English sires there are to be found better than these (though with such a son as Barcaldine it is not quite easy to say how good Solon may be), and fitter for the purpose of breeding chasers. Xenophon's sons, Cyrus and Seaman, fought out the Grand National of 1882. Tame Fox and Zitella are his off- spring. Mohican is a son of Uncas, the sire of such per- formers as Too Good, Bacchus, Quadroon, &c. The stock of these four horses, it may be said, have on numerous courses held their own against the best English-bred animals that could be brought against them. THE SELECTION OF THE CHASER. 291 That horses must be thoroughbred to have a hope of suc- cess in these days receives additional proof when the pace at which steeple-chases .are run is critically examined. Let us even compare the Grand National with the Derby, and it will be seen that, taking the different circumstances into consider- ation, there is actually little difference between the respective rates of speed. During the last twenty years the average time of the Derby, one and a half mile, is 2 min. 48 sec. ; during the same period the average time of the Grand National, a very long four and a half miles, has been 10 min. 13 sec. ; that is to say, a mile has been run at Epsom in i min. 52 sec., and at Liverpool in twenty-four seconds more that is, in 2 min. 16 sec. There are on the Liverpool course some thirty jumps of formidable size ; the going on the turf is generally worse than at Epsom, and there are some ploughed fields to be crossed ; moreover, while the Derby horses have carried 8 st. TO Ibs., 1 the Liverpool horses have carried during these years an average of, as nearly as possible, 1 1 stone. The question of weight for age has to be considered ; but, reckoning this, it will be seen that a Grand National is run at what is almost the pace of the Derby, maintained, it must always be remembered, for thrice the distance of the Epsom course. By taking extreme cases, more might, of course, be proved. Thus Huntsman's Grand National time is given at 9 min. 30 sec. six seconds less than on the occasion of The Lamb's first win that is, a mile in 2 min. 6 sec. Ellington took 3 min. 4 sec. to gallop the Derby course that is, a mile in 2 min. 3 sec. ; and the extraordinary fact remains that the four and a half miles of the Grand National have been run at a speed per mile as nearly as possible equal to the Derby time for that easy mile and a half at Epsom. 2 1 Colts now carry 9 St., and have done so since 1884 ; but we are discussing a period of twenty years. 2 The Derby course is easy. Nevertheless, the first quarter of a mile is up a steep hill where horses go slowly. Liverpool is dead flat. ED. U 2 292 STEEPLE-CHASING. It is obvious, therefore, that to expect an underbred horse to win a Grand National is equivalent to believing that a hack might win the Derby. The results of races during the last few years may well perplex the owner who is practically occupied with the selection of the chaser. Take the popular Sandown meeting for in- stance. The principal steeple-chase is called the Grand Inter- national, and is run over a four-mile course. Tolly Sir John and Savile, both from Danebury, won it in 1885 and 1884. In 1883 it was unexpectedly won by Albert Cecil ; in 1882 it fell to The Scot ; the two previous races were both carried otf by Regal, who also won the Grand National of 1876. Now Albert Cecil was worthless on the flat, so much so that he was bought for some 3o/. Savile was little better. The Scot ran twice and was unplaced as a two-year-old, and in eleven attempts next year carried off one paltry little handicap. Regal as a three-year-old won the Wallop Plate of 5o/., and a selling welter handicap also worth 5. ^ ^*--L ^ An open brook. four in depth. The fence was, indeed, a dangerous trap ; for, being cut sharply away from perfectly smooth and level turf with no growth on the edge, there was nothing to show the horse what he had to do. Happily the prophecies that dangerous accidents would occur here were rarely fulfilled, though, as was inevitable, horses occasionally fell into it. It was not the size of this fence, but its * trappiness,' to which owners, trainers and riders objected ; they desired that a guard rail, which would really make the fence bigger, might be put before the ditch, and this has now been done. Natural courses are, as a rule, out of the question, because, 3 i2 STEEPLE-CHASING. as it has been pointed out, there must be stands and perhaps unfortunately, but the fact remains betting-rings, if race-goers are to be attracted. The object that should be kept in view, therefore, is to make the courses as natural as possible. Ploughed fields, ridge and furrow, are not to be had ; but, instead of fences of a regulation pattern, the sort of fences that are to be met with in what is generally understood as a good but stiffish hunting country should be introduced. There might well be an open brook at Aldershot, for in- stance, one is, or lately was, crossed in every steeple-chase, and there is no reason why this, an ordinary obstacle in the hunting- field, should be excluded from the course which is supposed to represent a hunting-field as closely as possible. A double, again, is a fair hunting-jump ; posts and rails form a special test of a horse's powers ; and banks, as nearly as possible re- sembling the banks a man is likely to find before him in certain parts of the country, should not be omitted. Such a jump would be bad for cripples, but courses are made for sound horses. Here would be a course which would really test the clever- ness of horse and rider. It would fulfil the professed object of the sport to find out the best and speediest horse across a fair hunting country. What is to be said against such a course as that here pro- posed ? It would be a little more difficult to cross, and there- fore the cast-offs from the flat which have learnt to gallop and jump courses of the regulation pattern would find their occu - pation gone ; but surely this would be no disadvantage to the better interests of steeple -chasing the hurdles would still be left to them, if there be any real reason (we hold a strong opinion that there is not) why they should be retained in training-stables instead of fulfilling a more suitable destiny between the shafts of a cab, or possibly as hacks or hunters. The proposed course would not be more dangerous ; it would, on the contrary, be very much less so, particularly as a better class of horses, more expert at the game, would gradually come to take part in the contests. It would cost clerks of FENCES AND FENCING. 313 courses, or lessees of steeple -chase grounds, a little money, and would add greater uncertainty to the issues of races, a matter which would chiefly affect the betting-ring, for a time, at least ; till, in fact, it came to be understood and recognised that inefficient hurdle-racers could not win over a country. The interest and excitement of a race would be very greatly increased ; there would be more scope for horsemanship, more probability that the best horse would win. For subsequent use' as hunters, when they grew too slow for success between the flags, it need scarcely be pointed out that those horses which had competed in races over quasi- natural courses would be of infinitely greater value than the animal which had learnt to gallop over the Sandown fences with a jockey instead of a horseman on his back. A few years ago fences were a good deal larger than they are at present, and there was an outer) 7 against them as dan- gerous, an outcry entirely without good reason. They were dangerous, undoubtedly, to the sort of horse that was very often seen, and accidents did happen ; but this was not the fault of the men who arranged the courses. The mischief arose from the simple fact that horses were set to do what they had never been taught. An animal, it was thought, could 'jump ' that is, he could get over hurdles and had been driven at a fence or two with more or less lucky results. Conse- quently, after winning a selling hurdle-race one day, he was entered for a steeple- chase on the day following. Unless aided by undeserved good fortune, he fell at some fence the like of which he had never seen. A cry of dangerous fences was at once raised, whereas it was the horse that was dangerous ; for he was set, without any schooling, to do what could only be done with any degree of safety after much patient care had been bestowed upon him. The result was, unfortunately, that fences were so cut down that the hurdle-racer could gallop over them. The change is most certainly not popular with riders, who know the dangers of an easy course. Neither is it popular with the best class of 3f4 STEEPLE-CHASING. owners and trainers. What is the good of assiduously schooling a chaser over a fair course at home if when he gets to the post in the real race there is no scope for the exercise of the lessons that have been laboriously instilled into him, nothing but a sort of hurdle-race over hurdles of a new pattern that can be galloped over precisely after the fashion of a hurdle-race ? Theoretically there was possibly something to be said for the unguarded open ditch before the fence. It was designed to check the headlong speed at which chases are run, to make the rider collect his horse for an obstacle that could not safely be chanced, and took some jumping. Practically what was the result ? One or two of the more reckless riders would chance it. Sometimes they fell and a fall here was likely to be a bad one for man and horse. Sometimes, however, they got over and, in this event, they gained so much by their recklessness that the more cautious horseman, who sought to obviate the danger by going steadily, ran a great risk of losing so much ground that the loss of the race necessarily followed. What was the consequence ? All were bound, if it were a two-mile race, to gallop at it in the same fashion. This was neither a test of good horsemanship nor of a good horse. It was merely thrusting riders into a position of needless danger, and served no good purpose. The way to restore the popularity of steeple-chasing is obvious. The best class of patrons of the sport have grown indifferent about it, because there is so little work for the real steeple- chaser who can gallop over the Liverpool course to do. and it is not worth while to train and keep him to be cut down over a two-mile course by a horse that could not jump a fair course but can gallop the distance over the fences now in vogue. If there were more chases which a sportsman might reasonably feel an ambition to win, there would doubtless be chasers forthcoming to do battle for them. Such contests must be run over fair-sized fences, and over a distance of ground which is a real test of a horse's stamina and does not bear the same proportion to what a steeple-chase should be as a five-furlong dash does to a reasonable race. FENCES AND FENCING. 315 On the subject of fencing, men will always find ground for argument. The late Dick Christian was an authority not to be lightly esteemed, and his remarks, as recorded by ' The Druid ' in ' The Post and the Paddock,' were as follows : A quick and safe jumper always goes from hind legs to hind legs. I never rode a steeple-chaser yet but I steadied my horse on to his hind legs twenty yards from his fence, and I was always over and away again before the rushers. If a horse can't light on his hind legs, he soon beats himself; good rumps and good hind legs, them's the sort ! A man should get his horse collected. Modern gentlemen are so quick at their fences, their horses don't get up, and don't spread themselves. Their front legs should be higher than their hind ones when they come down : but not bucking I don't mean that. Lots of these young riders, they know no more than nothing at all. They think horses can jump anything if they can only drive them at it fast enough. They'd never get hurt if they'd collect their horses ; they force them too much at their fences. In this there is much shrewd common sense, the outcome of the speaker's long experience (and Dick Christian was familiar with the saddle for nearly seventy years) ; but that horses ever land over fences on their hind legs unless indeed they, as it were, throw themselves, or buck, over a stiff piece of timber : which is not steeple-chasing is denied by modern experts, who have the evidence of instantaneous photography to support them. The feeling of a rider who lands over a jump must count for something, and it will be hard to find one who does not say that he often feels the horse land on fore and hind legs almost at the same time, but on the fore legs distinctly first. The question has been tested in another way in which it is hard to make a mistake. The hoof-marks of horses which have raced over moderate steeple-chase jumps have been ex- amined ; and it has been found that in many cases the imprints of the two fore and of the two hind feet have been within a very few inches of each, they have often actually been joined together, the off fore and hind, the near fore and hind, making 3 1 6 S TEEPLE- CHA SING. only two separate impressions ; in some cases the shoes on the hind feet have actually been found in advance of the shoes on the fore feet. Such marks on the turf are something more than arguments, and are not to be controverted. Their meaning is plain. If the prints of hind feet are distinctly traced in front of the prints of fore, it proves that the horse has landed (as the rider feels and the keen observer believes he sees) on his fore legs, but his stride has been so little deranged by the jump that his hind quarters come well under him, so that his hind legs actually pass the spot where his fore legs alighted. 1 It cannot be else ; for if this horse had landed on his hind legs, how could he possibly have dented the turf with his fore feet in rear of his hind ? How, indeed, could it be that his fore legs lighted on the same spot as, or even a few inches before, his hind for if he did land on his hind legs in his stride, his fore legs should be not in rear of, but some way in front of, the hind ? A horse's quarters come over a fence and forward with such rapidity that the onlooker may very readily make a mistake, for the eye cannot follow the precise movement of a horse's legs. It is strange that so keen an expert as Christian should have been mistaken. That a horse jumps on to his hind legs, however, is a theory which will not be supported by the most observant of steeple-chase trainers and riders. With regard to riding over a country, an excellent rule to be steadfastly observed, is, 'Chance nothing.' It is a rule by no means followed by steeple-chase riders, and it cannot be denied that by ignoring it races have been won. It is at least equally certain that more races have been lost. To jump a fence is a very slight matter for a practised man on a fresh, well-schooled horse. Things are different when the horse has galloped three miles or more over those fences which take so much out of him. Driven recklessly at his jump, he may have the good fortune to clear it before the more careful rider who is comingalength or so behind, and so to scramble home before 1 For demonstration of this the authors have to thank Tom Cannon. FENCES AND FENCING. 317 his rival, who has been a thought longer at his fences, quite gets up. If, on the contrary, as so often happens, the spent horse falls or blunders, losing ground but saving a fall, because he has not been steadied and held together, the careful man reaps the benefit. These considerations, however, lead to and may be more appropriately treated in the next chapter, on * Riding the Race.' S TEEPLE- CHA SING. CHAPTER V. RIDING THE RACE ' V - Badly beaten. HE circumstances of different races vary so much that it would be altogether impossible to lay down fixed directions for riding a steeple-chase. Acci- dents are often averted, however, and successes achieved by the observance of rules which the inexperienced horseman is apt to overlook, and the more practised rider to neglect. In the first place, the man who is about to ride must be fit and in good condition as well as the horse. It is sometimes difficult after a race to say whether the horse or the rider is most beaten, and this should never be. The exertion of hold- RIDING THE RACE. 319 ing a free-going horse together over some three or four miles of country is a considerable tax on a rider's strength, even when the animal goes kindly and all chasers do not run thus. Sudden emergencies arise in the course of a race, and in these presence of mind with readiness of resource, most admirable in themselves, are of little avail if the rider has not strength to carry out what skill and courage suggest. Unless a race is won with altogether exceptional ease, the rider has to 'finish,' as the term goes ; and this is naturally beyond the capacity of the man who has trained on imperial pints of champagne, and who is borne into the straight run home with no breath in his body or power in his arms, hardly able to sit upright in his saddle, as riders are sometimes seen at this period of a struggle. The rider who employs his own strength judiciously saves the strength of his horse ; and the contrary of this is equally true. Therefore putting aside for the moment the undoubted fact that knack and knowledge will often accomplish what mus- cular force is unable to effect if a man desire to win his race, it is necessary that he should be really fit to ride when he has mounted his horse ; the more so as the nerves depend so greatly on the physical health. The rider will do well, if it be possible, to make the ac- quaintance of the animal he is to steer before the day of the race. He will of course have hints given him with regard to the horse's disposition ; but, as horses and horsemen vary so much in their style of going and riding, a gallop or two will be of infinitely more use than anything which can be conveyed in words. It is most desirable, moreover, even in these days when, as was remarked in a previous chapter, most steeple-chase courses are unfortunately of a set pattern, to walk round the course and examine the country that has to be crossed. The going may be heavy in certain parts, and these will naturally be bad places for a man to drive his horse ; he will see also not merely the nature of the fences, but what the taking-off and landing are like. About a made water-jump it is often boggy, for instance, and he will note where it is soundest. 320 STEEPLE-CHASING. Considering how important may be the issues involved, the judicious rider will cast a careful eye over the horse before he mounts. Saddles do occasionally slip and bridles have been known to come off in the course of a race. The trainer, or his assistant who saddles the horse, is extremely sorry ; but it is the rider who runs the risk of breaking a collar-bone, if nothing worse, while all this might very likely have been averted had the rider looked to see that all was right. Unless a man is upon his own horse, whose disposition he knows thoroughly well, he will receive instructions how to ride, and these he must obey to the best of his power ; but, if a grave mistake has not been made in asking him to ride at all, a certain amount of discretion must be allowed him. It may be, for instance, that staying is not the horse's strong point, and, there being known stayers in the race, the rider will be told to wait. If, however, the horse struggles violently for his head, it may be better to indulge him for a little way, and then get him gradually under easier control again, than to let him ex- haust himself, to say nothing of his jockey, by fighting. Unless the course is very broad indeed, so that there is ample room for the field, it is. as a rule, perhaps advisable in the short two-mile chases now so much in vogue to keep well in front for the first two or three fences supposing, that is to say, that the rider is on what is known to be a safe jumper. It is not improbable that some of the competitors may refuse, and they are more likely to do so early in the race, for there are often raw chasers that have been insufficiently schooled, with more or less success, over their own training-grounds, but grow so flurried and excited at the unusual turmoil of a racecourse that they forget the little they have learned and cannot or will not jump. The horse that happens to be galloping behind the refuser is likely to be more or less upset in one way or other either thrown down, or so balked that he will also refuse. The leader will likewise have a tendency to block the following horse's view of the fence he is approaching. The inexpert chaser, again, is most likely to fall before he RIDING THE RACE. 321 gets into the swing of jumping, notwithstanding that the first couple of fences are generally of a simple character. If he comes down he may probably cause disaster to the horses behind him ; so that, if the rider knows that he is on a safe bold jumper, he should not be far from the head of affairs until a little pre- liminary weeding has been accomplished ; then he may draw back into the place he has been told to keep. It will still be some way home ; for, happily, the Grand National Hunt Com- mittee have emphatically declined to allow any race under their A careful eye over the horse. rules of less than two miles, such as are run in France. On a broad course, or even on an ordinary course in a fairly long race, it is good policy not to make too much use of the horse till he has fairly settled down to his work. It has been assumed that the rider has a seat not to be dis- turbed by the action of jumping a fence, and hands sufficiently light and practised to hold the horse together, with a pull at once gentle and strong. Good hands are scarce, absolutely perfect hands almost un- known ; but the rarest attribute of jockeyship is a knowledge of Y 322 STEEPLE-CHASING. pace. Without it no jockey has ever risen to celebrity ; and if it be not the most valuable gift of all, there is certainly none more important. This knowledge must be intuitive, aided and de- veloped by constant practice and keen observation. The value of patience can scarcely be over-estimated, but this is really an adjunct to knowledge of pace ; for patience is useless by itself unless the rider understand when he has been patient time enough, and when the moment has come for action. Not long since a horse started for a race with something over thirteen stone in the saddle, a disadvantage counterbalanced by the fortunate circumstance that most of the weight consisted of a consummate horseman. None of the others had within many pounds of the burden to carry, and what were therefore the light weights went merrily away, racing on and soon begin- ning to make the pace tell. The rider of the heavy weight plodded on in the rear, knowing that his mount could maintain a fair steady pace, but that to attempt to hurry on with the rest would be fatal to his chance. Before long the leader showed signs of giving way, and was passed by another light weight, which took up the running, to succumb in turn by the violence of his own efforts. The pace told on the others so severely that one by one they came back to the heavy weight, who had been galloping on keenly observant but making no sign. As they came into the straight for home, the heavy weight was some four or five lengths behind the leader, going steadily well up in the midst of a group of beaten horses. * I could do nothing but sit still, 'the rider of the top weight said, in describing the race afterwards, ' for I felt that my horse was going as fast as he could, and that to try and make him go faster would do more harm than good. I had almost given up hope of winning, when the jockey of the leader looked back and saw me coming. I hoped and expected he would take up his whip and stop his horse, and so he did. He began to ride his hardest, and with one stroke of the whip a couple of strides from the post I just got up and won a head.' RIDING THE RACE. 323 The anecdote affords an illustration of what patience and knowledge of pace will do and what want of these qualities will destroy. Had an inferior horseman been on the heavy weight, he would in all probability have feared that he was lying too far off, and would have hurried his horse earlier in the race, taking out of him just that little extra effort which enabled him to 'get up on the post.' Had a superior rider been on the leader, again, he would have sat perfectly still in his saddle, until, at any rate, he was much nearer home, when a well-timed effort if indeed any effort at all were needed would have landed him a winner. The riding of this special race was Let go only to be pulled up. throughout an example of that art which is sometimes seen in a flash, so to speak, when, two lengths from the winning-post, a horse is a head behind, and is behind also two lengths beyond the post, but at the precise spot wins his race. The start for a steeple-chase, to return somewhat, is of course a very much simpler matter than the start for a race of half a dozen furlongs or less, where so very much depends on ' getting off.' Here and throughout the entire race, until at any rate the last few strides are reached, the rider should do his best to avoid flurrying the probably excitable nerves of his horse. He must keep his eye well on the advance flag, and not go till Y 2 324 STEEPLE-CHASING. it is down, for many horses' tempers may be soon upset when they are let go only to be pulled up and brought back again, and here there is rarely anything to be gained by slipping away in advance. When they are off, hold the horse together, if it be possible, without any of that reaching forward and leaning back to haul at his mouth, which are so often seen : here ' hands ' come in. Many horses have lost their race by fighting with their riders in the first mile or less, and the fight is usually a symptom of bad horsemanship. If your object is only to make running for another horse, and you have no hope of winning, all you have to do is to get over the country as quickly as is com- patible with safety ; but if you are devoted to the infinitely more satisfactory business of winning if possible, remember that in all probability the struggle will take place in the last furlong, and that it is most essential to reserve something for that exciting moment. When horses refuse they generally rush round to the left, the reasons most likely being that, as a rule, they are ridden with the left hand, while the whip is used in the right hand, though the expert should be able to use it equally well on either side which may be of service in keeping the horse straight and to change it from hand to hand so rapidly and dexterously that the horse will not note the passage. It is desirable, therefore, not to gallop just to the left of an animal with a disposition to refuse, and as much as possible to avoid lying just in the wake of any horse, most particularly of one that knows how to fall. The rider should be careful, however, not to gallop close to, but some half length behind, any horse ; because the animal that is going in this position has a tendency to take off just as his leader takes off, and if the leader rise from the proper place, several feet are added to the width of the follower's jump, which may make the obstacle too big to be safe or pleasant. This is particularly the case with a young horse. If the chaser should blunder over a fence, let that in- estimable gift of patience prevail. ' Hasten slowly ' is an RIDING THE RACE. 325 aphorism which applies to steeple-chasing as to so many other things. The rider whose victory on the heavy weight has just been described was lately on a horse which came down on its nose and knees at a fence. A firm seat and ready hands just, and only just, saved the fall ; but the result was the loss of a good dozen lengths, and that, moreover, at a critical time. But the rider was in no way flurried, and so saved the horse from flurry. The field was on the journey home, some half mile perhaps from the winning-post, a period when there is no v V*"** 1 Fighting for his head. time to lose. This admirable horseman, however, did not think it loss of time thoroughly to pull his horse together and set off quite quietly in pursuit, knowledge of pace showing him that it was just possible to get up before the judge's box was reached. Knowledge of pace was shown with remarkable effect some short time ago in a hurdle-race in which a famous cross-country rider from Newmarket took part. The course was only two miles, not long enough to take liberties, and before a mile had been traversed he was nearly four hundred yards behind the leader. 326 STEEPLE-CHASING. 'At one time I really did begin to wonder if the front horses were coming back to me ; but I knew that they must be going too fast and that the hill before the finish would stop them. Surely enough, before they were at the top I was with them, though I had never asked my horse to go ; and we won in a canter,' was the jockey's subsequent description of a race which it was curious to watch. This, nevertheless, was, it must be admitted, an exceptional instance, and is put forward rather as an instance of perfect judgment than as an example to be followed ; for, as a rule, though it is frequently a good thing for a rider to wait, it is rarely a good thing for him to lay out of his ground. The art of ' waiting in front ' is a great one to learn ; for, if occasion should arise, it may often be practised with the utmost advantage. The leader sets the pace, and if he, while leading, is going well within himself, so much the greater reserve of speed will he have when it comes to racing. A very great many races are lost every season because riders do not make enough use of their horses. They are told to wait, and wait they do accordingly, though it may be that the horse is a fair stayer. Supposing, however, that, instead of making a hot pace, the leader is in fact ' waiting in front/ when the effort has to be made the stayer is beaten for w r ant of speed to finish, whereas had he gone up and improved the pace his staying powers would very likely have brought him home. Here again know- ledge of pace comes in. If the rider who had been instructed to wait had possessed this faculty, he would, have perceived that the race was being run at a false pace, and would have taken means to counteract this detriment to his chances, so that waiting in front would have been out of the question. Thus it often happens that horsemanship wins the race for the inferior horse. Races, it must be remembered, are not won entirely on the post. When once the flag has fallen and the field has started every yard that a rider can gain without taxing his horse is so much to the good. In the course of the race the cunning RIDING THE RACE, 327 horseman will often see an opening which he knows how to take : getting the rails, for instance, may be an advantage. If, again, a horse that is known to be a dangerous rival pecks or blunders on landing over a fence, the man who has got over comfortably may judiciously hasten on a little while his rival is recovering ; for the blunderer has to make up lost ground, and there is always a chance of his becoming a little flurried in the course of the operation. Refusing. A non-stayer has generally one effort in him, and the .horseman's art is shown in knowing just where to make it, for .when once the spurt is over he will not come again ; and it often depends greatly upon the rider whether the spurt just brings him home, whether he fails to get up by coming too late, or whether he dies out a few lengths from the post because the effort has been made a little too early knowledge of pace again. 328 STEEPLE-CHASING. If the rider have doubts about the relative capacity of his own horse and others, he will learn by experience how to take a feeler at an animal that appears to threaten danger when half or three-quarters of the race is run, a mile from home perhaps in a four-mile race. Even though neither be going at full speed, the practised horseman will be able to ascertain almost unfailingly what he desires to know, and the knowledge is a valuable guide to him for the remainder of the contest. He will act according to what he has learnt about his horse's dis- position. Should he perceive that the other horse is tiring while his own is going easily, he can take matters quietly with the pleasant assurance that the race is his. Should the other be going well within himself, and his own, a known stayer, be also fairly fresh, it may be necessary to increase the pace ; and again, should he discover that the other is a little the fresher of the two, he maybe wise to take a pull at his horse and begin to nurse it for the run home. That a man must always ride straight at his fences is almost too obvious to need remark. In jumping timber in the hunting field it is often wise to go sideways, for reasons which need not be discussed in this chapter, as being foreign to its pur- pose ; over a course the straightest way is the shortest, and to jump sideways is to run the risk of knocking something else down or of being knocked down oneself. 1 When chasers jump thus, the cause may be traced to insufficient schooling or bad handling. Many riders confessedly go at the last two fences in a steeple-chase simply as if they were not there and indeed there is very little time to lose when this point is reached. Nevertheless, the maxim ' Chance nothing ' must not be entirely disregarded. Whatever wisdom may suggest and theory main- tain, it is almost inevitable in practice that the rider, notwith- standing that he is generally on a tired horse, will go at these two fences more rapidly, and with less care, than he should. Luck 1 It is curious to note in a steeplechase that, however straight a horse is put at a fence, he never jumps qidte straight always lands a little to left or right. ED. RTDING THE RACE. 329 may befriend him, and he may land safely over the last for the run in, at the sacrifice of judgment. On the other hand, his horse, galloped recklessly at the obstacle, may blunder ; and then the follower who has refused to chance it, and who lands a second or two later, but in good form, has all the advantage, for his horse has not to be pulled together and set going again. In the supreme exhilaration of the moment, therefore, the wise man will not throw caution altogether aside. Jumping sideways. Then, unless the race be practically won at the last fence, and there is nothing to do but sit still and canter home, comes the question of finishing, a most important detail in the riding of the race, and one of which an exceedingly small number even of recognised and practised riders are really masters. A finish must in most cases be vigorous ; the man has to ride hard ; nevertheless, it may be said that, as a general rule, 330 S TEEPLE- CHA SIA T G. a very great deal of unnecessary exertion is expended, some of which certainly tends rather to stop than to aid the horse. The wild circular motion of the arms so often seen is worse than useless ; the rider would do much better to sit still than to go through this fatuous but familiar performance. The idea of the finish is to urge the horse to his utmost speed by keeping a gentle hold of his bit, and, by a gliding motion of the hands, backwards and forwards not round and round alternately encouraging and supporting the animal as he bends himself, as it were, to his stride. It is most essential that the rider should sit firmly down in his saddle, as a loose shifting seat would Finishing : bad style and good. naturally be a detriment to the horse ; and when one considers that the difference between winning and losing a race is very often a question of inches, and of very few inches moreover, the importance of seizing every chance, however slight in itself, will be apparent. The feet should be drawn back, the rider should, as the phrase runs, 'go with his horse' when the animal makes his stride, and, unless long experience has assured him that the right moment has come, he should resist the temptation to take up the whip, by the premature use of which so many races are lost, more particularly when, the whip being raised, the reins are loosened. ' He took up his whip and stopped his horse ' is a summary RIDING THE RACE. 331 which has very often described races which .ought to have ended otherwise than they did, and it is beyond reasonable doubt that a Grand National has been won because the ex- perienced guide, philosopher, and friend of the successful rider took his whip away before the start. It may be necessary to hit a sluggish horse during a race if he jump carelessly or show a disposition to lie out of his ground ; but when the whip is wanted to drive a game and willing horse to make the supreme effort in a race, it is worse than useless to begin to flog him half a mile from the post. He cannot maintain the pressure, and will shrink from continued ' He took up his whip and stopped his horse.' punishment, the effect of which will be to make him shorten his stride. The being in too great a hurry to reach home prevents many riders from ever reaching home successfully. If when the little experienced jockey feels the temptation to use his whip he would refrain and, instead, take a pull at his horse for some half-dozen strides to steady and prepare it for the run home, his prospects of victory would, in nineteen cases out of twenty, be largely enhanced. There are generous horses that make their effort, falter, and come again ; but these are rare, and when this is seen it is probably the case that they have been badly ridden, the first run having been made too soon. 332 5 TEEPLE-CHAS1NG. Two or three well-applied strokes of the whip in the last hundred yards or so, always supposing that the rider does not let go of his horse's head for the purpose of administering them, with perhaps a prick of the spurs a hand's breadth behind the girths, means probably the gaining of a length. If the jockey of the horse that is leading has his whip up this distance from home, and the horse that is lying at his quarters has not been touched, the chances are very greatly in favour of the man whose effort has yet to be made. As long as the horse can keep his place, or avoid losing it, without the whip, that dangerous implement should on no account be raised. If it be anything of a race the rider should not leave too much ground to make up at the end, or the final rush may just fail. In case the rider have the good fortune to be winning easily, he may be warned against making too sure of victory. It is pretty, no doubt, to see a race won easily by a short head with no unnecessary exertion on the part of horse or man ; but it is, nevertheless, dangerous. The best jockeys sometimes make mistakes of this sort, and a vigorous struggle on the part of one of the competitors whom the should-be victor has regarded as hopelessly beaten may completely change has often, beyond doubt, completely changed the result of a race. Here, as elsewhere in the con- test, ' Chance nothing.' The man is in a very false position who has had the race safely in hand and has permitted a rival to snatch it from him. On wide courses it is particularly difficult for the man who has not ridden many races to know precisely where the winning-post is. The inexperienced rider will often believe that he has reached the post when the judge entertains a contrary opinion. 333 CHAPTER VI. HURDLE-RACING. IT would be difficult to justify hurdle-racing as a means of sport leading to a desirable end ; but it is impossible to ignore a form of race which occupies a place on so many race-cards. The spectacle of a good hurdle-race is undeniably picturesque and exciting ; and this is much. Very valuable prizes are now to be won ' over the sticks.' Some of the principal races have in recent years approached in value more nearly to i,ooo/. than to 5oo/. ; and though this is apart from, and in some degree antagonistic to, the scope of the present consideration, it may be observed in passing that the amount of speculation on the chief races is very considerable. As a matter of fact, it has been ascertained that, calculating from a large number of cases, in spite of the risks incidental to jumping hurdles, favourites win over the sticks more frequently in proportion than they do on the flat. It has already been said that some horses cannot be per- suaded to jump at all. As a rule, however, it is not difficult to teach horses which have not a marked disinclination to jump induced perhaps by some organic or structural defect to learn the simple trick of getting over hurdles. A horse will jump hurdles when he will by no means jump a thick black fence which he cannot see through ; and in general, though horses that have not * stayed ' on the flat will often stay over hurdles, the form which has been exhibited on the flat will prove a guide to proficiency in this mongrel variety of sport. 334 STEEPLE-CHASING. 1 The chief merit of hurdle-racing is that it does not pretend to have any raison d'etre except the encouragement of gambling, and it answers this purpose admirably,' a prominent member of the Jockey Club and of the Grand National Hunt Committee has remarked. The same authority continues that the chief danger attending the pursuit is of the horse over-jumping him- self, or, he playfully adds, 'being intentionally knocked over by an Irishman,' risks which extreme care may mitigate, though to be careful while galloping at the rate of some five-and-twenty miles an hour is not easy. It is said that hurdle-racing had its origin some years ago, when, in the absence of better sport, a royal hunting-party on the Downs near Brighton, when George IV. was king, amused themselves by racing over some flights of sheep-hurdles. The fun was thought to be so good that regular races over hurdles were organised ; the sport was by no means without excitement, and it had the advantage over steeple-chasing that a course could be readily and simply prepared. A trainer who was in active practice in the days when steeple-chasing became gene- rally popular that is to say, about 1836 claims, however, to have run hurdle-races before George IV. failed to find a fox on the South Downs. In the early days of the business, the close-wattled hurdle made of hazel was always used. These were never less than four feet, often a good deal nearer to five feet, in height, and they were fixed firmly into the ground so that it was not easy to knock them down. When nearly half a century ago Dick Christian rode a horse belonging to Lord Euston, the hurdles, he notes, were 4 feet 10 inches, driven eighteen inches into the ground, and tied together with haybands. Until lately the open ash flake some three feet high was the obstacle, and the new style of hurdle is still used, though the height has been in- creased. The custom was, and too often is, to fix them loosely in the ground so that a mere tap will throw them down. Sometimes the horse carries the hurdle away with him and falls over it ; sometimes a hurdle which has been sent spinning HURDLE-RA CING. 335 gets between the fore legs of a horse that is following directly in the wake of the blunderer and leads to a very dangerous fall. Hurdle-racers may be recruited from the flat. If the horse have good shoulders and quarters, and takes with apparent willingness to the game (some hunters, as mentioned in a former chapter, do not), he will in good hands be likely to learn the trick of jumping hurdles in his stride without dwell- ing. The preparation should begin over low obstacles, as in the case of the cross-country horse ; indeed, to some extent, the hurdle-racer may be looked on as an unfinished steeple-chaser. Gliding over with no perceptible exertion. As in the schooling of the jumper at the higher business, care should be taken that the hurdles, whether low for the early lessons, or higher for more mature practice, are fixed firmly in the ground. They are to be jumped, not run through or knocked down, and if a horse should come down he falls more cleanly than if he carried the hurdle away and got it entangled in his legs. It may possibly be convenient in a race to have the way levelled by some clumsy brute that is deputed to make the running and refuses to take any notice of the lines of hurdles, charging each as it comes. Possibly the result of this 336 STEEPLE-CHASING. may be for the follower that the hurdle-race is practically reduced to a flat race ; but the risks are very seriously increased. A horse is just as likely to gallop into a fallen hurdle and come down heavily as to win his race. The secret of success over the sticks is nevertheless, it may be said, to run the race as if the hurdles were not there ; but this, it must be most distinctly understood, can only be done after continuous practice by a thoroughly well-schooled horse that has shown marked aptitude for the sport, and he, the perfect hurdle-jumper, takes the flights as they come without anything approaching to a pause on either side. He is so little disturbed that he does not lose his stride, and is off on landing as if he had been galloping on without interruption. The art of the sport consists of teaching the horse this knack, and of riding him so that he makes the most of it. The sweeping stride of the well-trained thoroughbred horse carries him over these jumps with astonishing ease when once he gets into the way of doing what is required of him. It is surprising how cleverly a really good hurdle-racer will judge his distance, prepare for the jump and glide over it. Chandos, winner of several of the chief hurdle-races, was a case in point. Six or eight strides from the obstacle he could be felt by his jockey to be making ready for the jump, to be measuring his ground, so that he was always in the right place to take off, without rising too soon or putting in a shortened stride to bring him to the proper spot for his leap. Other horses have shown the same faculty, and how pleasant they are to ride need not be emphasised. They understand the business thoroughly, know perfectly well how to take care of themselves, there is not the slightest fear of a refusal. This is naturally the result of assiduous practice, and some- thing more than merely light hands are required to make such jumpers. It must also be strictly borne in mind that there is a vast difference between schooling and racing. A horse often jumps hurdles in excellent style at home gallops up to them, and is over and away. When he appears in public he gets H URDLE-RA CING. 337 over the first three or four, and then tires. He has not been used at home to the pace at which the races are run on a course ; so that unless he has been tried by an experienced trainer, or has shown .capacity in a race, it is dangerous to trust him. The hurdle-racer must jump without taking anything out of himself. An idea of what is requisite will be gained when it is said that men who have ridden such horses as Chandos, perfect at the game, declare that they have barely felt the animal jump. The whole action was so smooth and easy that the horse glided over his hurdles with no perceptible exertion, the leap being no more than an ordinary stride of the gallop. The nearer the horse can be brought to this state of perfection, the greater are his chances of winning races ; and here the need of schooling and practice will be seen. On the flat, over two miles, one horse may be fourteen pounds better than another ; but over hurdles, if the latter has been really well schooled and the former imperfectly, the good jumper is likely to win. The other makes up his ground between the hurdles, but loses his advan- tage when he jumps ; while at each hurdle the slower horse gains a couple of lengths or so, and, what is no less important, jumps so easily that he takes very much less out of himself than his speedier, but at the same time clumsier, adversary. Few hurdle-races are run without, in a greater or less degree, making this fact plain, as the reader will perceive if he watches care- fully how, though two horses rise at the same moment, head and head, as they land one shoots forwards and is on his way, while the other descends to the ground with a jerk and has to be, as it were, set going again after his companion who is well in advance. Superior speed may enable the second to pick up the lost distance, but at the next hurdles the same thing is repeated. A horse that chances his hurdles, refusing to rise at them, is a dangerous brute, whether the flights are loosely stuck into the ground or firmly fixed ; but the horse which 'jumps too big,' to use the technical phrase, is very unlikely to win races. z 338 STEEPLE-CHASING. 1 He beat himself jumping ' is often the explanation of a dis- appointment, when an animal that has been fancied by his connections fails in his race. An important hurdle-race at a recent popular meeting was lost thus ; and that, more- over, by a clever horse, one of the best representatives of the sport seen of recent years. Owing to the refusal of an inex- perienced jumper, there was much unavoidable hustling at one of the hurdles ; the old horse had his view of the obstacle Beat himself jumping. blocked till too late to measure his distance, and the conse- quence was that he severely rapped his legs against the bars. In order to avoid another painful blow, he 'jumped so big' over the remaining hurdles that he was beaten. It is the general opinion that hurdle-racing does not impair a horse's speed on the flat ; in the case of many hurdle-jumpers it is certain that no loss of form has followed a course of school- ing and running ' over the sticks,' though at the same time one feels that it is a descent in the world for a really good horse to HURDLE-RACING. 339 be sent to hurdles. Assuredly jumping had no bad effect on Friday, who, after trying in vain to win over hurdles at Croydon, Kempton, &c., followed in the steps of such animals as Alice Hawthorn, Monarque, Saunterer, Promised Land, Ely, Vauban, Favonius, Flageolet, Doncaster, and Isonomy, by winning the Goodwood Cup, and that, too, from Tristan, one of the very best horses of his time, not to lay stress on the fact that Geologist, second to Peter for the Hardwicke Stakes, and to Iroquois for the St. Leger, was behind the winner, as was Bariolet, a colt which had run well in France. It should be added, however, that Friday, as a maiden five-year-old, had a great advantage in the weights. Prudhomme, and others that have run well on the flat after winning over hurdles, might be named. Jumping a country doubtless has a tendency to upset a horse's form on the flat, as indeed continual practice over hurdles might have, though Friday had been schooled over a steeple- chase course, and had run and finished nowhere in a small steeple-chase in the spring of the year of his Goodwood victory. Friday of course was well bred, by Favonius, winner of the Derby in 1871. It may be remarked, as one of the contradictory problems to be met in the consideration of breeding, that Charles L, one of the best hurdle-racers of his time, had a roarer, Prince Charles, for his sire, while his dam was also the daughter of a roarer, Marin. z 2 340 STEEPLE-CHASING. CHAPTER VII. LOCAL MEETINGS. THE popularity of steeple-chasing would be much enhanced, and a considerable impetus given to the sport generally, were local meetings more encouraged and carried out. The local meeting will almost certainly be held over a natural country to begin with, and the expenses which attach to steeple-chasing at recognised meetings are not incurred. On the other hand, the sums to be won are smaller than at regular steeple-chase meetings. If a man have a racehorse, a local meeting is not his proper hunting-ground ; and it is because this fact is so frequently ignored that local meetings are so rarely brought to a successful and legitimate issue. A thoroughbred horse that is not quite good enough to win on a popular racecourse will often have a great chance of carrying all before him at the annual gathering of a Hunt, the more so as the horse of this character which would be likely to make the attempt usually belongs to owners who are, to say the least, sharp practitioners. Several local meetings have sunk into disrepute because men would make every effort ingenuity and cunning could suggest to win races with anything except the class of animal for which the race was intended. So notorious is this fact that one well-known nobleman who takes a hearty interest in steeple-chasing, and would be specially glad to encourage local meetings if they were fairly conducted, makes it a rule to offer his subscription as a prize for the third horse in certain stakes. * Sometimes he may be a bona-fide hunter ; the first two never are,' is his explanation. Many races LOCAL MEETINGS. 341 end in a protest against the winner and a consequent wrangle, in the course of which it appears that the running of the second horse is, if possible, a greater fraud than the running of the first. Want of adequate management is, of course, the reason of this, and it must by no means be supposed that such a state of things is found at all local meetings, though, unfortunately, it is found at too many. One of the best managed, and conse- quently the most successful, of local meetings is that held at Brocklesby, in the country hunted by Lord Yarborough ; and as a specimen of a card the subjoined is given : THE BROCKLESBY Will take place on MONDAY, 26 T H MARCH, UNDER THE GRAND NATIONAL RULES. The Ground selected is near to the Brocklesby and Haburgh Stations. 1-30 1. LADY YARBOROUGH'S CUP. A Sweepstake of i sov. each, and Cup value 20 sovs. presented by Lady Yarborough, for hunters that have been regularly hunted with Lord Yarborough's hounds during the season. Weights : four years old, 10 st 7 Ib ; five years, n st 8 Ib ; six and aged, 12 st '> winners (during the last 3 years) once, 7 Ib extra ; twice, 14 Ib extra ; thrice, 21 Ib extra. Second horse to receive 5 sovs. from the Fund, third horse to save his stake. About 2 miles. 2. THE CURRACHMORE STAKES. A Sweepstake of i sov. each, with 50 sovs. added, presented by the Marquis of Water- ford, for maiden hunters regularly hunted with Lord Yarborough's, the Burton, and South Wold Hounds, during the season, and bona fide the property of Tenant Farmers. Weights : four years old, u st ; five years, 12 st ; six and aged, 12 st 7 Ib. Second horse to receive 10 sovs., and the third 5 sovs., from the Fund. About 3 miles. 3-0 3. THE SCAWBY STAKES. A Sweepstake of i sov. each, with 25 sovs. added, presented by Major Sutton, for half- bred hunters regularly hunted with Lord Yarborough's, the Burton, and South Wold Hounds, during the season and bona fide the property of Tenant Farmers. Weights : four years old, n st 7 Ib ; five years old, 12 st 7 Ib ; six and aged, 13 st. Winners 7 Ib extra. The second horse to receive 5 sovs. from the Fund. About z\ miles. 342 STEEPLE-CHASING. 3-45 4. THE BROCKLESBY OPEN STEEPLECHASE. A Sweepstake of i sov. each, with 40 sovs. added, for hunters. Weights : four years old, 10 st 7 Ib ; five years, n st 8 Ib ; six and aged, 12 st ; winners (during the last 3 years) once of 40, 5 Ib extra ; twice of 40, 10 Ib extra ; three times of 40, or once of 100, 14 Ib extra. The second horse to receive 5 sovs. from the Fund. About 3 miles. 4-30 5. THE MEMBERS' PLATE. A Plate of 40 sovs., presented by the Right Honourable James Lowther, M.P., and R. Winn, Esq., M.P., for hunters bona fide the property of Electors for the Northern Division of the County of Lincoln, and having been in their possession for 3 months before the time of entry. Weights : four years old, 12 st ; five years old and upwards, 12 st 7 Ib ; a winner (during the last 3 years) once, 7 Ib extra ; twice, 14 Ib extra. The second horse to receive 5 sovs. from the Fund, i sov. each entry. About -2\ miles. The above races to be ridden by qualified Gentlemen, Farmers, or their Sons. N.B. Three horses, the property of different owners, to start in each race, or the added money will not be given. 83^" The horses to be nominated, stakes paid, and the colours of the riders declared to the Hon. Secretary, High Street, Caistor, on or before Saturday, i7th March. The riders are requested to meet at the weighing scales on the ground, at Twelve o'clock precisely, on the morning of the races. THE EARL OF YARBOROUGH, THE MARQUIS OF WATERFORD, VISCOUNT MELGUND, SIR JOHN D. ASTLEY, BART., EDWARD HENEAGE, ESQ., M.P., THE RT. HON. JAMES LOWTHER, M.P., MAJOR SUTTON, J. M. RICHARDSON, ESQ., E. M. DAVY, ESQ., C. M. NAINBY, ESQ., CAPTAIN F. ASTLEY, A. G. SOAMES, ESQ. C. F. DAVY, ESQ., Clerk of the Course, Clerk of the Scales, and Judge. Mr. G. ASH, Starter. GEO. R. F. HADDELSEY, Hon. Secretary and Stake Holder, High Street, Caistor. CAISTOR, 5th February. It happens that several of the stewards, notably Mr. J. M. Richardson, whose name will not be forgotten as long as steeple-chasing lasts and there is no fear that so essentially English a sport will ever die out, though for various causes it may temporarily wane are men who are familiarly acquainted with both the theory and practice of the pastime. With the card there is very little fault to be found. The limit of the first race to two miles might well be extended, and the weights might LOCAL MEETINGS. 343 judiciously be raised 7 Ibs., for 10 st. 7 Ibs. minimum would cer- tainly shut out many gentlemen, farmers, and their sons who owned likely four-year-olds, but could not get down so light. It will be seen that the sweepstakes were very low, and natu- rally horses were on the spot. There were no jockeys' fees to pay, and, consequently, a farmer who wanted to run his horse could do so at a very trifling cost. A farmer who has bred and prepared a likely young horse is not inclined to risk 5/. or io/. entrance fee for the sake of seeing what he can do over a country ; but at Brocklesby a sovereign is the only outlay required. Cups and money prizes are offered by members of the Hunt ; a subscription of 7o/. or 8o/. is very easily raised. Lord Yar- borough's own men erect the stand and enclose a paddock and ring. The course is arranged and the trimming of the fences supervised by a sub-committee. The sovereign entrance fee is mainly demanded to add to the independence of the farmers, who may thus feel that they are to some extent running for their own money ; but in other places it often happens that a member of the Hunt can run his horse without any cost to him- self. A very successful meeting is yearly held at Aylesbury, for instance, and here there are no fees of any kind. There is plenty of sport, however. The six races at Aylesbury at a recent meeting were contested by no fewer than sixty runners, while at Brocklesby, though the fields were good, in no case less than half a dozen, thirty- one runners went to the post for the five races. At Aylesbury as many as twenty runners have been seen in a flat race, and sixteen in a steeple-chase. The devices invented by unscrupulous men to secure unfair advantages in local races would go far to make their fortunes if legitimately worked. A so-called gentleman-rider has been known to take a small farm in a district hunted by several packs so that he might claim to call himself a farmer. The conditions of the races often exclude thoroughbred horses, and specify 'half-bred hunters,' as in the Scawby Stakes in the programme quoted ; but that extraordinary horse Hesper 344 STEEPLE-CHASING. is half-bred, and so was The Colonel, who won the Grand National two years in succession, as was Pathfinder, also a winner. The letters *h.b.' after a horse's name may mean anything ; as, for instance, that this is just the horse to buy after a selling race at a regular meeting, because it is eligible to run for Farmers' Plates, limited to half-bred horses. If only a loophole can be found in the conditions it can run at a local meeting for nothing or next to nothing ; and, seeing that it would probably meet horses of the inferior class for which the race was really intended, its chances would be great ; whereas on a public course the expenses would most likely include travelling, stabling, sweepstakes of 5/. or io/., entrance fee 2/. or 3/. in addition, and jockey's fee, 5/. for a losing and io/. for a winning mount. The temptation to the unscrupulous man is great. It is not always easy to exclude suspected horses. The local races under G. N. H. rules, as every reputable cross- country meeting must be, are necessarily advertised in the ' Racing Calendar.' Here is the bait, and many immoral fishes at once begin to see whether it will be safe to take it. The stewards can easily say whether the animals entered are * hunters that have been regularly hunted ' with a certain pack or packs, and so, taking the Brocklesby programme, the first three races have to some extent a safeguard, though a gentle- man-rider farmer might have succeeded in qualifying without exposing his horse. But, in spite of the penalties, it would be very possible for a steeple-chaser to slip into such a race as the Brocklesby Open Steeple-chase or the Members' Plate. The result is of course to discourage those who have good hunters that can gallop a little and jump fairly well, but cannot compete with horses of a totally different class. To take a modern instance : Zoedone, afterwards winner of the Grand National, won Sir Watkin Wynn's Hunt Steeple-chase of 487. at a little meeting at Ash, Whitchurcb. An attempt, which has been attended by some success, is put in practice at certain meetings to classify horses. The entries are made, and a LOCAL MEETINGS. 34$ committee of the stewards divide the animals into three classes. If a horse is known to be, or suspected of being, really good, he is put into the first class, which either competes by itself or carries a handsome addition in weight ; if the entry be known as a genuine hunter with no approach to form, it goes into the third class, and animals inferior to the first and superior to the third form the second class. By the rules of the meeting the stewards invest themselves with necessary powers, so that they can do as they think fit in the matter ; but here the game of hoodwinking the stewards is open to those who are inclined to play it and, as already observed, it is wonderful to note the industry and perseverance with which some men will strive to win a race by illegitimate means. It is somewhat melancholy to be forced to these admissions, but nothing good can be gained by shirking the truth. Perhaps men who juggle with the word ' hunter ' draw a distinction between sharp practice and dishonesty ; but it is certain that by reason of the constant objections many of which are too well supported the endless wranglings, and a general feeling that the man who has a moderately good hunter is sure to be beaten by something that is running under false pretences, local meetings are, as a rule, little esteemed and very feebly supported. On the stewards everything depends, and it is not always easy to find men of position and experience who are ready to take the necessary trouble and devote their time to the organisation of a local meeting, which so often means not only loss of time but loss of temper. A few point-to-point steeple-chases, the nearest approach to the original sport, are occasionally run, and concerning these races, a true relic of the good old-fashioned steeple-chase, a few words should be said. Such contests often take place in different hunts, and by way of giving an idea of the conditions common to many the following programme of the Blackmoor Vale meeting may be quoted : 346 STEEPLE-CHASING. POINT TO POINT STEEPLE-CHASE. WEDNESDAY, MARCH IST. FIRST RACE. A Private Sweepstake for 2 sovs. P.P. for Horses that have been regularly hunted with the Blackmoor Vale Hounds. Owners up, catch weights, over about four miles from point to point of a fair hunting country, to be named by SIR RICHARD GLYN, MR. DIGBY, GENERAL WARDLAW, CAPTAIN CARR GLYN, and MR. KNATCHBULL. Riders must not ride for more than 100 yards at one time on a road or lane. Those riders not passing the post within 15 minutes of the Winner, or going for more than 100 yards at one time on a road or lane, to pay double entry. The balance of Subscriptions after paying expenses will be divided, two-thirds to the Winner and one-third to the second horse. Any rider examining the course before starting will be disqualified. To be ridden in red coats. Entries to be sent to the Hon. Sec. on or before Monday, 2oth February, and Horses named to him by Monday, the 27th inst. SECOND RACE. A Private Race, entry 55. each, 15 sovs. added for the winner, and 5 sovs. for the Second Horse, for Horses bond fide the property of and to be ridden by Farmers or their Sons residing within the district of the Blackmoor Vale Hunt and Members of the Yeomanry residing within the same limits. Catch weights, about 3 miles from point to point over a fair hunting country. Riders will be dis- qualified if they examine the ground before starting, or if they ride during the race more than 100 yards at one time on a road or lane. Entries to be sent to the Secretary on or before noon on Monday, the 27th inst. Subscriptions towards the Farmers' Race and expenses will be thankfully received by the Hon. Sec. Here it will be seen both races are for catch weights, and it is argued, with some truth, that a man buys a hunter to carry himself, not to carry dead weight. The burden on a horse's back is, however, a very important matter, and this is so far LOCAL MEETINGS. 347 recognised in some point-to-point races that two classes are admitted as, for instance, Welter weights over 13 stone and light weights under, a stake being offered for each. These contests are often run simultaneously, and the first in each class wins, quite irrespective of where he may finish among the other class. Thus, if a couple of light weights finish first and second, and the welter only manages to get third, the latter neverthe- less wins the prize for his class if he beats the others in it. The riders' resources as horsemen are of course called upon in these races where no narrow track is flagged out, and men have to make their way as best they can to distant points. In some Yeomanry regiments the troopers have to deliver despatches to an officer known to be posted at a certain spot so many miles away across country. Each man carries his despatch, and the first to place it in the officer's hand wins the race. Of MILITARY MEETINGS it is not necessary to say much. Many soldiers happen to be supporters of steeple-chasing, either as owners, as riders, or both. Thus conditions are easily drawn up and entries obtained, while the presence of a few men who have held their own at regular meetings gives character to the sport and affords an example for young officers who are ' training on ' to become riders. The Aldershot course is more severe than the steeple-chase tracks at Sandown and other popular resorts where most of the fences have been cut down to dangerous proportions. At Aldershot the water-jump is of a width to test the stride of a horse ; there is an open brook, unguarded in any way, a drop over one of the obstacles, and altogether the course more nearly resembles the typical 'fair hunting country ' than do most. It often happens, however, that, principally for social reasons, such courses as that at San- down are chosen for military meetings. How these courses might be improved has been dwelt upon in a previous chapter. A few words should be added about the Grand National Hunt Steeple-chase, which is really a sporting affair in the best sense of the term. The conditions are as follows : 348 STEEPLE-CHASING. THE GRAND NATIONAL HUNT STEEPLE-CHASE of 5 sovs. each, with 300 sovs. added ; the second to receive 50 sovs. out of the stakes ; for bond fide hunters that at the time of starting have never won any steeple-chase, hurdle-race, or flat race, value 20 sovs., not including the winner's own stake, and that have never started in a handicap, steeple-chase, or hurdle-race, up to the time of starting ; four years old, 10 st. lolbs. ; five, 12 st. i Ib. ; six and aged, 12 st. 10 Ibs. ; to be ridden by qualified Gentlemen, Farmers, or Farmers' Sons, who have never ridden for hire ; four horses the property of different owners to start or only half the added money will be given ; if only three start the second money will be withheld, and in case of a walk-over only one-fourth of the added money will be given ; entrance 3 sovs., the only liability for non-starters. About four miles. The race is usually run over a fair hunting country, though the old complaint that fences are cut down to let in hurdle- racers has more than once been heard. The Grand National Hunt Steeple-chase is run over different courses each year. At the general meeting of the Committee in December clerks of courses send in their tenders, and when one is ac- cepted, the Committee state what sum, if any, they are pre- pared to add. It will be understood, therefore, that the added money varies, but it is never less than 2507. Sometimes no tender is accepted, as in 1883, when the Melton stewards were asked to admit the Grand National Hunt Steeple-chase (or rather steeple-chases, for there are always two, the second being for smaller stakes) into their programme. The conditions of the minor race may be given. THE GRAND NATIONAL OPEN FARMERS' PLATE of 100 sovs. for the winner, and 25 sovs. for the second, for qualified hunters, and bond fide the property of Tenant Farmers occupying not less than 100 acres in any part of the United Kingdom, and not being horse-dealers ; to be ridden by qualified Gentlemen, Farmers, or Farmers' Sons, who have never ridden for hire ; four years old, 10 st. 12 Ibs. ; five, 12 st. 3 Ibs. ; six and aged, 12 st. 12 Ibs. ; winners of a steeple-chase, 3 Ibs. ; twice, or of 50 sovs., 7 Ibs. ; twice of 50 sovs., or once of 100 sovs., 12 Ibs. ; or once of 140 sovs., 17 Ibs. extra; horses bred by the owner allowed 6 Ibs. ; four horses the property LOCAL MEETINGS. 349 of different owners to start, or only half the added money will be given, and the second money will be withheld ; in case of a walk- over only one-fourth of the added money will be given. Entrance 2 sovs. About three miles. The horses that run for the Grand National Hunt chase proper must, it will be seen, be maidens, and though success in the race is much envied, there are many temptations in the way of the owner of a really good chaser to induce him to start his horse elsewhere, especially as this is not a race for which an owner can back his horse to win him much money. Many disappointments are naturally met by men who have kept their horses for years, as they must of necessity be kept, exclusively for the purpose of taking this race. Thus, in the chase that was run at Cambridge in 1870, Baron Rothschild had a horse called Ledburn of which great things were expected. The nobleman who rode as Mr. * Roily ' the secret is such a very open one that no confidence can be betrayed in speaking of him as Lord Melgund went down to ride him in his work at Mentmore, and it was thought that Ledburn could not lose. Unfortunately for Mentmore, Mr. Richardson and Schiedam were in the race, and, notwithstanding that Schiedam was only half schooled at the time, he won very easily. Lord Melgund was blamed at the time for making too much use of his horse, but he never had the least chance. Owners who have been thus disappointed the case is quoted because it is typical of many are prone to get disgusted with the race, and of neces- sity many owners are so disappointed every year. Interest in the race is enhanced by the fact that owners and riders do not know what they have to meet. As it happens, Grand National Steeple-chase winners have not done much in their subsequent careers ; but, though it has not thus earned great reputation, the conditions of the race make it one which true lovers of the sport of chasing will always be anxious to win. 350 STEEPLE-CHASING. CHAPTER VIII. FAMOUS CHASERS AND THEIR RIDERS. To mention the Grand National is at once to suggest the names of Lottery and Jem Mason, who head the list of winners. Nearly half a century has passed since Lottery won the Liver- pool, under circumstances glanced at in the first chapter, and it is necessary to trust to written tradition. He must have been a wonderful jumper indeed. ' The Druid ' records that ' when others could hardly rise at their fences, he seemed to jump as if from a spring-board. His jumping muscles were first brought into such high play by putting him in a ring, with flights of rails round it, and a man in the middle to keep him moving, and he perfected his jumping education with Mr. Anderson's stag-hounds.' Lottery won in seven seconds under a quarter of an hour. Next year 1840 he started, but fell, making one of a struggling heap that came down over the wall which had been built opposite the grand stand : eight of the thirteen starters were down at one time or other during the race, five at this wall. In 1841, when the wall had been removed and an artificial brook put in place of it, Lottery started again first favourite, but succumbed to Charity, a 14- to-i chance. In other places the horse had carried all before him, and when he reappeared at Aintree in 1842 he had to carry 18 Ibs. penalty over the 1 2 st. then allotted to all in the race. The 13 st. 4 Ibs. was too much even for Lottery, and Jem Mason pulled up after going two miles, seeing that he had no chance. Yet once again did the pair adventure ; but again Tom Olliver, on a Lincolnshire horse (he had won on Gaylad in 1842), Van- guard by name, carried off the race. FAMOUS CHASERS AND THEIR RIDERS. 351 It is said of Jem Mason and Lottery that ' they understood each other,' and this seems highly probable. The son of a horse-dealer, Mason was when a lad engaged by a then well- known dealer and jobber of hacks and hunters, Mr. Tilbury of Pinner, who had sometimes a couple of hundred hunters belonging to him, and on these the youthful Jem had abundant practice, which he turned to the best account. Lord Frederick Beauclerc noticed him one day when they were hunting in Hertfordshire. 'That boy picks his way better than any of them ! ' he observed to a friend, as they watched Mason riding to hounds. So pleased was he with the lad's skill that he gave him the mount on a horse called The Poet, which had run third in the St. Leger, in the St. Albans steeple-chase, and, though the animal was a tremendous puller and very difficult to ride, Mason won. After this he rode constantly, and with altogether extra- ordinary success. An anecdote of a steeple-chase at Stratford- on-Avon shows how little he thought of a stiff jump with his favourite under him. There was in the course of the chase a new unbreakable gate, fully 5 ft. 6 in. in height, it being supposed that the competitors would charge a penetrable bullfinch which spread on either side of the posts. Mason, however, went at the gate, and cleared it as if it had been a hurdle. His explana- tion was that ' he intended to go to the opera that night, and did not want to scratch his face.' Another of Mason's exploits required courage in no ordinary degree. While riding Gaylad, the Liverpool winner of 1842, some time after that victory, the stirrup-iron slipped over his heel up his leg, when more than two miles from home. Mason went on as if his gear had been in the most admirable order. Critics of horsemanship who were his contemporaries in his best day commend him for his seat, hands, decision, and judgment ; but it is said it was in putting his horse at a fence that he chiefly excelled, for he always went at the right place in the right stride. As for Lottery, another extract from ' The Druid ' graphic- 352 STEEPLE-CHASING. ally shows what sort of a horse he was. Speaking of his owner, Mr. John Elmore, the delightful author of ' Scott and Sebright ' says : Grimaldi, Lottery, Jerry (winner in 1840), Gaylad (1842), The Weaver, Sam Weller, and British Yeoman, bore the 'blue and black cap ' in turn ; but Lottery was the only one he cared to talk much about. His friends used to laugh at this ' Horncastle horse,' who was lamed with larking the day he got him, but he always said, ' You may laugh you'll see it come out ; ' and well was his patience rewarded. When the horse had ceased to defy creation with Jem Mason under thirteen stone seven, if ever a friend went down for an afternoon with ' Jack ' to Uxendon, he would order him to be saddled. 'Hang it ! ' he would say, 'have you never been on the old horse ? get up ! ' and be the ground ever so hard, or the fences ever so blind, he would insist on their backing him, one after the other, if there were half a dozen of them. He would turn him over anything ; and occasionally it would be the iron hurdles between the garden and the paddock, or, for lack of a handier fence, he would put the rustic garden chairs together. Tom Olliver won three Grand Nationals, and other races all over the country. He taught that admirable horseman the late Captain Little much of the jockeyship which he so often turned to account ; but as a horseman he was far inferior to Mason, and, there is reason to suppose, frankly recognised his inferiority. As a boy Olliver had a hard life in the service of a horse-coper, in whose establishment saddles were scarce, and the lad did most of his riding on barebacked animals ; but as a child he had displayed a passion for riding, had never been so happy as when on a donkey, and is spoken of as going wonderfully well to hounds on a broken-kneed grey mare. His first public essay was at Finchley, on a mare called Columbine, and it ended in his falling into a ditch and being laid up for six weeks, for which efforts and accidents he was rewarded and compensated with one sovereign. He had the most fervent admiration for Captain Becher, the sponsor of Becher's Brook, and his delight was extreme when at Clifton, over hurdles, he beat his idol by a head. Afterwards he dis- FAMOUS CHASERS AND THEIR RJDERS. 353 tinguished himself greatly on Foreigner, an extremely awkward horse, which, it is stated in sporting magazines of the day, ' was backed over and 'over again to kill his rider against winning.' On one occasion, when a very great deal depended on Olliver winning a steeple-chase with a horse of his own, he begged Mason to ride for him, and Jim's first proceeding was to take off the terribly severe bit which Olliver had put on and to substitute an ordinary double-reined snaffle. The occur- rence supports what has been said of the relative capacity of the two men. A very famous amateur who early distinguished himself was Captain Little, the rider of Chandler in 1848. Chandler was bred by a farmer, and was not by any means a good-looking horse, but he early showed promise, and when a noble patron of the sport asked his breeder when going through the stables one day whether he had anything likely to win a steeple-chase, Chandler was shown. 'I wouldn't have such a fiddle -headed brute in my stable ! ' was the answer. A short time afterwards the horse ran and won in good company, carrying his breeder's colours. The patron afore- said ran down from the stand and eagerly asked the owner, so striking was the performance, what horse it was that had won the race in such excellent style. ' That's the fiddle-headed brute your lordship wouldn't have in your stable ! ' the owner replied, and a bargain was speedily made. At Warwick, in March 1847, Chandler ran in a steeple- chase over a natural course and accomplished a feat which is generally believed to be unsurpassed. The brook was swollen to the dimensions of a small river it was impossible, indeed, to tell how far on each side the overflow extended ; but Chandler, coming down to the jump at a great pace, cleared the water at a bound. Onlookers were so struck that the distance from the hoof-marks on the taking-off to the hoof-marks on the landing side was measured, and it was found that the horse had jumped A A 354 STEEPLE-CHASING. 39 feet Captain Little, his rider, was one of the most experi- enced horsemen of his day, and that such a pair should win the Liverpool seems quite in accordance with the eternal fitness of things. Peter Simple, an impetuous horse, with wonderful action through dirt, took two Liverpools, and ran much in races which came more properly under the head of steeple-chases. Abd-el- Kader, who took the race in 1850 and in 1851, was the son of a mare that worked the Shrewsbury coach. Emigrant, winner in 1857, was certainly a racehorse, and carried 7 st. 5 Ibs. in the Ascot Stakes, but not being good enough to win on the flat he became a hunter, and was ridden with the Atherstone hounds for two or three seasons, where he showed such form that he was put into training, and Boyce steered him home in front of twenty-seven rivals. Boyce was a fairly good jockey, but it was generally sup- posed that some more ingenious head suggested the plan which went a long way towards insuring him success on Emigrant. It was exceptionally heavy going in 1857. Parts of the course were swamps, and the horses tired sadly in them. Boyce, however, by his own wit, or the wit of some one else, hit on the expedient of jumping a fence out of one of the fields so that he got on to the towing-path' of the canal ; thus he avoided the quagmire which distressed the others, and, going gaily along on the top of the ground, saved his horse much exertion. All this was fair enough, according to the then conditions of the race ; but the managers of the meeting prevented a repetition of the plan by putting a couple of flags on the fence there had been none before between which the horses had to jump. Little Charley next year was ridden to victory by W. Archer, father of the celebrated jockey Fred Archer, and Anatis the year afterwards gave Mr. ' Thomas ' the first of his three winning mounts. Determination, and a consistent resolve to throw away no chance, were perhaps the strong points of this rider, who at his best was wonderfully successful. Mr. Thomas FAMOUS CHASERS AND THEIR RIDERS. 355 was in constant practice, and probably spent more time in the saddle than the majority of jockeys who are not called ' Mr.' He was, however, somewhat uncertain. Sometimes he rode with wonderful patience and judgment, at other times wildly and excitedly. When it was his day, he was bad to beat. A very extraordinary thing about the victory of Anatis was that the horse had not jumped a fence for a year before he won the Liverpool. That he had been thoroughly schooled is a matter of course. Without careful teaching and constant prac- tice up to, at any rate, a certain limit until, indeed, the animal is a finished fencer no horse has a chance of winning the Grand National ; nor, indeed, is he likely to get safely over the long and fatiguing journey. Anatis ran at Aintree, and ran well, the year before his success, in 1859 (when Half Caste won in the hands of C. Green), but his legs showed such symptoms of giving way that his trainer dared not send him over a country. He did all his work on the flat, and the consequence was that from the time when he crossed the last fence in the Grand National of 1859 he had never been over a jump till he ran in the Grand National of 1860. He had forgotten nothing, the event proved ; and got home, not only safely, but first, in a field of nineteen. Emblem in 1863, and her sister Emblematic in 1864 who won the race for Lord Coventry in the hands of George Stevens, were at first sight that is to say, to the casual observer wretched-looking animals. Emblem, probably the better of the pair, was all shoulders and quarters, with no ribs ; but the essentials of the chaser were to be detected in the sisters, and Stevens, who won five Grand Nationals, did full justice to both. In Emblematic's year a number of horses lived to the race- course, and the inexperienced spectator would have been puzzled to say which was going best. To the eye of the horse- man, however, there was little doubt. Standing by Lord Coventry's side as the horses jumped on to the racecourse was such a judge, who remarked to the owner, ' You may go A A 2 356 STEEPLE-CHASING. down and meet your mare there's nothing else in it ! ' and the assertion was amply verified. Stevens was an exceedingly cautious rider ; at times he even appeared nervous before he got into the saddle for a race, but once in the saddle, even in his later days, he was usually himself again. He certainly chanced nothing, and his un- approached record of successes at Liverpool, together with his constant victories on other courses, showed the wisdom of the maxim which has been advocated in a former chapter. He was gifted with first-class hands, and was an extraordinary judge of pace. Critics of horsemanship declared that he habitually laid too far out of his ground, but he always seemed to know when to join his horses. He much alarmed Lord Coventry when riding Emblem in the Cheltenham Steeple-chase. The mare carried an immense weight, and her proper place was behind ; but Stevens was so far behind that, as the horses passed the stand, Lord Coventry ran down and shouted to his jockey to go on. He did go on, and the mare won which, however, she would not improbably have done had his lordship not given the order. The fact doubtless was that Stevens knew the risks and dangers of being in the midst of a crowd of horses, and preferred to run the chance of being slipped to that of being jostled and perhaps knocked down. He had easier work on The Colonel, one of the grandest- looking horses that ever won the Liverpool ; and, like Abd-el- Kader, Peter Simple, and The Lamb, The Colonel won it twice. He was a failure on the flat, and bore the stigma of ' h.b.' after his name ; but whether his dam ought not to have been in the Stud Book is a question, and his sire was Knight of Kars, a half- brother of those famous horses, Stockwell, Rataplan, and King Tom. The strain of Pocahontas blood seems specially valuable in a jumper. The Colonel, however, good horse as he was, had a turn of luck in winning for the second time. As what was left of the field jumped into the racecourse, Surney appeared to have the race in hand. At the last hurdle, when victory seemed assured, the horse broke down, and twisted a plate which FAMOUS CHASERS AND THEIR RIDERS. 357 severely cut his other leg as he moved. He was easily defeated in consequence, a remarkable instance of the proverbial slip 'tween the cup and the lip. The Colonel's first win was des- perately fought out with a horse called The Doctor. Probably in both these years, however, the fields were above the average. Captain Coventry won the race in 1865, a remark made advisedly, for it was sheer horsemanship that got Alcibiade home a head in front of Hall Court. The latter was what is called an ' old-fashioned-looking ' horse, of the hunter stamp, and in a desperate finish he was well ridden by Captain Tempest. Captain Coventry, however, rode better still, and victory was the reward. Alcibiade was a sound good horse, a bold and safe jumper, with a sufficient turn of speed to win races. Next year's winner, Salamander, was an Irish horse. Mr. Studd saw him, in wretched condition, in a hovel in Ireland with a couple of hunters, and, taken with the animal's make and shape, he bought the three for a small sum, his quest having been for hunters only. The result amply justified this sound judge's opinion. Salamander developed exceptional capacity, and won in a field of thirty, the largest number, with one exception Abd-el-Kader's first year, when thirty-two went to the post that ever started. Mr. A. Goodman, who rode with great judgment and perseverance, had ridden a winner, Miss Mowbray, as far back as 1852. Constant practice in the hunting-field and between the flags had taught Mr. Goodman nearly all there was to know about riding. The exhibition of horsemanship was warmly praised indeed, one authority declared that * no professional could put a horse at a fence as well as Mr. Goodman.' A curious circumstance about the race was that Hall Court, who had finished second the year before, and was destined to finish second once more to The Colonel, was second again, though this time without a rider. He got rid of his jockey early in the race, at the first or second fence indeed, and was 358 STEEPLE-CHASING. not remounted. He went the entire course, nevertheless, with the other horses, and repeated his previous year's performance, with no jockey on his back however. When Salamander came galloping up the course by himself his colours were generally mistaken for those of Hall Court, which they closely resembled, and one speculator, seeing, or rather thinking that he saw, the position of affairs, shouted out ' Hall Court wins for a monkey ! ' The offer was quietly accepted by a spectator who was better informed, and whose knowledge and observation thus proved to be worth 5oo/. Cortolvin, who won for the Duke of Hamilton in 1867, was a sound, well- schooled, powerful horse, and is remarkable for having carried the highest weight yet borne successfully, 1 1 st. 13 Ibs. that is, of course, to say, since the race became a handi- cap in 1843, before which time i2St. was carried. J. Page rode him with a judgment he never failed to exhibit. Page was in all respects an admirable horseman. He had, indeed, no superior in his generation, though Robert I'Anson ran him very close as the younger man, who came of a family of horse- men famous in the North country, acquired practice and ex- perience. Both were extraordinarily cool and collected, and knew what pace they were going, an all-important piece of know- ledge which few men ever acquire. Both were, in fact, finished riders. One of the gamest and best little horses that ever ran a steeple-chase was The Lamb, and he was ridden on the occasion of his first victory by one of the finest horsemen this country has produced Mr. Ede, who rode as Mr. Edwards. Mr. Ede and a brother were twins, sons of a gentleman of Hampshire, and George was sent to Northamptonshire to learn farming. -He learnt riding instead, and, making the acquaint- ance of Ben Land, an accomplished trainer and jockey, was soon put in the way of practising the sport he loved to his heart's content. When it is said that on the flat Mr. Ede beat both Captain Little and George Fordham by a short head, in FAMOUS CHASERS AND THEIR RIDERS. 359 each case after a vigorous finish, it will be gathered that his skill was quite out of the common. Winning by a short head may mean anything as, for instance, that a good horse wretchedly ridden has only just got home in front of a very inferior animal with a very superior jockey on his back ; but Mr. Ede's wins meant riding. For several years he was at or near the top of the list of successful gentleman-riders, and for his friend Lord Poulett he won many races, as also for the Duke of Beaufort on Lord Ronald. It is understating the case to say that Ben Land infinitely preferred Mr. Ede to any one who could have been chosen. He had his share of accidents. One terrible fall on a horse called Endsleigh, in a Croydon hurdle-race, seemed for some days almost certain to prove fatal ; but Mr. Ede not only recovered, but did so with no loss of nerve in- deed, one of his first mounts when well enough to ride again was on The Lamb, for Lord Poulett, at Liverpool. The finish was a severe one, and it was by horsemanship alone that Mr. Ede got home from Pearl Diver, with a professional jockey in the saddle. Mr. Ede's lamentable death while riding Chippenham over the small fence before the brook opposite to the stand at Aintree need not be dwelt upon ; but a word must be said in memory of one of the most accomplished horsemen that ever sat in the saddle, and one of the most thorough gentlemen that ever loved the sport. The kindness and generosity of George Ede's disposition made him many most hearty friends, to whom his death was a lamentable occurrence, to be mourned but not to be forgotten. Robert TAnson himself, as just set forth a horseman who has had few peers and still fewer superiors, rode his first cross-country race when Mr. Ede was attaining the height of his fame, and throughout the race the more expe- rienced rider helped and guided the young professional, telling him where to jump his fences, and generally encouraging him. So valuable were his hints, indeed, that young I'Anson got over the course in perfect safety, and in the finish beat his kindly Mentor by a head ! 560 STEEPLE-CHASING. It is worth while to recall one slight proof of the thorough- ness with which Mr. Ede was, in the comprehensive phrase, 'at home in the saddle.' He was on one occasion galloping to the water-jump, and had come to within three or four strides of it, when a couple of loose horses that had got rid of their jockeys closed in on him from either side. The chance of an accident seemed great, for it might have occurred, under the circumstances, in so many different ways, from a cannon, from one or other of the pair swerving, falling, or jumping side- ways. Mr. Ede, as it appeared in the last stride before he rose at the fence, cut at the one on his right, diverted its course, changed his whip to the left hand, and cleared the way for himself at the moment when his horse jumped. It was the perfect ease and neatness with which the thing was done that struck spectators. On the whole, the statement that George Ede was the best amateur horseman that ever rode a steeple-chase and this is a sport in which amateurs hold their own against pro- fessional jockeys may probably be made without fear of con- tradiction. The Lamb's second victory was in the hands of Mr. Thomas, who had ridden some fourteen or fifteen times in the race. Believers in omens found a peculiar reason for believing in The Lamb this year 1871. As a train laden with race-goers reached Liverpool station the day before the Grand National, a little lamb jumped out of a truck, and went down the line at his best pace. Absurd as it may seem, there is no doubt that many foolishly superstitious persons backed The Lamb in consequence. A better reason for supporting him was the fact that he had only 12 Ibs. more to carry than he had won under three years before ; that u st. 5 Ibs. was a fair racing- weight for so well-proved a horse ; that he had been through a good preparation, and had a resolute and experienced pilot. Lord Poulett was very hopeful, for the horse had been neither sick nor sorry since his preparation began, and had never left a grain of corn in his manger. How much this means when FAMOUS CHASERS AND THEIR RIDERS. 361 the question of running over the Aintree course has to be considered, readers may easily judge. One of the worst animals that ever won the Grand National was Casse Tete (1872), her success arising from the fact that she was befriended by a remarkable chapter of accidents. That all-accomplished horseman, Mr. J. M. Richardson, was this year on Schiedam, a chaser of exceptional merit, on which he had won in a canter the Grand National Hunters' Race of 1870, and the Grand Annual at Warwick in the year following. In the latter race he beat some remarkably good horses Brick, Tusculanum, The Doctor, and Pearl Diver and was in fact Clearing the way. never extended. So easily did Schiedam win, that after jump- ing the last hurdle he actually shied at a piece of white paper lying on the course near the winning-post. Mr. Richardson has stated his belief that Schiedam was the best horse he ever crossed ; and though less fit the year after, when his Warwick- shire pilot rode him for Lord Eglinton in the Liverpool, his chance seemed a great one. Schiedam, Casse Tete, Harvester, Primrose, and Scarrington were going steadily and well with the race between them when the greater part of the journey had been made, and Mr. Richardson was lying between the two latter, a couple of the safest jumpers ever known. For 362 STEEPLE-CHASING. once, however, Primrose fell, and rolled over in front of Schiedam just as he landed ; it was impossible to avoid the collision, and thus Mr. Richardson lost three fields, and was beaten. Mr. Arthur Yates was at this time going remarkably well on Harvester, a winner of several good steeple-chases, when the horse overjumped himself, and in the scramble which fol- lowed tore his off hind-foot nearly off. Mr. Yates, feeling that something was wrong as the game animal made an effort to gallop on, looked down and saw that his breeches were covered with blood, so he was forced to dismount ; and thus another dangerous competitor was removed. From this point the race seemed a certainty for Scarring- ton, who, with Robert I'Anson in the saddle, was going well within himself. So sure of victory did I'Anson make, that he called out to Page, who was doing his best to keep Casse Tete going, * It's been a long time coming off, Jack, but I've done it this time ! ' At the last hurdle but one Scarrington was a dozen lengths to the good ; but there he cut his leg so severely that he could scarcely get home at all, and, beaten as Casse Tete was, Page had no difficulty in reaching the post. The lesson was not lost on Mr. Richardson, who had better luck in his next two rides the best of all luck, that of winning, though the luck had in it a great admixture of judgment. It was his habit always to jump the second fence at Liverpool, which used to be a bank, in the highest place, so as to avoid the crowd. Almost every one else went for the best place, or the place supposed to be best because it was the easiest, and grief was usually the consequence ; for not to follow directly in another horse's tracks, by doing which the rider of the follower shares his leader's chances of accident, is one of the secrets of steeple-chasing. Both on Disturbance and Reugny, the winners of 1873 and 1874, Mr. Richardson had all he asked a fair field and no favour. Disturbance only won after a most exciting race, FAMOUS CHASERS AND THEIR RIDERS. 363 however. Till the last fence before the racecourse was reached, Ryshworth, a chaser of the first rank with 1 1 st. 3 Ibs. on his back, seemed to have all the best of it, but here he blundered a little, enough to enable Mr. Richardson on Disturbance, carrying n st. n Ibs., to get to his head. Horsemanship did the rest. Know- ing that Ryshworth was a rogue, Mr. Richardson stuck to him and fairly wore him down. Sharing his leader's accident. The race had been regarded as a certainty for Ryshworth if he only stood up. To have given 8 Ibs. to Ryshworth was a great performance on the part of Disturbance, for next day Rysh- worth came out again and won the Sefton Steeple-chase in a canter, giving a stone to Reugny, Master Mowbray, and other good animals. Reugny was a good sound horse, but, though he won the Liverpool, was not a real stayer, and all round was inferior to Disturbance. Captain Machell bought Reugny from Lord 364 STEEPLE-CHASING. Aylesford soon after the Liverpool of 1873, when the animal was so completely chest-foundered that he could hardly walk. Mr. Richardson took charge of him, turned him out into a paddock, and gave him no corn all the summer. When the autumn came he had one feed, but was not removed from his paddock till November 23, looking as rough as a cart-horse in his coat. He was, however, perfectly sound, and in less than four months he won the Liverpool. So lusty did he look, that on the morning before the race, when Mr. Richardson rode him a gallop, a dealer, a shrewd judge of horses, who saw Reugny, remarked that he never saw a horse, that was really fit to go, look so big. Reugny was suited by the hard ground, and had the good fortune to escape interference during the race that is to say, Mr. Richardson took care to avoid the crowd. When the racecourse was reached, only Chimney Sweep and Merlin had the faintest chance. Reugny was sadly leg- weary, rolled under his rider like a ship at sea, and, dead-beat, could not make a pretence of jumping the last hurdle. He stumbled into it and make a heavy peck on the landing side, the fall being saved entirely by the rider's care and skill ; but the horse ran game and won by half a dozen lengths. The only question with regard to Mr. Richardson's riding is whether he should be ranked actually with, or a shade after, Mr. Ede, and those who might be inclined to hold the latter view would be hard put to it to explain why. Of the essentials and of the niceties of horsemanship Mr. Richardson lacked nothing. No man knew better what a horse was doing and what he could do, whether the animal was the one he bestrode or a rival ; none was ever cooler or more courageous, and his ' hands ' were perfect. Mr. Thomas's last winning mount was on Pathfinder (1875). The horse was nothing out of the common. He had changed hands for ioo/., and, not long before the Grand National, had been beaten at Bristol partly, however, because the race was not run to suit him : there had been nothing to make a pace : FAMOUS CHASERS AND THEIR RIDERS. 365 he .was forced to race with everything, and the consequence was defeat. He had good luck at Aintree ; Mr. Thomas had then ridden in eighteen Grand Nationals, and no one knew his way over the course better than he. Here, again, in Pathfinder's breeding, the strain of Pocahontas told. In 1876 Captain Machell, who has always been specially ambitious of winning this race, had a very strong hand. Chandos was the more fancied of his pair, Regal being an out- sider, and Jewitt, who- trained both, rode the favourite. On the other was Joseph Cannon, brother of the perhaps still more famous Tom, both of whom, sons of a horse-dealer, had been almost brought up in the saddle. Chandos, however, the im- maculate hurdle-jumper, was less skilful over a country. After breaking a thick rail with such violence that a piece of it flew back and nearly knocked Robert I'Anson, who was riding Shifnal, out of his saddle, Chandos fell, just after Jewitt had shouted to Cannon that he was going on to win ; but the second string was much better than had been generally sup- posed, and, riding with much vigour and judgment as, indeed, he always did Cannon got the horse safely home a neck in front of Congress. Regal was, it may be remarked, the second five-year-old that had won the race. Another horse of the same age was, however, destined to take the Grand National of the next year. This was Austerlitz, a chaser in every way of extraordinary power. Austerlitz was the property of Mr. F. G. Hobson, a rider whose habit of taking hold of the cantle of his saddle when he jumped a fence induced many to underrate his respectable capacity as a jockey. So fit and well did the horse look on the morning before the race, and so good did his chances appear, that James Adams, the well known steeple-chase rider, who was naturally ambitious of success in the Liverpool, offered 5o/. for the privilege of being permitted to ride Austerlitz. The offer was refused, and the event showed that Mr. Hobson was able to win on his own horse. It could hardly be expected in the heat and turmoil of the contest the rider would be free from excitement, and, as a 366 STEEPLE-CHASING. matter of fact, throughout the last half of the struggle, Mr. Hobson raced with everything that came near him. Had not Austerlitz been an exceptionally good and game horse he could never have won. The horse was lazy on the flat, between fences, but when he saw his jump before him he cleared it in grand style. Like his predecessor Regal, whose valuable qualities doubtless arose from the double cross of the Bird- catcher blood, Austerlitz was remarkably well bred, being by Rataplan Lufra, who was also the dam of that splendid horse Lowlander, and of the Duke of Hamilton's Goodwood Stewards' Cup winner, Midlothian. Shifnal, a moderate horse, won in 1878 from a poor field of only a dozen, and next year The Liberator, ridden by Mr. Garrett Moore, who, under the tuition of his father, had become an exceedingly fine steeple-chase rider, found little difficulty in taking the race, the horse being a wonderfully clever fencer. Empress had things very much her own way in 1880 in what, notwithstanding the fairly good time recorded (a very un- certain test, as so much depends on the state of the ground and other conditions), was probably a false-run race. They began very slowly, and this was against several horses that might have possessed a good chance had the pace been stronger. The Comte de St. Sauveur, the owner of Wild Monarch, second favourite, gave his jockey, I'Anson, such strict orders to wait that he was forced to obey. The Comte's idea was that, * You never see a horse jump off in front and keep there all the time,' though there are naturally cases in which, if a horse that can gallop and stay does not jump off in front, he is not likely to be in front as they pass the post. The Comte made no allowance for contingencies, and the manner in which the race was run extinguished whatever chance Wild Monarch might have had. Empress, a mare that had been carefully schooled under the supervision of that experienced horse-master, Mr. Linde, of the Curragh, won, in the hands of Mr. T. Beasley, by two lengths from The Liberator, though it was the opinion of many sound judges that, had the winner of the previous year FAMOUS CHASERS AND THEIR RIDERS. 367 been ridden with more perseverance and determination by Mr. Garrett Moore, he would have repeated his victory in spite of the 12 st. 7 Ibs. Regal was favourite, but fell. Woodbrook, a stable companion of Empress, in the hands of the same pilot, carried off the next year's race, Regal, ridden by his trainer, Jewitt, being second, and Jewitt was more suc- cessful next year, for he trained the winner in Seaman, oddly enough a cast-off, or practically so, from Mr. Linde's stable. No doubt it was thought in Ireland that Seaman would not stand a preparation, and that it was safer to trust the fortunes of the stable to Cyrus, like Seaman, a son of Xenophon. The Irish division was wrong, but not far wrong ; and Captain Machell's judgment was vindicated. Seaman won the Grand National, his owner, Lord Manners, riding, but he broke down as he passed the post, and this perhaps explains why Cyrus, with only 1 1 Ibs. the best of the weights, got within a head of his former stable companion, under the guidance of Mr. T. Beasley, when, all fit and well, 2 st. would probably not have brought them together. It is thought by many that, if The Liberator had not fallen with James Adams, and if Eau-de- Vie had not run the wrong side of a post, one of these two would have been successful ; but the perusal of this chapter will have shown the reader, if such showing were necessary, how all-important a part ' ifs ' bear in the history of steeple- chases. Seaman at his best was a horse of exceptional capacity. The year before he won the Grand National he ran over the course in the First Liverpool Hunt Steeple-chase. When the flag fell he jumped off and went away as if the distance was five furlongs, instead of nearly five miles. One of the riders in the race remarked to a friend as they galloped across the field after the first jump that the leader would * very soon come back if he goes that pace,' but here the notion that you ' never see a horse jump off in front and keep there all the time ' was decisively contradicted. The farther Seaman went the more he seemed to like the sport, and he won at his ease 368 STEEPLE-CHASING. by what the reporter much under-estimated at thirty lengths. ' A very bad third, nothing else passed the post,' is the record of the race. The Grand National broke him down so badly that his hind fetlock joint was right down on the ground, but by skill and care, Jewitt, his trainer, brought him round so that at one time hopes were entertained of his being .able to repeat in 1884 the victory of 1882. The Grand National of 1883 was won by Zoedone, the property of a Hungarian nobleman, the Count Kinsky, who rode his own horse to an easy victory. The animal was unfashionably bred, a daughter of New Oswestry and Miss Honiton, and her previous career had been inglorious. She had won three races as a four-year-old, two of them under 5o/. in value, and the other under ioo/. She was a very slow mare, but could gallop along untiringly at a poor pace, and had the merit of being a safe and skilful fencer. She had finished third in the Liverpool of 1882, and had she been gifted with speed would have won, but this is another of those ' ifs,' the consideration of which is so very misleading and unpro- fitable. She muddled home in 1882 behind Seaman and Cyrus ; but, as only four finished, the others having fallen, refused, or run out, and as the fourth horse made no effort to gain a place, the performance was very moderate a mere question, indeed, of standing up. Her owner had, it is true, ridden her to victory in the Great Sandown Steeple-chase, but of the three competitors here one fell, and the other, an Irish mare named Sugar Plum, ran as if not at her best, the consequence being that Count Kinsky had only to sit still in order to be carried home. He had frankly expressed an opinion before the race that he should ' not win unless the other two fell down,' and altogether the victory portended little. At Liverpool, however, to the surprise of most racegoers, Zoedone was successful. Her owner was perfectly at home on horseback, and sat admirably over his fences, which was all he had to do. There was no question of racing, that is to say of FAMOUS CHASERS AND THEIR RIDERS. 369 finishing. Count Kinsky might have been riding a fast hunting run over a stiff country, the silken jacket and surroundings of the course apart, and he cantered in a dozen lengths in front of the outsider of the party, an aged Irish horse of very poor antecedents, with 10 st. 4 Ibs. in the saddle. Only ten horses ran, the smallest number that had ever gone to the post for a Grand National. The success of Voluptuary in 1884 upset a deeply-rooted theory with regard to Grand Nationals. It was an article of faith that no horse except an experienced 'chaser ever won over the Liverpool course. It was held to be almost necessary that he should have run at Aintree at least once before he could be expected to win ; at any rate, that he must have had much practice and a good deal of that in public. Voluptuary, a son of Cremorne and Miss Evelyn, had been looked on as a promising colt when owned by Lord Rosebery, and had in- deed won some races three worth nearly 2,ooo/. as a three- year old ; but he became uncertain, was weeded out, and passed into the charge of Mr. E. P. Wilson, who soon perceived that he had found a prize. He won a hurdle race at Leicester, was beaten in another at Manchester, and then came out for the Grand National. On one hand was the fact that so excel- lent a judge as Mr. Wilson thought well of him and was to ride him ; on the other, that Voluptuary had never run in a steeple- chase at Liverpool or elsewhere. The Scot (the property of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales), Cortolvin, Satellite, and Cyrus were better favourites ; three animals started at 10 to i, Volup- tuary, Frigate and Roquefort, and they finished first, second, and third ; Voluptuary jumping with extraordinary ease and certainty, never making a mistake and winning easily. The third in the race of 1884 was destined to do better the following year. Roquefort had been in the Bishop's Sutton stable, presided over by that admirable judge of everything in connection with ' jump races,' Mr. Arthur Yates, who super- vises the training of horses the property of himself and his friends, one of his gallops being over downs at Alresford which were B B 370 STEEPLE-CHASING. part of the estates claimed by the soi-disant ' Sir Roger Tich- borne.' Roquefort had run in * military races ' that is to say, in steeplechases got up by the officers of various regiments but he was a particularly headstrong animal, with a habit of trying determinedly to bolt out of right-handed courses. So set was this trick that Captain Fisher, who owned him when he ran third in 1884, had at one time made up his mind to turn him out of training and drive him in a dog-cart ; but Roquefort seemed to reform. His owner, when quartered on the Kentish coast, rode him about, and the horse's manners improved to an extent which saved him from the collar and shafts, in which, by the way, he would probably have been a desperately awkward animal to drive. He was so little trust- worthy, however, that Captain Fisher put him up for auction at Sandown Park, and he was sold for 1,250 guineas. Mr. E. P. Wilson, the rider and trainer of Voluptuary, took charge of Roquefort, and so marked was the improvement he made, that he started favourite at 100 to 30, next in the ' mar- ket ' being Zoedone, 5 to i. At the hurdles in the preliminary canter before the race, Zoedone, ridden by her owner, Count Kinsky (who had won this race on her in 1883 as recorded), fell heavily, and suspicions that the mare had been 'got at,' that is to say, drugged, were afterwards noised abroad. She jumped very clumsily throughout the early part of the race, and fell heavily when half the distance was traversed. Roque- fort did not wholly escape accident, and at one fence Mr. Wilson was almost knocked out of the saddle ; but he recovered himself and his horse and won by a couple of lengths from Frigate, who had occupied the same position behind Voluptuary the year before. From what has been said it will be gathered that Mr. E. P. Wilson is a master of his art. At the time of writing there is certainly no one, amateur or professional, who is able to do more complete justice to a horse in a race over a country. Mr. Wilson has had long experience, and he has profited by it. He has two qualifications : he knows how a horse should FAMOUS CHASERS AND THEIR RIDERS. 371 be ridden, and also how to ride him two different things, though they lead to the same result, the winning of races. Mr. Wilson has remarkable strength in the saddle, and what is equally to the purpose, understands precisely how the strength may best be utilised. There are naturally a number of excellent horsemen who, perhaps from sheer bad luck, have failed to win a Grand National. Of prominent amateurs Mr. Arthur Yates may be named. Nearly every other great race fell to his lot in his time, but the blue riband of cross-country sport was denied him. Mr. Yates was in his best day remarkably strong in the saddle, courageous and determined. A horse might be trusted to run up to his form when Mr. Yates was riding, and he never lost his head. One race ridden by this fine horseman will be long re- membered. The scene was Croydon, and the animal, Harold by name, came down heavily at the brook. The horse was up first, but not by much. Mr. Yates ran after him, caught him by the tail before he could set off, hung on, covering some distance of ground in this eccentric fashion, and finally suc- ceeding in getting into the saddle again, won the race. Extreme familiarity with the animal in the stable, on its training-ground during and after schooling, as well as on the racecourse, went far to explain Mr. Yates' exceptional success as a rider. Captain Arthur Smith has ridden much, and, a bold horse- man from the first, has retained his nerve in a way rarely seen. Twenty years ago, in 1864, he won the Grand National Hunt Steeple-chase on Game Chicken, in a field of twenty- eight runners. There is no better man to hounds. A good many years since it is recorded of Captain Smith that he jumped a fence into a gravel-pit, five-and-twenty feet deep, and a terror- stricken farmer, who knew the country, rode up to the spot in horrified apprehension. When he arrived he found the man, whose shattered body he had expected to see at the bottom, quietly making his way up the slope out of the pit. ' Well, sir, you were not born to be killed out hunting ! ' was the only remark the farmer could make. 15 2 372 STEEPLE-CHASING. In the knack of getting over fences the quickest and shortest way, Captain Smith has been excelled by only a few past-masters of the art. Mr. Brockton has also been denied the highest honour for, in spite of the chance which. sometimes throws a Grand National in a man's way, while infinitely better riders cannot add their names to the roll, it is so esteemed. The Grand National Hunt Steeple-chase fell to him in 1868, and he won many others that year. Mr. Brockton is a good horseman over a big country, and probably owes not a little of his success to a point which was insisted on in the chapter on ' Riding the Race,' his habit of looking thoroughly over any course where he was going to ride. Thus he noted the good ground, and never failed to take advantage of it. Like so very many other riders, the great majority, it may be said, Mr. Brockton, if he had a weakness, was inclined to come rather too soon in hurdle-races and on the flat. In the list of gentlemen-riders who win races no small test of capacity the Hon. George Lambton, Mr. H. Owen, Captains E. R. Owen and Lee Barber, and Mr. C. J. Cunning- ham must be included. Of professional riders James Adams is a remarkable example of a skilful horseman who has retained his power and nerve after the most active service for nearly thirty years. In 1857 he won the Somersetshire Stakes on Cedric, and in 1859 the City and Suburban on Glen Buck ; the Northampton stakes on Bevis, and the Queen's Vase at Ascot on Schism, were some of the races he carried off. In the quarter of a century which has passed since then he has lost nothing of his dash and courage. APPENDIX. ORIGINAL STRAIN OF OUR HORSES, WITH TABULATED PEDIGREES. IT has already been laid down almost as an axiom in this volume, that the whole of our present racing stock is the result of an acclimatised breed of Eastern origin. It would indeed be practically impossible to trace back a thoroughbred pedi- gree to any other source. For the convenience of readers who may wish to verify this statement for themselves, and who may not have the ' Stud Book ' at hand, we shall proceed to give a series of pedigrees, commencing with Messrs. Weatherby's most recent form of tabulation in Vol. xv. of the 'Stud Book.' THE following brief account of the principal strains of blood may be found interesting to Breeders. The principal strains in direct descent in the male line may be divided into three, viz. from THE DARLEY ARABIAN (Div. i), THE BYERLY TURK (Div. 2), and THE GODOLPHIN ARABIAN (Div. 3). First Division. THE DARLEY ARABIAN. From Betty Leedes, by Old Careless (son of Spanker and a Barb mare), dam by The Leedes Arabian, grandam by Spanker (son of the Darcy Yellow Turk), out of the Old Morocco Barb mare (Spanker's own dam), was sire of the two brothers, Flying and Bartlett's Childers. FLYING CHILDERS, sire of Snip (sire of Snap\ and BARTLETT'S CHILDERS, sire of Squirt (his dam by Snake, son of The Lister Turk).. 374 APPENDIX. SQUIRT was sire of Syphon and of Marske (his dam by Mutton's Blacklegs, son of his bay Turk). MARSKE was sire of ECLIPSE (his dam by Regulus, son of Godol- phin Arabian 3rd Division), grandam by a son of Snake Akaster Turk mare. From ECLIPSE'S sons, PotSos, King Fergus, Joe Andrews, Mercury, Volunteer, Alex- ander, Soldier, Dungannon, Don Quixote, and Saltram, all the First Division descend. (A) POTSOS, dam by Sportsman (Warren's), son of Cade (Div. 3), was sire of WAXY (dam by Herod Div. 2), grandam by Snap (Div. i). WAXY, from Penelope, by Trumpator (Div. 3), out of Prunella, by Highflyer (Div. 2) Snap (Div. i) Blank (Div. 3), was sire of WHALEBONE, WHISKER, and WOFUL, and their sisters Web (dam of Middletori), and Wire (dam of Verulam\ and, from Prunella, of WAXY POPE. WHALEBONE was sire of i. SIR HERCULES (dam by Wanderer, son of Gohanna Div. i D), sire of the brothers IRISH BIRDCATCHER and FAUGH-A-BALLAGH, their dam by Bob Booty (Div. 2 B). IRISH BIRDCATCHER, from Echidna, by Economist (Div. i A), was the sire of THE BARON (sire of STOCKWELL, RATAPLAN, and COSTA). Also of AUGUR. OXFORD (sire of DANIEL O'ROURKE. Sterling}. GAMEKEEPER. SAUNTERER. KNIGHT OF ST. GEORGE. WOMERSLEY (sire WARLOCK (sire of Tynedale). of Codrington and General Williams}. FAUGH-A-BALLAGH was sire of ETHELBERT and LEAMINGTON. Sir Hercules was also the sire of CORONATION, GEMMA DI VERGY (sire of Rococo), GUNBOAT, LIFEBOAT, and ROBERT DE GORHAM. PEDIGREES. 375 2. CAMEL, dam by Selim (Div. 2 B) Sir Peter (Div. 2 A). Camel's sons were TOUCHSTONE, LAUNCELOT, and SIMOOM. 3. WAVERLEY, dam by Sir Peter (Div. 2 A) Highflyer Div. 2 A). Waverley was sire of DON JOHN and THE SADDLER. 4. DEFENCE, dam by Rubens (Div. 2 B), sire of SAFE- GUARD, THE EMPEROR, &c. WHISKER was sire of ECONOMIST (dam by Octavian, son of Stripling Div. 2 D). Economist was the sire of HARKAWAY (sire of King Tom*} and of Echidna, dam of The Baron (see above). Whisker was also sire of Perion, and of THE COLONEL, sire of CHATHAM, &c. (B) KING FERGUS, dam by BLACK AND ALL BLACK, son of Crab, son of Allcock's Arabian, was sire of (i) HAMBLETONIAN, his dam by Highflyer (Div. 2 A), grandam by Matchem (Div. 3). Hambletonian was sire of WHITELOCK (dam by Phenomenon Div. 2 D), who was sire of BLACKLOCK (his dam by CORIANDER, son of PotSos Div. I A). BLACKLOCK'S Sons. BRUTANDORF, dam VELOCIPEDE, dam by by PotSos (Div. I A), Juniper, sire of KING sire of PHYSICIAN, sire OF TRUMPS, HORNSEA, of The Cure, and of and AMATO. HETMAN PLATOFF, VOLTAIRE, dam by sire of The Cossack Phantom son of Wal- and Neasham. ton (Div. 2 A). Voltaire's BELSHAZZAR. sons BARNTON (sire of Y. BLACKLOCK Fandango), 'CHARLES (Watts'), sire of Mag- XII., TEARAWAY (sire pie, &c. of Dough\ and VOLTI- GEUR. 376 APPENDIX. (2) BENINGBROUGH, dam by Herod (Div. 2 A), was sire of ORVILLE, from a Highflyer mare (Div. 2 A). ORVILLE'S Sons. EMILIUS, dam by MULEY, sire of MULEY Stamford, (son of High- MOLOCH (sire of Alice flyer), was sire of Hawthorn), MARGRAVE, EUCLID (sire of BAN- GIBRALTAR, &c. TAM), of PLENIPOTEN- TIARY, PRIAM, and POMPEY. (C) JOE ANDREWS, dam by Omnium son of Snap (Div. i), sire of DICK ANDREWS, dam by Highflyer (Div. 2 A), sire of TRAMP, dam by Gohanna (Div. I D). TRAMP'S Sons. LIVERPOOL, sire of LOTTERY, sire of SHEET LANERCOST (sire of ANCHOR (sire of Wea- Van Tromp, Loup- therbit, Calling-wood, garou, and Colsterdale). and The Major). INHERITOR. VERULAM. ~ LITTLE RED ROVER. (D) MERCURY, dam by Tartar (Div. 2), sire of GOHANNA, dam by Herod (Div. 2). Gohanna, sire of ELECTION, and of GOLUMPUS, sire of CATTON (his dam by Timothy Div. 2 A) Florizel (Div. 2 C). CATTON'S Sons. ROYAL OAK, sire of MULATTO, sire of SLANE (sire of MIL- Bloomsbury and of DEW). Martha Lynn (Volti- MUNDIG. geur's dam). TARRARE. SANDBECK. (E) SALTRAM, dam by Snap (Div. i), sire of WHISKEY, who was the sire of the dams of PRIAM, PHANTOM, and MULEY. PEDIGREES. 377 Second Division. THE BYERLY TURK. Sire of BASTO, also of JIGG. BASTO (dam by The Leedes Arabian) was the sire of SORE- HEELS, and his sister (dam of CRAB, SECOND, BLACKLEGS, and SNIP). JIGG (dam by Spanker Div. i A) was sire of PARTNER (dam, sister to MIXBURY, by Cm wen's Bay Barb). Partner was sire of TARTAR (dam by Fox), SEDBURY, TRAVELLER, &c. TARTAR was the sire of HEROD. Herod, dam by Blaze, son of Flying Childers (Div. i) Bethell's Arabian Champion, by Harpur's Arabian Darley Arabian (Div. i). HEROD'S Sons. (A) HIGHFLYER, dam by BLANK (Div. 3) Regulus (Div. 3) was sire of DELPINI (sire of TIMOTHY), also of SIR PETER TEAZLE (commonly Sir Peter), his dam by Snap (Div. i) Regulus (Div. 3). SIR PETER was sire of WALTON, his dam by Dungannon (Div. i). Walton was sire of PHANTOM, also of PARTISAN (his dam, Parasol, by PotSos Div. i A). PARTISAN, sire of GLADIATOR, also of VENISON (sire of Alarm, Kingston, and The Ugly Buck], and GLAUCUS (sire of The Nob, sire of Nabob, &c.) Sir Peter was also sire of SIR PAUL (dam by TANDEM, son of Syphon Div. i); Sir Paul, sire of PAULOWITZ (dam by Highflyer) ; Paulowitz, sire of CAIN ; Cain, sire of ION. ION, sire of WILD DAYRELL, TADMOR, and PELION. Sir Peter also sire of HAPHAZARD, sire of FILHO DA PUTA, sire of COLWICK. (B) WOODPECKER (dam by Cade Div. 3), sire of BUZ- ZARD (dam by Dux, son of Matchem). Buzzard, sire from a mare by Alexander (Div. i E), grandam by Highflyer (Div. 2 A) of the brothers SELIM, RUBENS, and CASTREL. SELIM was sire of LANGAR (dam by Walton Div. 2 A). 378 APPENDIX. LANGAR, sire of ELIS and EPIRUS, sire of Pyrrhus the First; also of SULTAN, sire of BAY MIDDLE- TON, BEIRAM, GLENCOE (sire of Stockwell's dam), HAMPTON, ISHMAEL, JEREED, TURCOMAN, &c. RUBENS was sire of BOBADIL, TENIERS, and PETER LELY. CASTREL was sire of BUSTARD (sire of Heron), also of PANTALOON (sire of THE LIBEL, WINDHOUND, HOBBIE NOBLE, ELTHIRON probably sire of Thormanby, sire of Plaudit (sire of Balfe), Charibert, and Thuringian Prince), SLEIGHT OF HAND, c. Woodpecker was also sire, through (Irish) CHANTI- CLEER (dam by Eclipse), of BOB BOOTY, sire of the dam of Birdcatcher. (C) FLORIZEL (dam by CYGNET, son of Godolphin Arabian) was sire of DIOMED (exported to U. S. America), and through SIR ARCHY, TIMOLEON, and BOSTON (his dam by a son of Diomed), descends LEXINGTON, the most important stallion in America. Diomed, before he left this country, got Y. Giantess, the dam of Sorcerer, and grandam of Priam, Phantom, Muley, and Langar. (D) PHENOMENON (dam by Eclipse), sire of Anvil, Re- covery, and Stripling. HEROD was also the sire of the IRISH DRONE, BAGOT, NOBLE, and EVERGREEN. Third Division. THE GODOLPHIN ARABIAN was the sire of BLANK (dam by Bartlett's Childers Div. i), sire of High- flyer's dam (Div. 2 A). REGULUS, dam by The Bald Galloway (son of St. Victor Barb), was sire of Eclipse's dam (Div. i), and Highflyer's grandam (Div. 2). CADE (dam by The Bald Galloway, grandam by The Akaster Turk, out of the grandam of Flying Childers) was sire of MATCHEM (dam by Partner, Div. 2) Makeless, by The Oglethorpe Arabian. Matchem, sire of CONDUCTOR. PEDIGREES. 379 CONDUCTOR, dam by Snap (Div. i) Cullen Arabian, was sire of TRUMPATOR (dam by Squirrel). TRUMPATOR was sire of SORCERER (dam by Diomed Div. 2), Governor, and Paynator. (A) SORCERER was sire of 1. COMUS(dam by Sir Peter), sire of HUMPHREY CLINKER (sire of MELBOURNE), Bran, and Reveller. 2. SMOLENSKO (dam by Mentor, son of Justice, by Herod), out of Waxy's dam, by Herod. Smolensko was sire of JERRY, sire of TOMBOY, who was sire of GAMEBOY, and NUTWITH (sire of Knight of Kars\ 3. SOOTHSAYER (sire of TJRESIAS). (B) PAYNATOR (dam by Mark Anthony, by Spectator (son of Crab Div i B), out of Highflyer's dam), was sire of DR. SYNTAX (sire of THE DOCTOR, sire of Malcolm, and of Newminster's dam), and of Cain's dam (Div. 2 A). In direct line from the foregoing three sources the following families, which now constitute the blood most in use on the turf, are descended. BAY MIDDLETON, by Sultan (Div. 2 B), out of Cobweb by Phantom (Div. 2 A), out of Filagree, by Soothsayer (Div. 3 A). HIS SONS. AMSTERDAM, dam by Idle Boy. AUTOCRAT. COWL, dam by Priam, sire of Confessor, and of the dam of Rosicrucian and The Palmer. FLYING DUTCHMAN, dam by Sandbeck (Div. i D), out of Darioletta, by Amadis son of Don Quixote (Div. i A). Was sire of Dollar (dam by Slane Rowton), who was sire of Salvator and Fentainebleau. Dutch Skater, dam by Gladiator. 380 APPENDIX. Ellington, dam by Lanercost. Jarnac, dam by Surplice. Ignoramus, dam by The Little Known. Tom Bowline, dam by Catton. GLADIATOR, by Partisan (Div. 2 A), out of Pauline, by Moses, son of Seymour, son of Delpini (Div. 2 A). . HIS SONS. FlTZ-GLADiATOR, sire of Compiegne (sire of Mortemer], of Orphelin, and of Ventre St. Gris. SWEETMEAT, out of Lollypop, by Starch, or (probably) Vol- taire, sire of (A) Macaroni (out of Jocose, by Pantaloon), sire of Cotironne de Fer and Macgregor. (B) Parmesan (dam by Verulam Touchstone), sire of Favonius (dam by King Tom), sire of Sir Bevysj Cremorne, dam by Rataplan ; D'Estour- nel, dam by Chanticleer; Strachino, dam by Robert de Gorham ; Hopbloom, dam by Stockwell. (C) Carnival (dam by Buckthorn, son of Venison, out of Macaroni's dam). Sire of Mask. Also of (D) Saccharometer (dam by lago), sire of Vanderdecken ; of (E) Lozenge, (F) Peppermint, &c. KING TOM, by Harkaway (Div. i A), out of Pocahontas (Stock- well's dam), by Glencoe (Div. 2 B), out of Marpessa, by Muley (Div. i B). HIS SONS. KING LUD, dam by Voltigeur (Div. i B), grandam by Bird- catcher (Div. i A). KINGCRAFT, dam by Voltigeur (Div. i B), grandam by Venison (Div. 2 A). SKYLARK, dam by Y. Melbourne (Div. 3 A), grandam by Cotherstone, son of Touchstone (Div. i A). COLTNESS, dam by Thormanby (Div. 2 B), grandam by Bay Middleton (Div. 2 B). DALESMAN, dam by Pantaloon (Div. 2 B) Velocipede, sire of Lowlander. PEDIGREES. 381 RESTITUTION, dam by Slane (Div. 2 D) Sir Hercules (Div. i A). TOM KING, dam by Birdcatcher Hetman Platoff, sire of Irish Umpire. THE BARON, dam by Orlando Glaucus. WIN GRAVE, dam by The Cure Emilius. KING ALFRED, dam by Bay Middleton Venison. KING o' SCOTS, dam by The Flying Dutchman. MOGADOR and MOROCCO, dam by Orlando. MELBOURNE, by Humphrey Clinker (Div. 3 A), dam by Cer- vantes, son of Don Quixote (Div. I A). HIS SONS. Y. MELBOURNE, dam by Pantaloon, grandam by Glencoe, sire of New Holland, Statesman, Pell M ell, General Peel, The Earl, Strafford, and Rapid Rhone. PRIME MINISTER, dam by Pantaloon, sire of Knight of the Garter. WEST AUSTRALIAN, dam by Touchstone, sire of Joskin (sire of Plebeian}, Ruy Bias, Eole II., Solon (sire of Barcaldine and Philammon), and Wizard. ARTHUR WELLESLEY, dam by Launcelot. MENTMORE, dam by Defence (Div. i A), sire of Syrian. BROCKET and OULSTON, dam by Muley Moloch. Also sire of the mares Blink Bonny, Canezou, The Slave, and Stolen Moments. STOCKWELL, by The Baron (Div. i A), out of King Tom's dam. HIS SONS. BLAIR ATHOL, dam by Melbourne, out of a Gladiator mare Plenipotentiary. Sire of Altyre, Claremoitt, Clanronald, Craig Millar, Glendale, Ethus, Prince Charlie, Tangible, Struan, and Silvio. BREADALBANE, dam by Melbourne, out of a Gladiator mare Plenipotentiary. CITADEL, dam by Melbourne Touchstone. BROOMIELAW, dam by Gladiator Plenipotentiary. 382 APPENDIX. ASTEROID, dam by Touchstone Blacklock. THE MARQUIS, dam by Touchstone Pantaloon. CAMERINO, dam by Touchstone Belshazzar. WESTWICK, dam by Touchstone Whisker. HUBERT, dam (sister to Newminster) by Touchstone. CATERER, dam by Orlando Velocipede. THE DUKE, dam by Orlando Glaucus, sire of Bertram (sire of Robert the Devil). KNOWSLEY, dam by Orlando Camel. LORD LYON, dam by Paragone (son of Touchstone), dam by Redshank, sire of Touchet. ST. ALBANS, dam by The Libel (Div. 2 B), grandam by St. Luke, sire of Julius, Julius Ctzsar, Martyrdom, Spring- field, Mr. Winkle, and Silvester. SAVERNAKE, dam by The Libel (son of Pantaloon), grandam by St. Luke. LORD RONALD, dam by Newminster, grandam by Pyrrhus the First, sire of Master Kildare. THUNDERBOLT, dam by Red Deer, grandam by Y. Emilius, sire of Reverberation and Thunder. DONCASTER, dam by Teddington (son of Orlando), grandam by Rubens, sire of Bend Or and Muncaster. UNCAS, dam by Mountain Deer (son of Touchstone), grandam by Sir Hercules. LOITERER, dam by Bay Middleton Velocipede. RATAPLAN, brother to Stockwell. HIS SONS. BLINKHOOLIE, dam by Gladiator, sire of Wisdom. BEN BATTLE, dam by Y. Melbourne Sweetmeat. DRUMMOND, dam by Flying Dutchman. CYMBAL, dam by Springy Jack Touchstone. KETTLEDRUM, dam by The Provost Lanercost. THE MINER, dam by Birdcatcher Tomboy. TOUCHSTONE, by Camel (Div. I A), dam by Master Henry (son of Orville Div. i B) Alexander (Div. i). HIS SONS. ARTILLERY, dam by Birdcatcher. ATHERSTONE, dam by Merry Monarch. CLARET, dam by Belshazzar, sire of Blarney. PEDIGREES. 383 MOUNTAIN DEER, brother to Claret, sire of Druid. ASSAULT and STORM, dam by Pantaloon. ANNANDALE, dam by Lottery. FLATCATCHER, dam by Filho da Puta, sire of Flaterer, &c. COTHERSTONE, dam by Whisker, sire of Glenmasson. ITHURIEL, dam by Velocipede, sire of Longbow, who was sire of Toxophilite (sire of Musket, Royal George, and Lan- castrian}. HARBINGER, dam by Elis. TOUCHWOOD, dam by Galanthus. RIFLEMAN, dam by The Colonel. SURPLICE, dam by Priam, sire of Magnum, Florin, &c. SOAPSTONE, dam by Malcolm, sire of Miriflor. TOURNAMENT, dam by Venison, sire of Gantelet. VINDEX, dam by Langar, sire of Victor (sire of Valour). LORD OF THE ISLES, dam by Pantaloon, sire of (A) Scottish Chief and Macdonald, dam by Little Known. Scottish Chief, sire of Childeric, King of the Forest, Lammermoor, Fitz- James, and Pursebearer. (B) Dundee, sire of Marksman. NEWMINSTER and his brother NUNNYKIRK, dam by Dr. Syntax (Div. 3 B), sire of (A) Adventurer, dam by Emilius, sire of Glen Arthur, Pretender, Ishmael, and Privateer. (B) Cambuscan, dam by Slane, sire of Camballo, Khamseen, and Onslow. (C) Cardinal York. (D) Cathedral, dam by Melbourne, sire of Landmark. (E) Dr. Temple. (F) Exminster, dam by Cowl. (G) Hermit, dam by Tadmor (Div. 2 A), sire of Peter Retreat, Tristan, Trappist, Abbot, Mar den, Miser, Edward the Confessor, Zealot, and Re- treat. (H) Lord Clifden, dam by Melbourne, sire of Hampton, Petrarch, Wenlock, Barefoot, Rotherhill, Wins- low, and Cyprus. (I) Musjid, dam by Muley Moloch. (J) Newcastle. 384 APPENDIX. (K) Strathconan, dam by Chanticleer, sire of Strathavon. (L) Vespasian, dam by Stock well. (M) Victoriotis, dam by Jeremy Diddler. ORLANDO, dam by Langar (Div. 2 B), sire of (A) Canary, dam by Plenipotentiary, sire of Xenophon. (B) Chattanooga, dam by I. Birdcatcher, sire of Wel- lingtonia. (C) Chevalier d"* Industrie, dam by Priam, sire of Fri- ponnier. (D) Fazzoletto, dam by Melbourne. (E) Fits-Roland, dam by Emilius. ' (F) Lacydes, dam by Plenipotentiary. (G) Marsyas, dam by Whisker, sire of Mars, Albert Victor (sire of Victor Emanuel], and George Frederick (sire of Beau Brummell and Beau- deserf). (H) Orestes, dam by Bay Middleton, sire of Orest (dam by Touchstone), who was sire of Hollywood. (I) Teddington, dam by Rockingham, sire of Monlsley, Master Richard, &c. (J) Trumpeter, dam by Redshank, sire of Y. Trum- peter, Distin (sire of Avontes and Vanguard], Hanstead, Plutus (sire of Flageolet], and Queen's Messenger. (K) Zuyder Zee, dam by Sandbeck. VOLTIGEUR, by Voltaire (son of Blacklock Div. i B 5), dam by Mulatto (Div. I D), grandam by Filho da Puta (Div. 2 A). HIS SONS. CAVENDISH, dam by Touchstone. JOHN DAVIS, dam by Liverpool, sire of John Day and For- tissimo. SKIRMISHER and his brother THE RANGER, dam by Gardham. The Ranger sire of Uhlan. TIBTHORPE, dam by The Cure. VEDETTE, dam by Birdcatcher, sire of (A) Speculum, dam by Alarm, sire of Castlereagh, Hagioscope, Rosebery, and Sefton. (B) Galopin, dam by the Flying Dutchman, sire of Galliard and St. Simon. PEDIGREES. 385 WEATHERBIT, by Sheet Anchor (Div. I C), dam by Priam (Div. i B) Orville. HIS SONS. BROWN BREAD, dam by West Australia, sire of Hilarious and Reveller. MANDRAKE, dam by Rataplan. BEADSMAN, dam by Touchstone Tramp, sire of Blue Gown, dam by Stockwell, sire of Magician. Cceruletis, dam by Stockwell. Pero Gomez, dam by Student, sire of Peregrine. Jolly Friar, dam by Macaroni. The Palmer, dam by Cowl, sire of Fore Runner, Grey Palmer, and Pellegrino. Rosictucian, dam by Cowl, sire of Althotas, Beattclerc^ Chevron, and Laureate. WILD DAYRELL, by Ion (Div. 2 A son of Cain), out of Mar- garet, by Edmund, son of Orville (Div. i B), his dam by Bay Middleton Malek (son of Blacklock). HIS SONS. BUCCANEER, dam by Little Red Rover (Div. i C) Edmund Soothsayer, sire of Kisber, dam by Rataplan. See Saw, dam by Brocket (sire of Bruce and Discord}. Berserker, Fit bus tier, Paul Jones, and Cadet. WILD OATS and WILD MOOR, dam by Harkaway, out of Buccaneer's dam. BOLD DAYRELL, dam by The Emperor (son of Defence). GUY DAYRELL. I DUS. THE RAKE. c c 3 86 APPENDIX. HERMIT. (WINNER OF THE DERBY STAKES AT EPSOM, 1867, <2*r.) HERMIT was bred by Mr. Blenkiron at Middle Park, in 1864, and was sold to Mr. H. Chaplin at the annual sale of the Middle Park yearlings. He is a chestnut horse, standing 15 h. 3 in. high, very lengthy and blood-like, with excellent substance. Hermit made his first appearance on the Turf at the Newmarket First Spring Meeting of 1866, where he was defeated for a Sweep- stakes of 200 sovs. each by Lord Stamford's Cellina, but nevertheless proved himself to be possessed of high form, as he had Lady Hester and Marksman behind him. At Bath, being more forward in condition, he turned the tables on Cellina, beating her and n others for the Biennial ; but at Epsom he was less fortunate, for in the Woodcote Stakes he was opposed by Achievement, who defeated him cleverly by a length at the difference of weight for sex, a perform- ance the correctness of which was subsequently proved to the letter. At Ascot the Biennial fell to him, beating the French colt Dragon, Arundel, and thirteen others; and he showed still higher form at Stockbridge, as he very easily effected the overthrow of Vauban, Viridis, and thirteen others for the Biennial, while he also won the Troy Stakes easily from Lady Hester, Julius, Vauban, and seven others, the latter race winding up his very brilliant two-year-old career. In 1867 The Hermit ran in nine races, four of which he won. After being the winter favourite for the Derby at very short odds, he was a few days before the race driven to a very outside price owing to having burst a blood-vessel in his head while at exercise ; but he nevertheless succeeded in winning the ' blue riband ' very easily from Marksman (second), Vauban (third), and twenty-seven others. The betting was 6 to 4 against Vauban (who had previously won the Two Thousand), 7 to i against The Palmer, 8 to i against Van Amburg, 9 to i against The Rake, 10 to i against Marksman, and 1,000 to 15 against Hermit, who won easily by two lengths. ' At Ascot he won the St. James's Palace Stakes of 100 sovs. each, very easily from The Palmer and Wild Moor. Hermit now took it quietly until Doncaster, where he again tried conclusions with his old opponent, Achievement, for the St. Leger, but with no better fortune than for the Woodcote, as she again beat him easily by a length, Julius getting within a head of him for the second money, Vauban being fourth, con- firming the correctness of the Derby running. For the Doncaster Cup he was again second to Achievement, having Tyndale and four others behind him ; and same day, for a Sweepstakes of 200 sovs. each, he beat Barbatus and Arundel over the St. Leger course. At Newmarket he failed to give Friponnier7 Ib. for the Grand Duke Michael Stakes (i^ miles) ; and Friponnier also beat him over the Rowley Mile for a Sweepstakes of 500 sovs. each (6 subs.) In 1868 Hermit, giving Julius 7 Ib., was beaten by him for the Newmarket Biennial, a failure that led to the pair being matched to run the Two Middle Miles, Julius to give Hermit i Ib. The betting was very heavy at n to 10 on Julius, who won by two lengths. Hermit ran several times subsequently, but without dis- tinguishing himself, and in 1870 was put to the stud at Blankney Hall at the low fee of 20 guineas and io.y. 6d. His fee was in 1886 250 guineas. The most distinguished of his progeny are Holy Friar, St. Agatha, Trappist, Charon, Monachus, Lancaster, Industry, L'Eclaire, Ambergris, Rylestone, Devotee, Out of Bounds, Peter (winner of the Middle Park Plate), Zealot, The Abbot, St. Hilda, Angelina, St. Louis (winner of the Middle Park Plate), Thebais, Tristan, Wandering Nun, Shotover, St. Blaise, St. Marguerite, Queen Adelaide, Lonely, Ste Alvere, &c. 1 A remarkable fact is that, though Hermit was trained thoroughly and tried roughly, he was eased in consequence of his mishap ; but the cold weather on the day of the race, and a heavy fall of snow during the race, is said by many to have been the cause of the weak vessel not giving way. This was the most sensational Derby ever run, owing to this and to the fact of i2o,ooo/. being won by the owner and friends and an equal sum being lost by one man. , PEDIGREE OF HERMIT. 387 Whalebone. Waxy by PotSos (Eclipse) -Maria by Herod (Tartar) Lisette by Snap (Snip) Miss Windsor by Godolphin. Penelope by Trumpator (Conductor) Prunella by Highflyr (Herod) Promise by Snap (Snip) Julia by Blank. V 6 Daughter of Selim by Buzzard (Woodpecker) Daughter of Alexander (Eclipse) -Dau.of Highflyer Dau.of Alfred by Matchem. Maiden by Sir Peter (Highflyer) Dau. of Phenomenon (Herod) Matron by Florizel Maiden by Matchem. IINSTER. H Banter. Master Henry. Boadicea. OrvillebyBeningbro (King bergus) Evelina by Highflyer (Herod) Termagant by Tantrum (Cripple) Cantatrice. Miss Sophia by Stamford (Sir Peter) Sophia by Buzzard Huncamunca by Highflyer Cypher by Squirrel. Alexander by Eclipse(Marske) Grecian Princess by Wm.'s Forester (Forester) Dau. of Coalition Colt Bustard. Brunette by Amaranthus (O. Eng.) Mayfly by Matchem Daughter of Ancaster's Starling by Starling* i 2; 1 Paynator. Trumpator by Conductor (Matchem) Brunette by Squirrel Dove bvMatchless(Godolph.) Dau. of Anc'st'r Staring. Dau. of Mrk Anthony (Spectator) Signora by Snap Miss Windsor by Godolphin Sis. to Volunteer by Y. Belgrade. f> C/2 L| Q Daughter of Beningbro' by King Fergus (Eclipse) Dau. of Herod (Tar- tar) Pyrrha by Matchm (Cade) Duchess by Whitenose. Jenny Mole by Carbuncle (Babraham by Godolphin) Daughter of Prince T'Quassa by Snip. 1 filer of Ardrossan. Jn. Bull by Fortitude (Herod) Xantippe (sis. to Alexandr) by Eclipse Grecian Princess by Forester Coalition Colt, Miss Whip by Volunteer (Eclipse) Wimbleton by Ever- green (Herod Snap) Sis. to Calash by Herod. H Z M 1 Lady Eliza. Whitworth by Agonistes (Sir Peter) -Dau. of Jupiter (Eclipse) Dau. of Highflyer (Herod)-Dau. of Matchem. Dau. of Spadille (Highflyer)-Sylvia by Blank (Godolph.) Sprightly by Ancaster Starling Rib (Crab). K W ^ O \ Cain. Margaret. Paulowitz by Sir Paul (Sir Peter) Evelina by Highflyer (Herod) Termagant by Tantrum Dau. of Sampson. Dau. of Paynator (Trumpator) Dau. of Delpini(Highflyer) Dau. ofY. Marske Gen. Kitty by Silvio Dorimond. Edmund by Orville (Beningbro') Emmeline by Waxy Sorcery by Sorcerer (Trumpator) Cobbea by Skyscraper. Medora by Selim(Buzzard) Dau. of Sir Harry(Sir Peter) Dau. of Voluntr. (Eclipse) Dau. of Herod Goldn Grove. i Sukan. Selim by Buzzard (Woodpeckr) Dau.of Alexandr (Eclipse) Dau. of Highflyr (Herod) Dau. of Alfred by Matchm. Bacchante by Williamson's Ditto (Sir Pet.) Sis. to Calomel by Mercury (Eclipse) Dau. of Herod (Tartar) Folly. USION. i Hester. Camel by Whalebone (Waxy) Dau. of Selim (Buzzard) Maiden by Sir Peter (Highflyer) Dau. of Phenomenon. Monimia by Muley (Orville) Sis. to Petworth by Precipi- tate (Mercury) Dau. of Woodpecker Snap by Snip. i-i o w CO ^ Bay Middleton. Sultan by Selim (Buzzard) Bacchante by Williamson's Ditto (Sir Peter) Sis to Calomel by Mercury (Eclipse). Cobweb by Phantom (Walton) Filagree by Soothsayer (Sor- cerer) Web by Waxy (PotSos) Penelope by Trumpator. I CO d Crucifix. Priam byEmilius (Orville) Cressida by Whiskv (Saltram) Y. Giantess by Diomed (Florizel) Giantess by Matchem Octaviana by Octavian (Stripling) Dau.of Shuttle (Mrske) Zara by Delpini (Highflyer) Flora by King Fergus. 2 Belle Dame. Belshazzar. Ellen. Blacklock by Whitelock (Hambletonian) Dau. of Coriandr (PotSos) Wildgoose by Highflyer Coheiress by PotSos. Manuella by Dick Andrews (Joe Andrews) Mandane by PotSos Y. Camilla (sis. to Colibri) by Woodpecker. Starch by Waxy Pope (Waxy) Miss Staveleyby^Shuttie (Y. Marske) Dau. of Drone (Herod)-Dau. of Matchem. Cuirass by Oiseau(Camillus) Castaneabv Gohanna Grey Skim by Woodpecker Silver's dam by' Herod Y. Hag. CC 2 388 APPENDIX. DONCASTER. (WINNER OF THE DERBY STAKES AT EPSOM, 1873, <&Y.) DONCASTER by Stockwell was bred in 1870 by Sir Tatton Sykes at Sledmere, Yorkshire, and is the third produce of his dam Marigold, who was bred in 1860 by Mr. Hargreaves. Like Blair Athol, Doncaster did not run when two years old, his first appearance in the racing arena being at Newmarket in 1873, when he was so backward in condition that he ran nowhere for the Two Thousand won by Mr. W. S. Crawfurd's Gang Forward from Mr. Savile's Kaiser by a head, with Mr. F. Gretton's Suleiman third, and nine others unplaced. At Epsom, while still so backward that the ' talent ' declined to back him, and the ring betted 45 to i against him, he won the Derby by a length and a half from Gang Forward and Kaiser, who ran a dead heat for second, thus confirming the running of the Two Thousand when a head only separated them. Gang Forward was the favourite at 9 to 4, and 4 to i was Kaiser's price. Chandos was placed fourth, and among the remaining eight which comprised the field were Andred, Suleiman, Montergris, and Hockstapler. Doncaster's next ap- pearance was for the Doncaster St. Leger, for which Mr. Merry also started Marie Stuart and Merry Sunshine, with directions that ' the best should win ' orders that resulted in Marie Stuart beating Doncaster by a head, Kaiser being third, with five others unplaced. OR returning to Newmarket he was so mucli out of form that Flageolet beat him for the Grand Duke Michael Stakes, and Kaiser also defeated him for the Newmarket Derby. In 1874 Doncaster ran on only two occasions viz. for the Ascot Gold Cup in which Boiard beat him and Flageolet by three quarters of a length, the two latter running a dead heat for second, with Kaiser next ; and for the Goodwood Cup, which he won by a neck from Kaiser. In the following year Doncaster again ran twice, winning the Gold Cup at Ascot from Aventuriere, Nougat, and two others ; and also the Alexandra Plate, for which he was only opposed by Scamp and some other horses of only very moderate calibre. At the close of the year Mr. Merry sold Doncaster to his trainer, Robert Peck, for 12,000 guineas, and soon after the Duke of Westminster purchased him for 14,000 guineas, and he became lord of the harem at Eaton, where he gives promise of acquiring as great fame as did PotSos in days of yore, and Touchstone in our own time. The most distin- guished of his progeny are Band Or (winner of the Derby) out of Rouge Rose by Thormanby Ellen Hona by Red Shank, Country Dance, Dreamland, Muncaster, Myra, Thora, Town Moor, Farewell, winner of One Thousand in 1885, &c. PEDIGREE OF DONCASTER. 389 i Birdcatcher. Sir Hercules. Guicciolli. Whalebone by Waxy (PotSos)- Penelope by Trumpator-- Prunella by Highflyer Promise by Snap(Snip by Childers) Peri by Wanderer (Gohanna) - Thalestris by Alexander (Eclipse) Rival by Sir Petr(Highflyr Papillon by Snap). Bob Booty by Chanticleer (Woodpecker) lerne by Bagot (Herod) -Dau. of Gamahoe (Bustard by Crab) Patty. Flight by Irish Escape (Commodore by Tug Dau. of High- flyer) Y. Heroine by Bagot (Herod Marotte by Matchm). M J| a c 5 Economist. Whisker by Waxy(PotSos) Penelope by Trumpator Pru- neila by Highflyer Promise by Snap Julia by Blank. Floranthe by Octavian(Striplng) Caprice by Anvil Mad- cap by Eclipse Blank Blaze Y. Greyhound Curwen. WELL. 1 Miss Pratt. Blacklock by Whitelock (Hambletonian) - Dau. of Coriandr (PotSos) Wild Goose by Highflyer Coheiress by PotSos. Gadabout by Orvlle(Beningbro') Minstrl by Phenomenon (Herod) Sybil by Matchem Sis. to Squirrel by Traveller. STOCK 1 Sultan. Selim by Buzzard (Woodpecker by Herod) Dau. of Alex- ander (Eclipse) Dau. of Highflyer Dau. of Alfred. Bacchante by Williamson's Ditto (Sir Pet.) -Sis. to Calomel by Mercury (Eclipse) Dau. of Herod Folly by Marske. rt Trampoline. Tramp byDick Andrews(Joe Andrews by Eclipse) Dau. of Gohanna (Mercury) - FraxinellabyTrenthm (Sweepstaks) Web by Waxy Penelope by Trumpatr Prunella by High- flyer Promise by Snap Julia by Blank -Spectatr's Dam. i | I Muley. OrvillebyBeningbro'(King Fergus) Evelina by Highflyer Termagant by Tantrum (Cripple by Godolphin). Eleanor by Whisky (Saltram) Y. Giantess by Diomed (Florizel) Giantess by Matchem Molly Long Legs. VSTER. A S Clare. Marmion by Whisky (Saltram by Eclipse) Y. Noisette by Diomed -Noisette by Squirrel (Traveller) - Carina. Harpalict by Gohanna (Mercury) Amazo by Drivr (Trent- ham) Fractious by Merc. (Eclipse) Dau. of Woodpckr. DONC | Touchstone. Camel by Whalebone (Waxy) -Dau. of Selim Maiden by Sir Peter Dau. of Phenomenon Matron by Florizel. Banter by Master Henry (Orville) Boadicea by Alexander Brunette by Amaranthus (Old England by Godolphin). t/j 6 Vulture. Langar by Selim (Buzzard) Dau. of Walton (Sir Peter) Y. Giantess by Diomed Giantess by Matchem. Kite by Bustard (Castrel Miss Hap by Shuttle)- Olympia by Sir Oliver (Sir Peter) Scotilla by Anvil- Scota. Q _3 O rt '1 H liss Twickenham. Rocking- ham. Electress. Humphry Clinkr byComus(Sorcrer) -ClinkerinabyCHnkr (Sir Peter) -Pewet by Tandem (Syphon) Termagant. Medora by Swordsman (Buffer by Prizefighter) Dau. of Trumpator Peppermint Sis. to Prunella by Highflyer. Election by Gohanna (Mercury) Chesnut Skim by Wood- pecker - Silver's Dam by Herod Y. Hag by Skim Hag. Dau. of Stamford Miss Judy by Alfred Manilla by Gold- finder (Snap -dau. of Blank) Old England (Godolphin). MARI igapore. i i P< Buzzard. Dau. of Blacklock by Whitelock (Hambletonian by King Fergus) Dau. of Coriander (PotSos) Wild Goose by Highflyer. Miss Newton by Delpini(Highflyer Countessby Blank) Tipple Cyder by K. Fergus(Eclipse) Sylvia by Y.Marske. Picton by Smolensko (Sorcerer - Wouski by Mentor) Dau. of Dick Andrews Eleanor by Whisky Y. Giantess. Dau. of Selim (Buzzard) Dau. of Pipator (Trumpator) Queen Mab (sis. to Merc.) by Eclipse Old Tartar Mare. :75 o c/5 Daughter of Melbourne. Lisbeth. Humphry Clinker by Comus (Sorcerer Houghton Lass by Sir Peter) -Clinkerina by Clinker Pewet by Tandem. Dau. of Golumpus(Gohanna Catherine by Woodpecker) Dau. of Pay nator (Trumpatr) Sis. to Zodiac by St. George. Phantom by Walton (Sit 1 Pet.^JuTia by Whisky Y. Gian- tess by Diomed Giantess by Matchem Molly Long Legs . Elizabth by Rainbow (Waltn Housemaid by Brush) -Bel- voirina by Stamford Sis. to Silver by Mercury Herod. 390 APPENDIX. GALOPIN. (WINNER OF THE DERBY STAKES AT EPSOM, 1875, &c.} GALOPIN by Vedette was bred in 1872 by Mr. Blenkiron at Middle Park, and is the tenth produce of his dam, the Flying Duchess, who was bred in 1853 by Lord Exeter. Galopin is a rich bay horse, standing 15 h. 3 in. high, good at all points, and showing great quality. He was purchased by Prince Batthyany at the Middle Park Yearling Sale, and ran his first race at Epsom when 2 years old, in 1874 for the Hyde Park Plate of 500 sovs., which he won easily from the filly by Cathedral out of Nutbush, Lady Rosebery, and fifteen others. Galo- pin's next appearance was at Ascot, where he showed high form by beating Slumber and three others easily for the Fern Hill Stakes ; and subsequently winning the New Stakes from Vae Victis, Earl Dartrey, and eight others with- out an effort. But his crowning race that year was for the Middle Park Plate, for which, carrying 8 st. 13 lb., to Plebeian's 8 st. 6 Ib. and Per Se's 8 st. 3 lb., heads only separated the trio, while behind him were twenty-one others, including Holy Friar, Garterley Bell, Batfe, Chaplet, St. Leger, Stray Shot, &c. Galopin's three-year-old career was of extraordinary brilliancy, as he won in a style hardly ever equalled, the five races for which he contended. He com- menced at the Newmarket Craven Meeting by giving 10 lb. to Mr. Chaplin's Stray Shot, and beating her over the Rowley Mile by eight lengths in a match for 500 sovs. a side. At Epsom he achieved a very hollow victory for the Derby, beating Claremont by a length, and Lord Falmouth's Colt by Macaroni out of Repentance by six lengths, while among the unplaced horses were Camballo (winner of the Two Thousand), Garterley Bell, Balfe, Earl Dartrey, Bay of Naples, Breechloader, and several others. At Ascot he won for the second time the Fern Hill Stakes, beating the flying Bella and three others. Galopin was then matched to carry 8 st. 2 lb. against Lowlander, 4 yrs., 9 St., over the Rowley Mile at Newmarket for 1,000 sovs. a side a feat he accomplished very easily by a length, the betting being 6 to 4 on him. His next and last appearance on the turf was for the Newmarket Derby, in which he showed his vast superi- ority over the horses of his year by beating Craig Millar fresh from his St. Leger victory, Balfe, and three others in a canter, the betting being 5 to 2 on him. In 1877 Galopin was advertised to cover twenty-five approved mares at Messrs. Barrows' Paddocks, Newmarket, his fee being 100 guineas and i/. u. to the groom. Galopin is the sire of the unbeaten St. Simon, Corrie Roy, Galliard, Modwena, &c. PEDIGREE OF GALOP I A 7 . fi 3 Blacklock. Whitelock by Hambletonian (King Fergus)-- Rosalind by Phenomenon (Herod) Atalnta by Matchm Lass of Mill. Dau. of Coriander (PotSos) Wild Goose by Highflyer (Herod) Coheiress by PotSos (Eclipse) Manilla. 1 o > Dau. of Phantom by Walton (Sir Peter) Julia by Whisky (Sal tram) Y. Giantess by Diomed(Florizel) Giantess by Matchem. Dau. of Overton(K. Fergus) Gratitude's dam by Walnut (Highflyer) Dau. of Ruler Piracantha by Matchem. '4 "o > 1 rt 1 S Mulatto. Leda. Catton by Golumpus (Gohanna) Lucy Grey by Timothy (Delpini) Lucy by Florizel (Herod) Frenzy by Eclipse. Desdemona by Orville (Beningbro')- Fanny by Sir Peter Dau. ofDiomd Desdemona by Mrske Y. Hag by Skim. Filho-da-Puta by Haphazard (Sir Peter) Mrs. Barnet by Waxy (Pot8os)-Dau. of Woodpecker (Herod)-Heinel. Treasure by Camillus (Hambletonian) Dau . of Hyacinthus (Coriander) Flora by King Fergus (Eclipse) Atalanta. W 2 > b _c a Sir Hercules. Whalebone by Waxy (PotSos) Penelope by Trumpator Prunella by Highflyer Promise by Snap Julia by Blank. Peri by Wanderer (Gohanna) Thalestris by Alexander Rival by Sir Peter Hornet by Drone (Herod) Manilla. "8 JH 4J | Guicciolli. Bob Booty by Chanticlr (Woodpkr) -lerne by Bgot(Herod Mrotte by Matchm) Dau. of Gamahoe(Bustrd) Patty. Flight by Irish Escape (Commodore) Y. Heroine by Bagot (Herod) Heroine by Hero (Cade) Sis. to Regulus. If _ "a B Inheritor. Lottery by Tramp (Dick Andrews) Mandane by PotSos Y. Camilla by Woodpecker Camilla by Trentham. Handmaiden by Walton (Sir Peter) Anticipation by Ben- ingbro' Expectation by Herod Skim Janus Crab. fc E Q a 3 S3 Nell. Blacklock by Whitelock (Hambletonian) Dau. ofCoriandr Wildgoose by Highflyr Coheiress by PotSos Manilla. Madam Vestris by Comus (Sorcerer) Lisette by Hamble- tonian Constantia by Walnut Contessina by Y. Marske. < o ddleton. Sultan. Selim by Buzzard (Woodpkr) Dau. of Alexander (Eclipse) Dau.of Highflyer (Herod) Dau. of Alfred by Matchem. Bacchante by Williamson's Ditto (Sir Peter) Sis. to Calo- mel by Mercury (Eclipse) Dau. of Herod (Tartar) Folly. utchman S 1 Cobweb. Phantom by Walton (Sir Peter)-Julia by Whisky Y. Giant- ess by Diomed Giantess by Matchem Molly Long Legs. Filagree by Soothsayer (Sorcerer) Goldenlocks by Delpini Violet by Shark (Marske) Dau. of Syphon Charlotte. c/5 P M | >, ^H JlJ Sandbeck. Catton by Golumpus (Gohanna) Lucy Grey by Timothy (Delpini) Lucy by Florizel Frnzy by Eclipse Engineer. Orvellina by Beningbro' (King Fergus) Evelina by High- flyer Termagant by Tantrum Dau. of Sampson. K E U D Js Darioletta. Amadis by Don Quixote (Bro. to Alexandr) - Fanny by Sir Peter Dau. of Diomed Desdemona by Marske Y. Hag. Selina by Selim Dau. of PotSos Editha by Herod Elfrida by Snap Miss Belsea by Regulus (Godolphin). FLYING L . Voltaire. Blacklock. Dau. of Whitelock by Hambletonian (K. Fergus) Rosalind by Phe- nomenon (Herod) Atalnta by Matchm Lass of the Mill. Dau. of Coriander (PotSos) Wild Goose by Highflyer- Coheiress by PotSos (Eclipse) Manilla by Goldfinder. Phantom by Walton(Sir Peter) Julia by Whisky (Saltram) Y. Giantess by Diomed ( Florizel) Giantess by Matchem. Dau. of Overton (K. Fergus) Dau. of Walnut (Highflyer) Dau. of Ruler (Y. Marske) Piracantha by Matchem. ^ de's Darr Juniper. Whisky by Saltrm (Eclipse) Calash by Herod Teresa by Matchem Dau . of Regulus (Godolp.) Sis. to Ancaster. Jenny Spinner by Dragon (Regulus) Sis. to Soldier by Eclipse Miss Spindleshnks by Omar (Godolp.) Strling. Velocipe Dau. of Sorcerer by Trumpator Y. Giantess by Diomed Giantess by Matchem Molly Long Legs by Babraham(Godolph.) Virgin by Sir Peter Dau. of PotSos Editha by Herod Elfrida by Snap Miss Belsea by Regulus (Godolphin). 392 APPENDIX. PETRARCH. (WINNER OF THE TWO THOUSAND AND THE DONCASTER ST. LEGER, 1876, d^.) PETRARCH by Lord Clifden was bred in 1873 by Mr. Gosden, at Hollist Stud Farm, Midhurst, Sussex, and is the ninth produce of Laura (also dam of Proto- martyr, Fraulein, Lemnos, Rotherhill and Laureate), who was bred in 1860 by Mr. Greville. Like Pero Gomez, the first and only race for which Petrarch started when two years old was the Middle Park Plate, and like him he scored a victory for the great Blenkiron prize, beating a field of twenty-nine horses. The fillies, Madeira by Thunderbolt, and Heartsease by Optimist, occupied the second and third places, and among the beaten horses were Kisber, Lollypop, Advance, Kaleidoscope, Clanronald, and Braconnier. Petrarch was then sold to Lord Dupplin for 8,000 guineas, with the contingency that he should run for the Two Thousand. This he did, unfit, and in 1876 succeeded in winning the sen- sational Two Thousand of that year, beating Julius Cassar, Kaleidoscope, his stable companion, who was favourite, and eleven others, among whom were Charon, Great Tom, Coltness, and Camembert. He then became a strong favourite for the Derby, his running in which was most unaccountable, Kisber winning in a canter, \\ith Forerunner second, and Julius Caesar (whom he beat so easily in the Two Thousand) third. At Ascot, for the Prince of Wales Stakes, the changes were again rung, for Petrarch won that rich prize in a canter, giving Great Tom who was second 12 Ib. , and Julius Caesar who was a bad third, 7 Ib. ! Another change and yet another in his form took place before his quitting Royal Ascot. In the Biennial he proved to be the worst of four, Coltness, King Death, Bay Windham, all beating him ; and, to top the climax, Morning Star and Correggio both beat him for the Triennial on the last day. The northern air proved more invigorating than the southern, for on the Doncaster Town Moor Petrarch regained his pristine form and won the St. Leger by a neck from Wild Tommy, Julius Caesar being a bad third, while Kisber, on whom the public fondly betted 2 to i, came rolling in nearly last. Petrarch now became the property of Lord Lonsdale, and his first race in 1877 was for the Lincolnshire Handicap, won by Lord Wilton's Footstep, in which he ran unplaced. He next walked over for a small sweepstakes at Newmarket, and his next success was achieved at Epsom, where, carrying 8 st. 12 Ib., he won the High Level Handicap, beating Rabagas II. 5 yrs. 7 st. 4 Ib., Lilian, aged, 7 st. 5.1b. , and three others. At Ascot he won the Gold Cup easily from Skylark, Coomassie, and three others ; but at Liverpool, carrying 9 st. 3 Ib., he suffered a head defeat from Snail aged 7 st. 12 Ib., Advance 4 yrs. 6 st. 12 Ib. and nine Others. At Goodwood he was all to pieces, and was consequently easily beaten for the Cup, which was his last race that year. In 1878 Petrarch, carrying 9 st. 4 Ib. , was close up for the City and Suburban, won bySefton, 3 yrs., 5 st. 8 Ib. , and at Ascot he won the Rous Memorial, beating Dalham, Touchet, and three others. His last race was for the Champion Stakes at Newmarket, in which he ran unplaced to Jannette. Petrarch was the following year advertised to cover at Bushy Paddocks, Hampton Court, when his fee was 100 guineas. Petrarch is the sire of Busybody, winner of One Thousand and Oaks in 1883, and of The Bard, who ran in 16 rates and won them all as a two-} ear-old. PEDIGREE OF PETRARCH. 393 linster. Touchstone. Camel. Banter. Whalebone by Waxy (PotSos) Penelope by Trumpator Prunella by Highflyer Promise by Snap Julia by Blank. Dau. of Selim (Buzzard) Maiden by Sir Peter (Highflyer) Dau. of Phenomenon (Herod) Matron by Florizel. Master Henry by Orville (Beningbro') Miss Sophia by Stamford (Sir Peter) Sophia by Buzzard Huncamunca. Boadicea by Alexander (Eclipse) Brunette by Amaranthus (Old England) Mayfly by Matchem Dau. of Starling. JFDEN. 'f. t 'i i M Dr. Syntax. Dau. of Paynator by Trumpator (Conductr) Dau. of Mark A nthony (Spectator) Signora by Snap (Snip) Miss Windsor. Dau. of Beningbro' (King Fergus) Jenny Mole by Car- buncle (Babraham)-Dau. of Prince T'Quassa. Ardrossan by Jn. Bull (Fortitude) Miss Whip by Volun- teer (Eclipse) Wimbleton by Evergreen Sis. to Calash. Lady Eliza by Whitworth (Agonistes) Dau. of Spadille (Highflyr) Sylvia by Blank Sprightly by Ancastr Starl. O P g o t Humphrey Clinker. Comus by Sorcerer (Trumpator) Houghton Lass by Sir Peter (Hignflyer) Alexina by King Fergus (Eclipse). Clinkerina by Clinker (Sir Peter) Pewet by Tandem (Syphon) Termagant by Tantrum Dau. of Sampson. _] V > jg V % Dau of. Cervantes by Don Quixote (bro. to Alexander) Evelina by Highflyer Termagant by Tantrum Dau. of Sampson. Dau. of Golumpus(Gohanna) Dau. of Paynator (Trumpa- tor) Sis. to Zodiac bySt. George Abigail by Woodpeckr. ROTHERHILL Kite. Bustard by Castrel (Buzzard) 1VJ iss Hap by Shuttle (Young Marske) Sis. to Haphazard by Sir Peter (Highflyer). Olympia by Sir Oliver (Sir Pet.)-Scotilla by Anvil (Herod) Scota by Eclipse (Marske) Harmony by Herod. 5 , Venison. Partisan by Walton (Sir Peter) -Parasol by PotSos (Waxy) Prunella by Highflyer Promise by Snap (Snip) Julia. Fawn by Smolensko (Sorcerer) Jerboa by Gohanna (Mer- cury) - Camilla by Trentham (Sweepstakes by Godolphin). rment. < Southdown. Defence by Whalebone(Waxy) Defiance by Rubens Lit Folly by Highland Fling Harriet by Volunteer. Feltona by X Y Z (Haphazard) Janetta by Beningbro' (King Fergus) Dau. of Drone (Herod) Contessina. o fe jc Glencoe. Sultan by Selim (Buzzard) Bacchante by Williamson's Ditto (Sir Pet.) Sis. to Calomel by Merc. Dau. of Herod. Trampoline by Tramp (Dick Andrews) Web by Waxy (PotSos) Penelope by Trumpator (Conductor) Piunella. 9 Q Alea. Whalebone by Waxy (PotSos) Penelope by Trumpator (Conductor) Prunella by Highflyer (Herod) Promise. Hazardess by Haphazard (Sir Peter) Dau. of Orville (Be- ningbro') - Spinetta (Sis. to Peggy) by Trumpa. (Conduc.) 394 APPENDIX. SPRINGFIELD. (WINNER OF THE CHAMPION STAKES AT NEWMARKET, 1877, crv.) SPRINGFIELD by St. Albans was bred in 1873 b 7 Her Majesty at Bushey Paddocks, Hampton Court, and is the third produce of his dam Viridis, who was bred in 1864 by Mr. Blenkiron at Middle Park. He was purchased when a yearling at the Queen's Annual Sale by Mr. J. H. Houldsworth, and ran for the first time in 1875 for the Prince of Wales Stakes at York, which he won easily, beating Forerunner, Hoyden, Auguste, and eleven other two-year-olds ; and next day he won the Gimcrack Stakes, beating Twine the Plaiden, Glen- dale, and two others. His next race was for the First October Two Year Old Stakes at Newmarket, in which he very easily disposed of Geryon, Bella, and two others, but at the Houghton Meeting, Clanronald beat him by a head for the Criterion Stakes, and later in the week Kisber defeated him by three lengths for the Dewhurst Plate. In 1876 Springfield accomplished a succession of victories, the like of which may be almost looked for in vain in the pages of ' Weatherby," as he won the nine races for which he contended in a style hardly ever equalled. The Fern Hill Stakes at Ascot fell to him, beating Rosbach, Kaleidoscope, and two others by four lengths ; he next secured the New Biennial from Concha by six lengths. At Stockbridge he won the Cup from Lowlander and two others by three lengths, and he won the July Cup at Newmarket from Cran Tair and another by twelve lengths. At Goodwood he was opposed only by Caesarion for the Bognor Stakes, which, with 25 to i on him, he won by three lengths ; and at Doncaster he won the Bradgate Park Stakes, also against a solitary opponent ; and next day he walked over for the Eglinton Stakes. At Newmarket Second October Meeting he walked over for the Select Stakes, and in the Houghton Week he won the Derby Three Year Old Free Handicap in a canter, from Gavarni, Advance, and Sailor. In 1877 Springfield's four-year-old performances were still more brilliant. At Ascot he beat Ecossais and Warrior by four lengths for the Queen's Stand Plate ; and he beat Rob Roy and Monachus by four lengths for the New Biennial. At New- market the July Cup fell to him for the second time, beating Lollypop, Trappist, and Ecossais by three lengths ; and in the autumn he achieved a very easy victory for the Champion Stakes, beating Silvio, Great Tom, and six others, while the All Aged Stakes also fell to him, beating Ecossais, and was his last appearance on the turf. Springfield was immediately secured by the Hon. Col. Maude for the royal haras, where in the following year he commenced his stud career, his fee being 100 guineas. PEDIGREE OF SPRINGFIELD. 395 OJ =: The Baron. Birdcatcher. Echidna. Sir Hercules by Whalebone (Waxy)- Peri by Wanderer (Gohanna) Thalestris by Alexander (Eclipse) Rival. Guicciolli by Bob Booty(Chanticlr.) Flight by Irish Escape (Commodore) Y.Hroine by Bgot Hroineby Hero(Cade) Economist by Whisker (Waxy) Floranthe by Octavian (Stripling) Caprice by Anvil(Herod)- Madcap by Eclipse Miss Pratt by Blacklock(Whitelock) Gadabout byOrville (Beningbro') Minstrel by Phenomenon (Herod). 1 X ontas. Glencoe. 1 Sultan by Selim (Buzzard) Bacchante by Williamson's Ditto (Sir Peter) Sis. to Calomel by Mercury (Eclipse). Trampoline by Tramp (Dick Andrews) Web by Waxy (PotSos) Penelope by Trumpator (Conductor) Prunella. c/i < CL Marpessa. Muley by Orville (Beningbro') Eleanor by Whisky (Sal- tram) Y. Giantess by Diomed Giantess by Matchem. Clare by Marmion( Whisky) Harpalice by Gohanna (Mer- cury) Amazon by Drivr (Trenthm) Fractious by M ere. ^ 2 ^ D Pantaloon. Pasquinade. Castrel by Buzzard (Woodpecker) Dau. of Alexander (Eclipse) Dau. of Highflyer (Herod) -Dau. of Alfred. Idalia by Pruvian (Sir Pet. ) Musidora by Meteor (Eclipse) Maid of All Work by Highflyr (Herod)-Sis to Tandm. Camel by Whalebone (Waxy) Dau. of Selim Maiden by Sir Peter Dau. of Phenomenon (Herod). Banter by Master Henry(Orville) Boadicea by Alexander (Eclipse) Brunette by Amaranthus Mayfly by Matchm. J& '1 St. Luke. Bedlamite by Welbeck (Soothsayer) Maniac by Shuttle (Y. Marske) Anticipation by Beningbro' Expectation. Eliza Leeds by Comus (Sorcerer) Helen by Hambletonian (K. Fergus) Susan by Overton Drowsy by Drone. FIELD. I Electress. Election by Gohanna (Mercury) Ches. Skim by Woodpkr (Herod) Silver's dam by Herod Young Hag. by Skim. Dau. of Stamford (Sir Peter) Miss Judy by Alfred (Bro. to Conductor) Manilla by Goldfinder (Snap). SPRING -a 9 Touchstone. Camel by Whalebone (Waxy) -Dau. of Selim (Buzzard) Maiden by Sir Peter (Highflyer) Dau. of Phenomenon. Banter by Master Henry (Orville) Boadicea by Alexander (Eclipse) Brunette byAmaranthus(O. Englnd)- Mayfly. i E g o Vulture. Langar by Selim (Buzzard) Dau. of Walton (Sir Peter) Y. Giantess by Diomed (Florizel) Giantess by Matchem. Kite by Bustard (Castrel)- Olympia by Sir Oliver (Sir Pet.) Scotillaby Anvil (Herod) Scota by Eclipse Harmony. rt 2 1 Whisker. Waxy by PotSos Maria by Herod (Tartar) Lisette by Snap (Snip) Miss Windsor by Godolphin. Penelope by Trumpator Prunella by Highflyer (Herod) Promise by Snap Julia by Blank (Godolphin). IT. 3 H Garcia. Octavian by Stripling (Phenomenon) Daughter of Oberon (Highflyer) Sis. to Sharper by Ranthos (Matchem). Dau. of Shuttle(Y. Marske) Katherine by Delpini (High- flyer) Dau. of Paymaster(Blank) LeSang(Changeling). 5 > 1 -^ V .n Epirus. Langar by Selim (Buzzard) Dau. of Walton (Sir Peter) Y. Giantess by Diomed (Florizel) Giantess by Matchem. Olympia by Sir Oliver (Sir Peter) Scotilla by Anvil (He- rod)- Scota by Eclipse Dau. of Herod (Tartar). C >-, 1 5 ! Fortress. Defence by Whalebone (Waxy) Defiance by Rubens (Buzzard)-Little Folly by Highland Fling (Spadille). J ewess by Moses(Seymour) Calendulae by Camertn (Ham- bletonian) Snowdrp by Highlnd Fling Daisy by Buzzrd. 1 2 Sultan. Selim by Buzzard (Woodpkr.) Dau. of Alexander(Eclipse) Dau. of Highflyer(Herod) Dau. of Alfred by Matchem. Bacchante by Williamson's Ditto (Sir Pet.) Sis. to Calomel by Mercury (Eclipse) Dau. of Herod (Tartar) Folly. 1 Hester. Camel by Whalebone (Waxy) Dau. of Selim (Buzzard) Maiden by Sir Peter (Highflyer) Dau. of Phenomenon. Monimiaby Muley(Orville) Sis. to Petwrth by Precipitate (Merc.) Dau. of Woodpecker Sis. to Juniper by Snap. 396 APPENDIX, STERLING. (WINNER OF THE LIVERPOOL AUTUMN CUP, 1873, <2rv-> STERLING by Oxford was bred in 1868 by the Messrs. Graham, at Yardley, and is the third produce of Whisper (likewise dam of Play fair by Oxford, Genuine by Oxford, &c. ), who was bred in 1857 by Mr. Taylor. This remarkable horse ran his first race at Warwick, in September 1870, when he was beaten for the Castle Park Stakes by Miss Lizzie, a very smart filly, also got by Oxford ; while behind the pair were Mornington and some others. On returning to New- market, Sterling achieved a very easy victory for the Hopeful, beating a field of nine horses, and the same week he won the Rutland by six lengths from Ainsty, Revoke, Ortolan, and two others. In 1871 Sterling ran in nine races, three of which he won. He was beaten by Boswell by a length for the Two Thousand, finishing three lengths in front of King of the Forest (third), while among those behind him were Blenheim, Digby Grand, and Ripponden. Not being engaged in the Derby, he next ran at Ascot for the Prince of Wales Stakes, in which he was beaten by King of the Forest, but on the Mile Course for the Biennial the next day he beat King of the Forest very easily at even weights. At the New- market July Meeting, Sterling showed himself to be a wonder, as, carrying 8 st. 12 lb., he won the Summer Stakes on the last six furlongs of the Bunbury Mile by three lengths from Azalia 3 yrs. 6 St., Piquillo 3 yrs. 6 st. 2 lb. , and seventeen others. He next carried 8 st. n lb. into the second place, behind Botheration 3 yrs. 6 st. 7 lb. , for the Chesterford Cup at Goodwood, but at Brighton Vulcan effected his overthrow for the Champagne Stakes. Burdened with 9 st. 5 lb. he was not placed for the Great Eastern Handicap, won by Philomela 3 yrs. 5 st. 8 lb. ; but in the Houghton week be astonished the racing world by carrying 8 st. n lb. for the Cambridgeshire and running a dead heat for second place with Allbrook 5 yrs. 6 st. 9 lb. , the pair finishing a head from Sabinus. The same week odds were betted on him for the Derby Free Handicap, which he won by three lengths from Shannon, Gautelet, Verdure, and some others. In 1872 Sterling ran in only three races, one of which he won viz. the Craven Stakes at Newmarket, whilst at Ascot Albert Victor beat him by half a length for Her Majesty's Gold Vase, and Prince Charlie for the All Aged Stakes. In 1873 Sterling ran on only two occasions viz. for the Cambridgeshire Stakes, in which carrying 9 st. 7 lb. he was third to Montargis 3 yrs. 7 st. 13 lb., and Walnut 3 yrs. 6 st. 7 lb. ; and for the Autumn Cup at 'Liverpool, which (carrying 9 st. 4 lb. ) he won from Louise Victoria 4 yrs. 7 st. 6 lb , King Lud 4 yrs. 7 st. 12 lb. , and twelve others. The betting was 20 to i against Sterling, who after a rattling race won by a head. Sterling was put to the stud at Yardley in 1874. Sterling's most distinguished progeny are Beau- desert (winner of the Middle Park Plate), Caxtonian, Discount, Fernandez, Geologist, Post Obit, Isonomy (winner cf the Cambridgeshire), Siluria, Har- vester, Paradox, &c. PEDIGREE OF STERLING. 397 ii 3 Whalebone. Waxy by PotSos (Eclipse) -Maria by Herod (Tartar) Lisette by Snap (Snip by Childers) Miss Windsor. Penelope by Trumpator (Conduc.) -Prunella by Highflyer (Herod) Promise by Snap (Snip) Julia by Blank. 1 u 8 OJ DC c7) Peri. Wanderer byGohanna (Merc.) Catherine by Woodpecker (Herod) Camilla by Trentham (Sweepstakes) Coquette. Thalestris by Alexandr (Eclipse) Rival by Sir Pet. (High- flyer)- Hornet by Drone (Herod) Manilla by Goldfinder. 1 25 ! Bob Booty. Chanticleer by Woodpkr. (Herod) -Dau. of Echpse(Mrske) - Rosebud by Snap (Snip) Miss Belsea by Regulus. lerne by Bgot(Herod)-Dau. of Gramahoe(Bustrd) Patty by Tim (Squirt) Miss Patch by Justice (Litton Arabian). Q Oi O 1 o Flight. I. Escape byCommodore(Tug)-Dau. of Highflyr (Herod) Shift bySweetbriar Black Susan bySnap Dau. of Cade. Y. Heroine bv Bagot (Herod) Heroine by Hero (Cade) Sis. to Regulus by Godolphin Arabian Grey Robinson. be, X O 1 Plenipotentiary. Emilius. Harriet. Orville by Beningbro'(King Fergus) Evelina by Highflyer (Herod) Termagant by Tantrum Dau. of Sampson. Emily by Stamford -Dau. of Whisky (Saltrm)-Grey Dori- mant by Dorimnt(Otho) Dizzy by Blnk Dizz by Driver. Pericles by Evander(Delpini) Dau. of Precipitate (Merc.) - - Sis. to Ospray by Highflyr Snap Lord Oxford's Barb. Dau. of Selim (Buzzard) Pipylina by Sir Peter Rally by Trumpatr Fancy(sis. to Diomed) by Florizel Spectator. >> i o ffi S Bay Middleton. Sultaji by Selim (Buzzard) Bacchante by Williamson's Ditto (Sir Peter) Sis. to Calomel by Mercury (Eclipse). Cobweb by Phantom (Walton) Filagree by Soothsayr(Sor- cerer) Web by Waxy (PotSos) -Penelope by Trumpator. 6 y. "^ >> s Miss Letty. Priam by Emilius (Orville) Cressida by Whisky (Saltram) Y. Giantess by Diomed (Florizel) -Giantess by Matchm. Dau. of Orville Dau. of Buzzard Hornpipe byTrumpator Laura by Herod Sis. to Eclipse. g w H C/3 'istone. Camel. Whalebone by Waxy(PotSos) Penelope by Trumpa. (Con- ductor) Prunella by Highflyr Promise by Snap. (Snip). Dau. of Selim (Buzzard) Maiden by Sir Peter (Highflyer) Dau. of Phenomenon (Herod) Matron by Florizel. 1 u H Banter. Mst. Henry by Orville (Beningbro') Miss Sophia by Stam- ford (Sir Peter) Sophia by Buzzard Huncamunca. Boadicea by Alexander(Eclipse) Brunette byAmaranthus (O. Eng. by Godolphin) Mayfly by Matchem Starling. a j3 t, >> Filho-da- Puta. Haphazard by Sir Pet. (Highflyr) Miss Hervev by Eclipse (Marske) Clio by Y. Cade Dau. of Old Starling. Mrs. Barnet by Waxy (PotSos) Dau. of Woodpkr (Herod) Heinel by Squirrel Principessa by Blnk Dau. of Culln. 04 i " Finesse. Peruvian by Sir Peter Daughter of Boudrow (Eclipse) Escape's dam by Squirrel Sis to Lowther's Babraham. Violante by J. Bull (Fortitude) Sis. to Skyscraper (High- flyer) Everlasting by Eclipse Hyaena by Snap. 5 E' Humphrey Clinker. Comus by Sorcerer (Trumpa.) Houghton Lass by Sir Pe. (Highflyr) Alexina by K. Fergus Lardella by Y. Marske. Clinkerina by Clinker (Sir Peter) Pewet by Tandem (Sy- phon) Termagant by Tantrum (Cripie by Godolphin). | 5 Dau. of Cervantes by Don Quixote (Bro. to Alexander by Eclipse) Evelina by Highfly. Termagnt by Tantrum Cantatrice. Dau. ofGolumpus(Gohanna) Dau. of Paynator (Trumpa.) ' Sis. to Zodiac by St. George Abigail by Woodpecker. .s X' p Horn sea. Velocipede by Blacklock (Whitelock) Dau. of Juniper (Whisky) Dau. of Sorcerer Virgin by Sir Peter. Dau. of Cerberus byGohanna MissCranfieldby Sir Pet. Dau. of Pegasus (Eclipse) Paymaster (Blank) Pomona. c Solace. Longwaist by Whalebone Nancy by Dick Andrews Spit- fire by Beningbro' Dau. of Sir Peter (Doge by Regulus). Dulcmera by Waxy Witchry by Sorcrer Cobbea by Sky- scraper Dau. ofWoodpeckr Heinel by Squirrel Blank. 398 APPENDIX. HARKAWAY. (WINNER OF THE GOODWOOD CUP, 1838 1839, i PotSos. Eclipse byMarske(Squirt) Spilletta byRegulus(Godolp.) - Mother Western by Son of Snake (Lister Turk). Sportsmistrss by Sportsmn (Cade) Silvertail by Whitenose (Hall A.) - Dau. of Rattle (Harpur A.) Dau. of Darley A. S3 M 1 Maria. Herod by Tartar (Partner) Cypron by Blaze (Childers) Selima by Bethell's A. Champion f Harpur A.) Darley A. Lisette by Snap(Snip by Childrs) Miss Windsr by Godolp.) Dau. of Y. Belgrade Dau. of Bartlet's Childers. ^ % 1 Trumpator. Conductor by Matchem(Cade) Dau. of Snap. Dau. of the Cullen A. Lady Thigh by Partner (Jigg by Byerly T.). Brunette by Squirrel (Partner) Dove by Matchless (Godol- phin) Dau. of Ancaster S. (Starling by Bay Bolton). i S n 1 Prunella. Highflyer by Herod Rachel by Blank (Godolp.) -Dau. of Regulus Soreheels (Basto) Makeless (Oglethorpe A.) Promise by Snap Julia by Blank Spectator's Dam by Partner Dau. of B. Bolton (Grey Hautboy) Darley A. K s c .3 Stripling. Phenomenon by Herod Frenzy by Eclipse Dau. of Engi- neer (Sampson) Dau. of Blank Lass of the Mill. Laura by Eclipse Dau. of Locust by Crab(Alcock Arab.) Dau. of Traveller (Partner) Miss Makeless bv Y.Greyh. I 5 Dau. of Oberon by Highflyer Queen Mab by Eclipse Old Tartar Mare Mogul (Godolp.) Sweepstakes (Gower Stallion). Sis. to Sharpr by Ranthos (Matchm) Dau. of Sweepstakes Sis. to Careless by Regulus Silvertail by Whitenose. > < :> ri D 1 Anvil. Madcap. Herod by Tartar Cypron by Blaze Selima by Bethell's A. Dau. of Champion Darley Arabian Merlin. Dau. of Feather (Godolp.) Crazy by Lath (Godolp.) Sis. to Snip by Snap Sis. to Soroheels by Basto (Byerly T. ) Eclipse by Mrske Spilletta by Regulus (Godolp.) Mothr Westrn by Son of Snake(Lister Turk) Dau. of Montague Dau.ofBlank(Godolphin) Dau.of Blaze(Childers) Dau. of Y. Greyhound Dau. of Curwen's Bay Barb. HARK. | Commodore. Tug (first called Rover) by Herod Legacy by Y. Snip Snap's dam by Fox (Clumsy) Gipsy by Bay Bolton. Smallhopes by Scaramouch (Snap Sophia by Godolphin) --Dau. of Blank (Goriolphin) Dau. of Travlr (Partner). J3 2 | Dau. of Highflyer by Herod Rachel by Blank (Godolph.) Dau. of Regulus (Godolphin) Soreheels by Basto (Byerly T.) Shift by Sweetbriar (Syphon Dau. of Shakespeare by Cade) Black Susan by Snap Lord Bruce's Cade Mare. DAWSON. rt >> r: *~: K Master Bagot. Dau. of Bagot by Herod Marotte by Matchem (Cade) Dau. of Traveller (Partner) Dau. of Hartley's Blind Horse. Harmonia by Eclipse Miss Spindleshanks by Omar (Go- dolphin Dau. of Lath by Godolphin) Starling Godolp. Bagot by Herod Marotte by Matchem (Cade) Dau. of Traveller (Partner) Dau. of Hartley's Blind Horse. Mother Brown by Trunnion (Cade Meynell by Partner ) Dau. of Old England (Godolph.) Dau. of Bolton Star 1. ANNY e Grinde Asparagus. PotSos by Eclipse Sportsmistress by Sportsman (Cade) Silvertail by Whitenose (Hall Arabian) -Dau. of Rattle. Dau. of Justice (Herod Curiosity by Snap) Marianne by Squirrel (Traveller) -Miss Meredith (Sis. to Slouch). >. i> 8 H !* 1 Stargazer. Highflyer by Herod Rachel by Blank (Godolphin) -Dau. of Regulus (Godolphin) Soreheels by Basto (Byerly T.). Miss West by Matchem(Cade) Dau. of Regulus (Godolp.) Dau of Crab (Alcock A.) Childers Basto (Byerly T.)- i/i J3 u c rt Sir Peter. Highflyer by Herod Rachel by Blank (Godolphin) -Dau. of Regulus (Godolphin) Soreheels by Basto (Byerly T.). Papillon by Snap (Snip by Childers) Miss Cleveland by Regulus (Godolphin) -Midge by Son of Bay Bolton. >, 3 Paulina. Florizel by Herod Dau. of Cygnet by Godolp. Cartouch (B. Galloway) Blossom by Crab Childers Miss Belvoir. Captive by Matchem (Cade) Caliope by Slouch (Cade) Atalanta's Dam by Oronooko (Crab) Dau. of Traveller. 400 APPENDIX. ECLIPSE. (WINNER OF ELEVEN KINGS PLATES AND MANY OTHER RACES.} ECLIPSE, a chestnut horse by Marske, bred in 1764 by H.R.H. William, Duke of Cumberland, was the second produce of Spilletta (likewise dam of H.R.H. by Crab, Proserpine by Marske, Garrick by Marske, and Briseis by Chrysolite), who was bred in 1749 by Sir Robert Eden. Eclipse, who took his name from being foaled during the great eclipse that took place in the year he was born, having been purchased by Mr. Wildman, ran for the first time on May 3, 1769. The place at which he made his dtbut was Epsom, and the race a 5o/. Plate, for 5 yrs. old, 8 st. , 6 yrs. and aged 9 st. 3 Ibs. , which he won, beating Gower by Sweepstakes 5 yrs. , Chance by Y. Cade 6 yrs. , Trial by Blank 5 yrs. , and Plume by Feather 5 yrs. Although not then his owner, the celebrated Captain Denis O'Kelly. the heaviest and most sporting bettor of the day, won a very large sum of money by his success ; and it was in the running of the second heat of this race that the ready-witted Irishman made the memorable wager, 'that he'd place the whole lot,' which he did by naming ' Eclipse first the rest nowhere,' a feat very readily performed by this wonderful horse, who, pulling his jockey, John Oakley, out of the saddle, distanced the whole party. Eclipse subsequently that year won the King's Plates at Winchester, Salisbury, Canterbury, Lewes, and Lichfield, besides a so/. Plate at Ascot, another at Win- chester, and the City Bowl at Salisbury. Previous to his running at Winchester Mr. Wildman sold a half share of Eclipse to Captain O'Kelly for 650 guineas, who afterwards bought the other half for i, 100 guineas, thus effecting one of the cheapest purchases ever made. In 1770 Eclipse continued his winning career, which he commenced by beating Bucephalus 8 st. 7 lb. each over the Beacon Course at Newmarket, 600 guineas to 400 guineas being staked upon him. He then won the King's Plate on the Round Course in two heats, beating Pen- sioner, Diana, and Chigger. As much as 10 to i was betted on him ; and after the first heat 6 and 7 to 4 was wagered in large sums that he distanced Pen- sioner, which he did very easily. Subsequently he won the King's Plates at Guildford, Nottingham, York, Lincoln and another at Newmarket, besides the Great Subscription Stakes at York, for which he paid 50 guineas entrance ; and another at Newmarket, for which he paid 100 guineas entrance. Eclipse, who was never beaten, was then withdrawn from the turf, and was next year put to the stud at Clay Hill, near Epsom, where his fee was 50 guineas. His progeny continued to distinguish themselves on the turf for twenty-three years, and, besides various Cups, won 158, 047/. Eclipse's most distinguished progeny on the racecourse and at the stud include Alexander, Boudrow, Don Quixote, Dungannon, Everlasting, Frenzy, Harmonia, Hermes, Horatia, Javelin, Joe Andrews, Jupiter, King Fergus, Laura, Luna, Madcap, Maria, Mercury, Meteor, Miss Hervey, PotSos, Queen Mab, Saltram, Soldier, Sister to Soldier, Spitfire, Ticklepitcher, Volunteer, Xantippe, Zara, and Zodiac ; and Eclipse got besides, the dams of Bobtail, Chanticleer (sire of Bob Booty), Haphazard, John Bull, Master Bagot, Oberon, Phenomenon, Scotilla, Skyscraper, Stam- ford, &c. PEDIGREE OF ECLIPSE. 401 ^hilders Darley Arab. Was imported by Mr. Darley, brother of Mr. Darley of Buttercrambe (now called Aldby Park), a manor long in the possession of the Darley family, midway between York and Malton. x-i, I y t rt Betty Leedes. Careless by Spanker ( Fairfax's Morocco Barb) O Bald Peg by an Arabian out of a Barb mare his dam a Barb mare. Sis. to Leedes by The Leedes Arabian Dau. of Spanker (D'Arcy Yellow Turk) Dau. of the Morocco Barb Mare. 1 n >, Snake. The Lister Turk, brought into England in the reign of Jas. II., was purchased by Mr. Lister, and cov. in Lincoln. Dau. of Hautboy (D'Arcy White Turk, his dam a Royal Mare). There is no record of Snake's grandam. r^ j k^ 3 o d Grey Wilkes. Hautboy by the D'Arcy White Turk his dam a Royal Mare. Miss D'Arcy's Pet Mare her dam daughter of a Ledbury Royal Mare. The name of Pet Mare's sire not known. M Oi < o A c/5 >/ Hutton's Bay Barb. This Eastern horse was imported about 1720, by Mr. Hutton, of Marske, near Richmond, Yorks, and besides being the sire of Blacklegs, got Black Chance, the best runner of his day at high weights. 1 1 PQ if 5 CJ a n Dau. of Coneyskins by The Lister Ttirk was a grey horse bred in 1712 by the Duke of Rutland ; his breeding not preserved. The OldClubfoot Mare by Hautboy. The further breed ing of this mare (in the stud of Mr. Crofts) not been preserved. > Sister to Old Country Wench. Snake by The Lister TnrkDau. of Haut. (D'Arcy Wh. Turk Royal Mare). The further breeding not preserved. Grey Wilkes by Hautboy (D'Arcy Wh. Turk Royal Mare) Miss D'Arcy's Pet Mare-Dau. of a Sedbury Royal Mare. J LO > 1 H Curwen's Bay Barb. Was brought into England by Mr. Curwen, of Workmgton, Cumberland. He covered very few mares besides Mr. Curwen's and Mr. Pelham's, and was a most valuable sire. fa rt w O I Dau. of Spot by the Selaby 'lurk. Of Spot, who was bred by Mr. Curwen of Workington, nothing more is known. Dau. of the white-legged Lowther Barb the old Vintner Mare, greatly celebrated, but whose breed ing not preserved . AUGHT 1 Oglethorpe Arabian. This Arabian was imported into England by Sir T. Ogle- thorpe, of Scotland, and, besides Makeless, was the sire of Bald Prampton, and the famous Scotch Galloway, who beat the Duke of Devonshire's Dimple at Newmarket. tt <0 v X 1 Nothing authentic is known of the breeding of the dam of Makeless, who was a distinguished performer on the turf and a favourite sire, whose name is to be found in several of the best old pedigrees. Q -5 _C Brimmer. rp. TV A v n T" i \ Brimmer was bred in York- The D Arcy Yellow Turk 1 ghire by the D - Arcy family> T?r>,-al TVTow= I and his name is to be found in Royal Mare. ) all the best pedigrees. fcfl 1 Dau. of Place's Wh. Turk, brought into England by Mr. Place, stud groom to Oliver Cromwell when Protector ; a famous sire. Dau. of Dodsworth (her dam a natural Barb, though foaled in England) The Layton Barb Mare. 406 APPENDIX, BOB BOOTY. (WINNER OF THE K1LDARE STAKES AT THE CURRAGH, 1809, drv.) BOB BOOTY, a chestnut horse by Chanticleer, bred in 1804 by the Right Hon. Denis Bowes Daly, was the fourth produce of lerne (likewise dam of Bob Bobus, by Chanticleer, &c.), bred in 1790 by Mr. R. Hamilton at the Curragh. Bob Booty ran for the first time at the Curragh on April 27, 1808, where, being then four years old, he won the King's Plate, four miles, beating Noblessa and two others. His next appearance was at Brighton, whither Mr. Daly, who was on close terms of intimacy with the Prince of Wales, took him on his invitation, where he was beaten for the Somerset Stakes by Lord Grosvenor's Meteora, the best mare of her day ; and she beat him again on the following day for the Gold Cup given by the Prince, Bob Booty running second on each occasion. Mr. Daly next sent him to run for the King's Plate at Lewes, but being opposed for that event by Lord Egremont's Election (winner of the preceding year's Derby), he again suffered defeat ; and Election also beat him for the Ladies' Plate, four miles. Notwithstanding the defeats of his favourite, Bob Booty, Mr. Daly did not go empty away, for with Sasenagh by Waxy he won the Subscription Cup at Brighton, and on the Southdowns took the County Plate and the Town Plate with the same horse. Nor was that all, for Mr. Daly further made his English trip pay by sending Bob Booty to Warwick and Lichfield to contend for the King's Plates, both of which he won. Bob Booty was then sent back to the Curragh, where in 1809 he won the Kildare Stakes (a great trial race in those days) and a King's Plate, four mile heats, beating the famous Hollyhock and several others ; but the latter on the next occasion beat him for another King's Plate. In 1810 Bob Booty was unsuccessful for the. only two races for which he ran, being defeated by Young Swindler and Hollyhock. With the latter race terminated Bob Booty's turf career, when he was put to the stud at the Curragh, and became sire of many winners, the most successful of whom were Bob Gore, Bob Roy, both bred by Mr. Daly, while his name has been made famous at the stud by his daughters, Guicciolli, Pleiad, and Ildegarda. The former, besides being the dam of Birdcatcher, also produced his full brother, Faugh-a-Ballagh, to Sir Hercules, George to Roller, and Mayboy to Skylark. Pleiad produced to Sir Hercules Maria (the Beeswing of Ireland and grandam of Historian), the conqueror of Birdcatcher, and to Drone, the speedy Mercury, who defeated Harkaway for the First Class of the Madrid Stakes at the Curragh, &c. ; while Ildegarda produced to Humphrey Clinker the Hon. Col. Westenra's Thumb and Mr. Quin's Wheel by Camel, both excellent performers at the Curragh. PEDIGREE OF BOB BOOTY. 407 ^ . Tartar. Partner by Jigg (Byerly T.) Sis. to Mixbury by Curwen's Bay Barb Dau. of Spot by Selaby Turk. Meliora by Fox (Clumsy by Hautboy) Bay Peg by Leedes A. Milkmaid by Snail Shields Galloway. 1 ffi Cypron. Blaze by Childers (Darley A. Betty Leeds by Careless) Confederate Filly by Grey Grantham (Brownlow Turk). Selima by Bethel's A. Dau. of Champion (Harpur's A. Dau. of Hautboy) Dau. of Darley A. Dau. of Merlin. 1 p u 1 S Cade. Godolphin. Roxana by the Bald Galloway (St. Victor's Barb Dau. of Whyuot& Royal Mare) Sis. to Chanter by AcasterTurk Dau. of Leedes Arabian Dau. of Spanker. 'ICLEEI * .2 s Dau. of Lord Lonsdale's Bay Arabian. Dau. of Bay Bolton(G. Hautboy Dau. of Makeless, son of the Ogle thorpe A.)- Brimmer Diamond Sis. to the Dam of Old Merlin Dau. of Darley A. Dau. of Byerly Turk. :- < o 1 Marske. Squirt by Bartlet's Childers(DarleyA.) Sis. toO. Country Wench by Snake (Lister Turk)-G. Wilkes by Hautboy. Dau. of Blacklegs (Hutton's Bay B. Coneyskins by Lister Turk) Dan. of B. Bolton Fox Club Coneyskins (L. T.) "8 Spilletta. Regulus by Godolphin Grey Robinson by Bay Galloway (St. Victor's Barb) Dau. of Snake (Lister Turk). Mother Western by Smith's Son of Snake (Lister Turk Acaster T. ) Dau. of Montague Hautboy (D'Arcy W. T. ) . M 1 m Snap. Snip by Childers (Darley A. Betty Leedes) Sis. to Sore- heels by Basto (Byerly Turk) Sis. to Mixbury Galloway. Sis. to Slipby by Fox (Clumsy by Hautboy) Gipsy by Bay Bolton (Grey Hautboy) Dau. of Newcastle Turk. > * Miss Belsea. Regulus by Godolphin Grey Robinson by Bald Galloway (St. Victor's Barb) Dau. of Snake (Lister Turk). Dau. of Bartlet's Childers (Darley A.) Dau. of Honywood Arabian Dam of the Two True Blues by Byerly Turk. g O 1 3J a Tartar. Cjpron. Partner by Jigg Sis. to Mixbury by Curwen's B. Barb Dau. of Spot by Selaby Turk White-legged Lowther B. Meliora by Fox (Clumsy by Haul. B. Peg by Leedes A.) Milkmaid by Snail Shields Galloway (breeding unknwn.) "Blaze by Childers (DarleyAT ^Confederate^ Filly by Grey Grantham (Brownlow Turk) Dau. of Rutland Black B. Selima by Bethel's A. Dau. of Champion (Harpur's A. Dau. of Hautboy) Dau. of Darley A. Dau. of Merlin. 1 w Matchem. Cade by Godolphin Roxana by Bald Galloway (St. Victor's Barb) Sis. to Chanter by Acaster T. Dau. of Leedes A. Dau. of Partner Dau. of Makeless (Oglethorpe A.) Dau. of Brimmer (Yellow Turk) Place's White T. Dodsworth. w iH 5 Dau. of Traveller by Partnr (Jigg) Dau. of Almanzor (Darley A. Dau. of Hautboy) Dau. of Grey Hautboy Makeless. Dau. of Hartley's Blind Horse (Holderness T. Dau. of Makelessand Royal Mare) Dau. of Grasshopper by Crab. {* u I Bustard. Crab by Alcock A. Sis. to Soreheels by Basto (Byerly T.) Sis. to the Mixbury Galloway by Curwen's Bay B. Miss Slamerkin by Y. True Blue (Williams's T. Dau. of Byerly T.) Dau. of Lord Oxford's Dun A. *8 u J: Dau. of Regulus by Godolphin Grey Robinson by Bald Galloway (St. Victr's B.)-Dau. of Snake (Lister Turk)-O. Wilkes. Dau. of Partner (Jigg) Dau. of B. Bolton (Grey Hautboy) Dau. of Darley A. i jj rt O ol Tim. Squirt by Bartlet's Childers (Darley A. Betty Leedes) Dau. of Snake (Lister Turk) Dau. of Hautboy. Sis. to Bajazet by Godolphin Dau. of Whitefoot (Hutton's Grey Barb) Dau. of Leedes (Leedes A.) Pi Miss Patch Justice (1724) by the Litton Arabian Aldby Jenny by Leedes Dragon and Sir M. Pierson's Ruby. Ring-tailed Galloway by Curwen's B. Barb Dau. of Hip (Curwen's Bay B.) Sis. to Piping Peg by Lister Turk. INDEX. ALE ALEXANDER, Mr., his initiation of turf reforms, 106, 107 Ancient Britain, horses of, 7 Anderson's, Mr. , Metropolitan Racecourse Bill, 54 Anne, Queen, her encourage- ment of racing, 22, 23 Apperley, Mr. Charles James ('Nimrod'), quoted, 197, 199, 204 Arabian horses, 16, 22, 24, 112, 114, 116 Ascot, 91 Aylesbury, steeplechasing at, 343 BACKERS, 252, 254 ; counsel to. 259 ; professional, 253 'Backing club,' composition of a, 106 Bassompierre, quoted, 17 Batson, Mr., and the Plenipo- tentiary affair, 43 Beauclerc, Lord Frederick, 351 Beaufort, Duke of, 283 Becher, Captain, 352 Bell courses, 16 Bentinck, Lord George, vanning his horses, 44, 211 BRE Beresford, Lord Marcus, as starter, 63, 64 Betting, jockeys', 106 ; con- sidered in all its aspects, 246- 268 (see under Racing) Bevys, Sir, of Southampton, quoted, 8 Bits, 18 Blackmoor Vale point-to-point steeple-chase, 346 Blount, Mr., on breeding, 113, 114 Bookmakers, 247, 265 Bookmakers' sporting journals, 46 Bosville, Humphrey, 33 Breeding, no ' royal road ' to, 5 ; crossing, 5, 10 ; in Ireland, 33, 35 37) 4 ; suitability of Eng- lish climate, 112; indigenous horses, 112; introduction of Eastern blood, 112; failure of the Children of the Desert, 114; effects of English cli- mate and nurture on Eastern horses, 115; mares from Poland, 115; horses valueless at the stud, 116; confused crossing, 117; state of health to be ascertained before serv- ing, 118; necessity of exer- 4io INDEX. BRE cise, 118; inbreeding, 119; maladies of the English cli- mate, 1 20 (see also under Racing) Brewer, Mr. C., 175 Brinitzky, Prince, 115 Brocklesby steeple-chase, 343 Brockton, Mr., 372 ' Bubbing,' 19 Burton, quoted, 19 CARD of the Brocklesby steeple- chase meeting, 341 Carew, quoted, II Cheney, Mr. John, quoted, 23, 24 Chetwynd House, Newmarket, plans, drawings, and descrip- tion of training stables at, 108-111 Chetwynd, Sir George, 175 Christian, Dick, quoted, 298, 315 Clark, Mr. (J ud g e )> 6 5 Clerk of the course, duties of, 61, 62, 90 Clerk of the scales, duties of, 66,67 Cocktails, 35, 36, 196 Commission agents, 260 Coventry, Captain, 284, 357 Coventry, Lord, 137, 283, 356 Coventry, Mr. Arthur, 273 Craven, Mr. W. G. , his action with respect to jockeys' li- cences, 105 ; and jockeys' fees, 106 ; 175, 182 DANEBURY, 95, 97 Dawson, Matthew, quoted, 201 FRE Day, John, 194, 205, 234 Day, William, quoted, 204, 207, 244 Derby, the, 291 Dixie, Sir Beaumont, 186 Doncaster, 93 ' Druid,' the, quoted, 187, 226, 276, 350, 352 D'Urfey, quoted, 19 EDE, Mr. George, 358 Edinburgh, racing at, in 1728, 32 Edward III., his cultivation of running-horses, 9 Edward VI. 's legislation against horse-stealing, 14 Egan, Pierce, quoted, 221 Enfield Chase, racing at, 16 Englishmen as horsemen, 33 Epsom, 92 Epsom Club, 93 Evelyn, quoted, 21 Exeter, Marquis of, 193 FALMOUTH, Lord, 169, 170, 171 Fences, 307 Fencing horses, Spanish, 9 FitzStephen, quoted, 8 Forestalling, 243, 253, 254 Frail, Mr. John, 'father of clerks of courses,' 62 Frampton, Tregonwell, ' father of the Turf,' 25 ; story of his horse Dragon, 25-27 ; dia- mond cut diamond, with Sir William Strickland, 28 ; the ' cunningest jockey in Eng- land,' 29 French steeple-chasing, 280 INDEX. 411 GAL GALLOWAYS, 32 Gamble, Captain, 38 Gate-money meetings, 51, 74, 90 George, Prince, consort of Queen Anne, his encourage- ment of racing, 25 Gilmour, Mr., 279 Goats as stable disinfectors, 124 Goodman, Mr. A., 357, 358 Goodwood, 93, 94 Graham, Messrs., quoted, 129 Grand National, 281, 283, 291, 321, 348, 349, 35> 352, 361, 368, 372 Greville, Mr. Charles, 189, 202 Gully, Mr. John, 202, 223 HALL, Bishop, quoted, 15 Handicapper, duties of the, 68- 71 Handicapping, various systems of, 69, 1 66 Hastings, Lord, 184 Hawkesworth, Dr. John, quoted, 25 Hawley, Sir Joseph, 157, 161, 162 Hedging, 249 Henry VIII. 's cultivation of horses, 12 Henry, Prince of Wales, son of James I., his love of horses, 17 Hewett, Mr. W. N. W., 228 Hobson, Mr. F. G., 365 Hore, Mr. J. P., quoted, 196 Horse - stealing, the legislation against, 14 Horses, notable, referred to Abd-el-Kader, 354 ; Aber- HOR geklie, 181 ; Achievement, 134, 163; Anatis, 355; Aus- terlitz, 365 ; Barcaldine, 37 ; Bartlett's Childers, 373 ; Bay Middleton, 201, 379; Bendi- go, 37 ; Bend Or, 140, 173- 177, 241 ; Blue Gown, 159, 160, 161 ; Byerly Turk, 117, 377 ; Chandler, 353 ; Chan- dos, 336, 337, 365 ; Chari- bert, 172; Charles I., 339; Corisande, 139, 185 ; Corrie Roy, 1 56 ; Cremorne, 1 70 ; Crucifix, 237 ; Darley Ara- bian, 22, 117, 273; Doncas- ter, 172, 388 ; Dragon, 25-27 ; Echidna, 37, 39; Eclipse, 115, 119, 400; Ecossais, 132; Elis, 44; Emblem, 293 ; Emerald, 190 ; Emi- grant, 354 ; Evening Star, 190 ; Fantail, 134 ; Favonius, J 39> l8 5 > Filho da Puta, 195 ; Flying Childers, 373 ; Forerunner, 172 ; Friday, 339 ; Galopin, 390 ; Gaper, 212; Garclevisure, 138, 163; Gladiateur, 123, 177, 178, 179 ; Gladiator, 380 ; Godol- phin Arabian, 116, 378 ; Green Sleeve, 160 ; Hall Court, 358; Hampton, 156; Hannah, 185 ; Harkaway, 39, 40, 41, 398 ; Hermit, 34, 164, 386; Iambic, 114; Iro- quois, 173 ; Jezabel, 136 ; Jolly St. John, 308 ; King- craft, 170 ; King Tom, 380 ; Kisber, 139, 165, 173 ; Knowsley, 225 ; Laura, 134; Lecturer, 184 ; Lictor, 161 ; Lord Lyon, 118, 136-138, 163; Lottery, 282, 288, 350 ; 412 INDEX. HOR Martini, 156; Melbourne, 381 ; Melton, 241 ; Ment- more, 349 ; Merlin, 28 ; Miss Tooley, 40; Morna, 161 ; Nabocklish, 40 ; Newminster, 208; North Lincoln, 139; Oceanic, 141, 142 ; Oulston, 206 ; Our John, 156 ; Para- dox, 241; Peregrine, 173; Pero Gomez, 160, 161 ; Peter, 131 ; Peter Simple, 354 ; Petrarch, 166, 392 ; Phenix, 141 ; Pintail, 182 ; Plenipotentiary, 43 ; Poca- hontas, 117 ; Prince Charlie, 132, 170; Proserpine, 181 ; Queen Bertha, 133 ; Rata- plan, 382 ; Reugny, 364 ; Rochet, 1 80 ; Roquefort, 370 ; Rosicrucian, 159, 160 ; Ru- gantino, 40; Rustic, 137; Ryshworth, 363 ; Salaman- der, 357 ; Satirist, 208 ; Schiedam, 361 ; Seaman, 2 94> 3 6 7 J Shotover, 166, 167; Silvio, 170, 171, 186; Sir Hercules, 217 ; Sir Joshua, 195 ; Springfield, 171, 394 ; St. Blaise, 167 ; St Chris- tophe, 186 ; St. Simon, 188 ; Sterling, 396 ; Stockwell, 381 ; The Bard, 141, 144 ; The Baron, 37, 38, 39, 208 ; The Colonel, 356 ; The Lamb, 358, 360; The Palmer, 158, 159, 160 ; Tom Tug, 40; Touchstone, 382 ; Tristan, 1 88 ; Verneuil, 186, 187 ; Voltigeur, 384 ; Voluptuary, 369 ; White Turk, 19, 21 ; Wild Dayrell, 385 ; Young Blacklock, 38 ; Zoedone, 368, 370 JUD Hurdle-racing, 333 ; valuable prizes, 333 ; origin of, 334 ; formation of hurdles, 334 ; preparation of the horses, 335 ; judging distance, 336 ; good schooling, 337 ; 'jump- ing big,' 337 INBREEDING, 119 ' Infant phenomenon,' disappear- ance of the, 53 Ireland, horse-breeding in, 33, 35,37, 40; causes of its falling off, 35 ; steeple-chasing in, 37, 275, 278, 280 JENNINGS, T., sen., quoted, 131 Jockey Club, powers of the, 47 ; on minimum weight to be carried, 52 ; on suburban races, 54; election of mem- bers, 56 ; constitution of, 57 ; first resolution, on 'weigh- ing in,' 58 ; stewards of, 58 ; acquisition of Heath lands byj 58 ; purchase of the Exning estate and other property, 59 ; orders all com- plaints against officials to be made in writing, 73 ; enforces licences on jockeys, 105 ; on jockeys' fees, 106 ; forbids jockeys betting, 107 Jockeys, causes of the paucity of the higher class, 54 ; licences, 105 ; fees, 106 ; betting, 105, 1 06, 243; celebrated (see under Trainers and Jockeys and Racing) Journals in the interest of book- makers, 46 Judge, duties of the, 64, 65 INDEX. 413 KEN KENT, John, his work under Lord George Bentinck, 210-213 Kinsky, Count, 368 LAGRAXGE, Count, 123, 128, 177, 187 Lambert, Mr. George, 180 Lawrence, John, Mr., quoted, 26 Lefevre, M., 188 Licences, jockeys', 105 Literature, chiefly sporting, quoted : Adventurer, 25 ; Anatomy of Melancholy, 19 ; Authentic Historical Racing Calendar, &c., 237; Baily's Magazine, 128 ; Bell's Life, 99; Evelyn's Diary, 21; Genius Genuine, 226 ; Gen- tleman's Recreation, the, 198 ; Hall's, Bp., Satires, 15 ; Historical List of all the Horse Matches run, &c., 23; His- torical List of all the Plates and Prizes run for on Clifton and Rawcliffe Ings, 23 ; ' History of Cornwall, the, 1 1 ; History of the British Turf, 6, 203 ; Holcroft's Memoirs, 199; Horse-breeder's Hand- book, 37 ; How to Choose, Ride, Traine, and Diet both Hunting-horses and Running- horses, 196 ; Life of a Sports- man, 199 ; Methode et Inven- tion Nouvelle de Dresser les Chevaux, 19 ; Sir Bevys' Metrical Romance, 8 ; New- market, 19 ; Northern Tour, 199 ; Philosophical and Prac- tical Treatise on Horses, 26 ; Post and Paddock, 222, 315 ; Privy Purse Expenses of NEW Henry VIII., 12 ; Quarterly Review, 197 ; Racecourse and Covert-side, 259 ; Race- horse in Training, 204, 207, 244 ; Racing Calendar, 58, 61, 99, 107, 136, 285; Re- marks on the condition of Hunters, &c. , 199; Scott's Field Sports, 198; Sport- ing Magazine, 6, 32, 33, 34, 276 ; Taplin's Sporting Dictionary, 199 ; The Chase, the Turf, and the Road, 200 ; Tuting and Falconer's Sport- ing Calendar, 58 ; Weather- by's Steeple-chase Calendar, 283, 284 ; White's Farriery, 99 ; World, 146 Little, Captain, 352, 353 Liverpool Steeplechase, the first, 281 Local meetings, 340 349 Lowther, Mr. James, 175 * Lop-eared Colt, the,' a story, 146 MACHELL, Captain, 164, 301, 365, 367 Manning, Mr. (clerk of scales), 68 March, Lord, 94 Markham, Gervase, quoted, 196 McGeorge, Mr. (starter), 63, 79 Melgund, Lord, 349 Metropolitan Racecourse Bill, 54 Military steeple-chase meetings, 347 Monck, Sir Charles, 216 NEWCASTLE, Duke of, quoted, 16, 19, 20, 33 414 INDEX. NEW Newmarket, royal stables at, 1 6 ; first races at, 19 ; racing in Charles II. 's time, 20 ; great fire at, 21 ; contempo- rary account of, in the reign of Queen Anne, 29 ; increase of racing at, 31 ; retrospective racing sketches of, 74-89 ; the Grand Stand, 75 ; locale of the betting-ring, 75 ; ' racing on horseback,' 75 ; racing in 1865, 76-81 ; re- strictions on carriages at, 95 Nicolas, Sir N. H., quoted, 12 ' Nimrod,' quoted, 197, 199, 204 Normandy horses imported into England, 7 OFFICIALS, racing, powers and duties of, 61-73 Osborne, Mr., quoted, 37 PARLIAMENTARY interference with racing, 52, 54 Parr, Mr. Thomas, 216 Partnerships, registration of, 106 Payne, Mr. George, 70, 182 ; quoted, 189 Pearson, General, 135, 138, 162, 164 Peck, Mr. R., 140; quoted, 173 Pedigrees of celebrated horses, tabulated, 373-398 Phillips, Mr. E., of Bushbury, 216, 217 Place, Mr. (owner of White Turk), 21 ' Play or pay ' races, 267 Portland, Duke of, 188 Post-betting, 249, 255, 267 RAC Press, influence of, on racing, 45 Prices, false, quoted by book- makers' journals, 46 Provinces, racing in the, 90-97 QUINTEROTS, 17 RACECOURSES, enclosed, 51 ; limited circumference, 52 Racehorse, the (see under Racing) Racing, history of, 3 ; horses of ancient Britain, 7 ; in the time of Athelstane and William the Norman, 7 ; in the reigns of Henry II. and Richard I., 8 ; introduction of imported breeds by Edward II. and III., 9; the 'age of geld- ings,' IO ; dawn of scientific breeding, 10 ; Welsh ponies, II ; Henry VIII. 's love of horses and the expenses of his stables, 12 ; legislation against horse-stealing by Ed- ward VI., 14; public races established, 15 ; bell courses, 1 6 ; royal stables established at Newmarket, 16; the first Arabian horse imported into England, 16 ; merits of Eng- lish horses recognised, 17 ; Charles I.'s proclamation re- specting bits, i 8 ; first races held at Newmarket, 19 ; barbs, 20 ; Charles II. at Newmarkei, 20 ; importa- tion of ' royal ' mares from Tangiers, 21 ; foundation of a riding academy by William III., 22 ; encouragement of racing by Queen Anne and INDEX. 415 RAC Prince George, 22, 23 ; racing legislation in the reigns of the first three Georges, 22 ; early records, 23 ; owners of cele- brated racehorses, 24, 25 ; Tregonwell Frampton and his horse Dragon, 25-27 ; Framp- ton's match against Sir Wil- liam Strickland's Merlin, 28 ; legislation consequent on the result, 29 ; turf chicanery in Queen Anne's time, 29 ; sub- scription races at York, 30 ; royal plates, 31 ; racing in Scotland, 32 ; Galloways, 32 ; breeding in Ireland, 33, 35, 37, 40 ; list of stallions in 1794, 34; the turf in 1793, 34 ; cocktails, 35, 36 ; con- veyance of horses to their engagements by road, 43 ; Lord George Bentinck and Elis, 44 ; turf espionage, 45 ; touts, 46 ; interested journal- ism, 46 ; qualities of a turf writer, 47 ; a journalist's strange code of turf ethics, 48, 49 ; gate-money meetings, 51, 74, 90; Sandown Park, 52 ; the Education Act and the * Infant Phenomenon,' 53 ; increase of Welter handicaps, 54 ; suburban racing, 54 ; temperance societies' tinker- ing, 54 ; history of the Jockey Club, 56-59 ; duties of racing officials defined, 61-73 '> re * trospective sketches of racing at Newmarket, 74-89 ; racing in the provinces, 90 ; Ascot, 91 ; Epsom, 92 ; Doncaster and Goodwood, 93, 94 ; New- market no longer an open RAC meeting, 95 ; Danebury, 95- 97 ; Stockbridge, 95-97 ; the old and new style of racing servants, 98; the old-fashioned groom, his manner, and his belongings, 97-100; the new- style trainer and his surround- ings, loo-in ; jockeys' bet- ting and its evils, 105-107 ; plans and arrangements of model training stables, 108- iii ; the crossing of indi- genous English with Eastern blood, 112-115; the PJnglish climate and nurture in horse- breeding, 115, 1 20; treatment of yearlings, 121; Gladiateur's pugnacity in the paddock, I2 3 '> goats as disinfectors in stables, 124 ; breaking in, 125 ; the Calendar birthday, 126 ; points requisite in a racer, 129 ; early trials of yearlings, 131 ; the Jezabel squabble, 136 ; Lord Lyon, 136-138 ; the Phenix riot at Epsom, 141 ; weight for age the basis of trials with old horses, 145 ; 'The Lop-eared Colt,' a story illustrating a two-year-old trial, 146 ; three- year-olds, 1 54 ; < sixpenny five-furlong races,' 154; three- year-old training, 155 ; trials of The Palmer, 158-160; Sir Joseph Hawley's theory of try- ing three-year-olds at weight for age, 162 ; Sir Joseph's moment of weakness, 162 ; hint on starting horses in trials on short courses, 163 ; epi- sodes culled from the Roth- schild stables, 164; clever 4i6 INDEX. RAC handicapping, 1 66 ; analysis of St. Blaise's trial spin with Shotover, 1 68 ; trainers' trial- books, 169 ; Matt. Dawson's system, 170; trial of Silvio, Jannette, Wheel of Fortune, and Charibert, over the Row- ley Mile, 171 ; history of the Bend Or controversy, 174; trials of Gladiateur, 177- 179 ; decadence of trials over long courses, 180 ; a remarkable instance of pri- vate trial over a long distance, 181 ; anecdotes of Mr. G. Payne, 70, 182, 183 ; Admiral Rous, 183; how Count La- grange lost 2,ooo/. over the sale of Verneuil, 187 ; St. Simon and Tristan, 188 ; Mr. George Payne and Mr. Charles Greville, 189 ; origin of the Rothschild stud, 189; table of scale of weight for age, 191 ; celebrated trainers, 193; Gervase Markham's notions ot training, 196; the Chifneys' method of training, 204; ill effects of excess of two-year- old racing and short handicaps, 205 ; the Days' system, 206; Spartan discipline, 207 ; John Scott, 208 ; Thomas Dawson's method, 209 ; advantage of a good wife to a trainer, 210 ; John Kent's management of Lord George Bentinck's stud, 2 10-213 '> tne forcing system, 214 ; more advocates of the Spartan treatment, 216, 217 ; promising trainers, 218 ; our jockeys, 220 ; the jockeys of old, 220, 225 ; an analysis of RAC performances in the pigskin, 222 ; a waiting race, 224 ; snaffles, 225 ; the Chifney rush and slack rein, 226 ; Sam Chifney's training as a jockey, 226 ; the latter days of the Chifneys, 227 ; an unscrupu- lous jockey, 228 ; antipathies of horse to man, 230 ; the sad setting of a famous rider, 231 ; the personality of Bill Scott, 232 ; a two thousand guinea match at York in 1759, 237 ; amateur starters, 238 ; win, tie, or wrangle,' 238 ; pug- nacious jockeys, 239 ; Pavis horsewhips G. Edwards and is fined, 239 ; George Ford- ham, 239 ; Fred Archer, 241 ; temptations of crack jockeys, 243 ; Lord Airlie's little present to Frank Butler, 244 ; magnitude of the presents now bestowed on jockeys, 245 ; morality of betting, 246 ; betting ingrained in the ave- rage Briton, 246 ; the betting fraternity, 247 ; scheme of a hundred -pound book, 248 ; post-betting, 249 ; hedging, 249 ; ready-money betting, 250 ; anomaly of the law on betting, 251 ; the ring, 252 ; the ' community of backers,' 252 ; reticence of owners, 252 ; professional backers, 253 ; casual settlers, 256 ; ins and outs of bookmaking, 256 ; a neat way of shelving a transaction, 257 ; counsel to backers, 259; commission agents, 260 ; more about touts, 262; tipsters,263; a tipster dug INDEX. 417 RAC out, 264 ; prophets of the sporting press, 264 ; the Committees of Arbitration, 264 ; defaulters, 265 ; play or pay races, 267 ; who does win the money on the turf, 268 ; steeple-chasing, 273- 332 ; hurdle-racing, 333-339 ', local meetings, 340-349 ; famous chasers and their riders, 350-372 ; strains of celebrated horses, with tabu- lated pedigrees, 373-407 Racing officials, 61-73 Ragg, Sir F., 29 Redesdale's, Lord, Bill for fix- ing lowest weight to be car- ried by horses, 52 Rice, Mr., quoted, 203 Richardson, Mr. J. M., 342, 349, 361, 362, 363* 364 Richmond, Duke of, 94 Riding, 318 Riding academy, the first in Eng- land, 22 Ring, the, 107, 249, 251, 252 Rothschild, Baron Meyer de, 185, 190 Rothschild stud, origin of the, 189 Rous, Admiral, anecdotes con- cerning, 69, 70, 77 ; quoted, 128, 182, 183 Running-horses, 8 SANDOWN Park, 52, 292 Scotland, racing in, 32 Scott, John. 98, 194, 205, 208 Servants, racing, 98 Sherrard, Mr. R., 102, 108 Smith, Captain Arthur, 371 Smithfield as a horse mart, 8 STE Snaffles, 225 Sporting correspondents, 45 Stables, 16, 101, 108-111 ; goats as disinfectors in, 124 ; drain- age of, f 24 Stakeholder, duties of the, 71 Stallions, list of, in 1794, with their prices, 34 Stapylton, Major, his theories of breeding, 115 Starters, duties of, 63, 238 Steeple- chasing, early history of, 275; an extraordinary steeple- chase, 276 ; Major Wilson's match with Popylina, 277 ; Irish sportsmen, 278 ; match between Captain Ross and Lord Kennedy, 279 ; the sport in Ireland, 280; in France, 280 ; objections to chasing as a popular spectacle, 280 ; the first Liverpool .steeple-chase, 281 ; Grand National supplants selling race, 281 ; a ' disgraceful affair,' 283 ; formation of the Grand National Hunt Com- mittee, 283 ; its composition, 285 ; selection of the chaser, 287 ; Irish horses, 290 ; the time of the Grand National compared with the Derby, 291 ; breeding and blood, 292 ; racecourse hunters, 293 ; do horses like jumping ? -93 > qualities of a good chaser, 294 ; the lottery in breeding, 294 ; schooling, 296 ; Dick Christian's sys- tem, 298 ; jumping schools, 300 ; an Irish method, 301 ; the horse's disposition to IDC studied, 302 ; a fair hunting E E 4i8 INDEX. STE country, 307-309 ; good fencers, 308 ; water-jumps, 310; galloping courses, 311 ; fences trappy, 311 ; natural courses, 312 ; old-fashioned fences, 313 ; the ditch before the fence, 314 ; how to re- store the popularity of chas- ing, 314 ; Dick Christian on fencing, 315 ; how a horse lands over a jump, 315 ; riding the race, 318 ; starting, 323 ; knowledge of pace, 325 ; waiting in front, 326 ; jumping straight, 328 ; the finish, 329-332 ; local meet- ings, 340 ; a card, 341 ; the Brocklesby meeting, 343 ; at Aylesbury, 343 ; un- scrupulous devices at local meetings, 343 ; suspected horses, 344 ; stewards, 345 ; Blackmoor Vale point-to- point steeple-chase, 346 ; military meetings, 347 ; Grand National Hunt, 348 ; famous chasers and their riders, 350 ; Lottery, 350 ; Jem Mason, 351 ; Tom Olliver, 352 ; Chandler's feat, 353; George Stevens, 356; Mr. Goodman, 357 ; Mr. George Ede, 358 ; The Lamb, 360; Schiedam, 361; R. I'Anson, 362; Mr. J. M. Richardson, 362; Reugny, 3 6 4 * Steeples,' 277 Stewards, powers and duties of, 71-73 ; at local meetings, 345 Stockbridge, 95, 97 Stradbroke, Earl of, 195 Strains and pedigrees of cele- TRA brated horses Bay Middle- ton, 379 ; Bob Booty, 406 ; Byerly Turk, 377; Darley Arabian, 373 ; Doncaster, 388 ; Eclipse, 400 ; Galopin, 390 ; Gladiator, 380 ; Godol- phin Arabian, 378 ; Harka- way, 398 ; Hermit, 386 ; Herod, 402 ; King Tom, 380 ; Matchem, 404 ; Melbourne, 381 ; Petrarch, 392 ; Rata- plan, 382 ; Springfield, 394 ; Sterling, 396 ; Stockwell, 381 ; Touchstone, 382 ; Vol- tigeur, 384 ; Weatherbit, 385 ; Wild Dayrell, 385 Suburban races, 54 Sutton, Mr., 135, 138, 140 Swindell, Mr., 182 TANGIERS, mares imported from, 21 Temperance societies' inter- ference with racing, 54 Thornhill, Mr. Thomas, of Ricldlesworth, 193 Three-year-olds, 154-179 Tipsters, 263 Touts, 45, 46, 107, 262, 254 Trainers, owners, and jockeys, celebrated, referred to-- Adams, James, 372 ; Archer, Fred, 241 ; Blenkiron, William, 214, 215 ; Buckle, Frank, 221, 223, 224, 230; Butler, Frank, 228, 244; Cannon, Joseph, 126, 365 ; Cannon, Thomas, 97, 218, 242, 316, 365 ; Chifney, Samuel, 203, 204, 225 ; Chifney, William, 203, 204, 228 ; distance, 242 ; Davrson, INDEX. 419 TRA Joseph, 101, 194, 214, 215 Dawson, Matthew, 169, 171, 174, 194, 201, 218; Dawson, Thomas, 194, 205, 209 ; Day, John, 194, 205, 234; Day, William, 102, 204, 207, 244 ; Edwards, Harry, 228 ; Ed- wards, James, 201, 202 ; Flatman, Elnathan, 235, Fordham, George, 80, 239 ; Goater, James, 187 ; Hayhoe, Joseph, 185 ; Huxtable, 171 ; I'Anson, Robert, 359, 362 ; Jennings, Tom, 141, I77> 218 ; Kent, John, 210 ; Marson, Job, 220 ; Mason, Jem, 350, 351 ; Olliver, Tom, 352 ; Osborne, John, 242 ; Porter, John, 218 ; Robinson, Jem, 229, 230, 231, 234, 239 ; Robson, Robert, 194, 200, 224 ; Rogers, Sam, 234 ; Scott, John, 98, 194, 205, 208; Scott, William, 231; Stevens, George, 356 ; Sykes, Tommy, 202 ; Wadlow, Thomas, 218 ; Webb, Fred, 242; Wood, C, 242 Trainers, dishonourable, from a journalist's point of view, 48 ; old style and new, 99-109 Training-stables, description of arrangements of, 108 Trial-books, trainers', 169 Turf- writers, functions of, 47, 48 Two-years-old, 127-146 VANNING, 44, 211 Vernon, Mr. R.,and the Jockey Club, 57 YOR WATER-JUMPS, 310 Watts, Mr., as a breeder, 37 Weatherby, Mr. (handicapper), 69 Weatherby, Messrs., quoted, 23 Weight for age, as a basis of trials, 145 ; scale of, 191 Welsh ponies, 1 1 Welshing, 251 Westminster, Duke of, 175 Whyte, Mr. J. C., quoted, 13. 19, 23, 67 Whyte-Melville, Major, 33 ; quoted, 293 ' Wild-goose chases,' 19 William III. founds an academy for riding, 22 William IV. , his encouragement of racing, 200 Wilson, Mr. E. P., 370 Winchilsea, Lord, quoted, 45 Worcester, 137 YATES, Mr. Arthur, 362, 371 Yearlings, buying and selling, 103 ; pugnacity of, in pad- dock, 121 ; natural exercise and good food in training, 123 ; breaking in, 125 ; racing birthday, 126, 127 ; prepara- tion for matriculation, 128 ; proper formation, 129 ; early trials, 131-153 York, subscription races at, 30 ; meetings, 94 Yorkshire, breeding in, 35 Spottisivoode &* Co.) Printers, New-street Sq^tare, London. .