MISTAKE WITH 'JOE MILLER' n 



suddenly, at all risks, he would have him run at Ascot, 

 where he was sent about three parts fit, having had but 

 a hurried preparation. Luckily he just won the New 

 Stakes ; plainly showing, as I have before said, all that 

 Mr. Padwick wanted was to see his horses kept running. 

 The condition they were in was to him of little conse- 

 quence, notwithstanding that he was sure to back them 

 for a good stake. Now this was not, in my opinion, 

 the action of a clever, nor, indeed, of a discreet 

 man. 



In another instance, that of Joe Miller, he showed a 

 similar faulty judgment. When this horse was two years 

 old, he was the property of Messrs. Padwick, Parker and 

 Farrance. I thought well of him, and backed him for his 

 race at Stockbridge, as they did. Here he met Chief 

 Baron Nicholson (called after the presiding genius of ' the 

 Coal-hole ') and Kingston. At the distance, I thought 

 the former would win easily ; and as I did not want to 

 be second, or run up a good third, I did not persevere 

 with my horse, knowing I could not win. The result 

 was a dead-heat between The Baron and Kingston, the 

 former, through want of condition, standing still in the 

 last hundred yards. This I told Mr. Padwick. It was 

 run off, ending in a second dead-heat and a division. 

 This result would go to prove that the condition of Chief 

 Baron Nicholson was as good as that of the other. But 

 I hold that the pace was not so good in the second race, 

 of which a dead-heat was made owing to the riding of 

 my brother Alfred, who was up, carefully nursing the 

 horse to the last and coming with one rush. That this 

 was so, was proved in the following year, when The 

 Baron beat both Kingston and Joe Miller easily in the 

 Derby, running third to Daniel O'Bourke and Barbarian ; 

 a race, however, which seemed to have upset him, inso- 



