HIS MATCHES 69 



a result certain, indeed, from the way in which the race 

 was run. It was bad enough to get beat with a good 

 horse unprepared, but much worse not to have known 

 it ; and the height of folly to make running with a horse 

 in such a condition, after seeing how he tired in the first 

 race. There was much betting on both events, particu- 

 larly on the Two Thousand Guinea Stakes, and the 

 excitement great. I think the amount of money Lord 

 Suffield lost over the two races was the cause of his 

 temporary retirement from the turf ; but he afterwards 

 had his revenge, for Caravan beat Grey Momus in the 

 Houghton Meeting, over the T. M. M., in a match for 

 1,000 sovereigns ; as did Vulture, Colonel Peel's mare, 

 for the same sum when he was a two-year-old. 



Lord George did not, on the whole, get much by his 

 matching for heavy sums ; for I do not remember that 

 he ever matched any of his other horses for so large a 

 stake, though he made many matches for less. With 

 respect to Grey Momus; I should perhaps say that when 

 he won the Ascot Cup, beating Caravan and Epirus, the 

 jockey of the latter must, I think, have backed the 

 gallant gray which I was riding. For just as we entered 

 the straight he rode up beside me, and shouted excitedly 

 in his well-known tongue, ' Go on, go on, or you will be 

 beat !' and then disappeared like a shooting-star from the 

 front, and I won easily. It was said that Lord George 

 won 20,000 on this race. He also won a large stake 

 over Bay Middleton for the Derby, entirely from his beat- 

 ing Elis in the Two Thousand. In the latter, although 

 Bay Middleton won only by a neck, my father, who rode 

 Elis, always declared he won in a common canter, and 

 attributed the closeness of the finish to his ' slipping ' 

 James Robinson, and nearly snatching the race out of 

 the fire. Nor was he singular in this opinion, for others 



