SAM ROGERS AND FRANK BUTLER 135 



saying he knew I had prevented him from riding her. 

 So far he was right, but there was no good in my telling 

 him so. I told Frank the mare was a little slow, and 

 wanted a good pace : and if nothing else made it, he was 

 to do so himself. To which he said, ' Very well.' The 

 pace was bad, and he never went near his horses first or 

 last, and pulling-up opposite the grand-stand, was a bad 

 third. In this race probably the principle of reciprocity 

 embodied in the axiom that ' one good turn deserves 

 another ' was worked out. If Sam served Frank at 

 Epsom, Frank served Sam at York. And yet the com- 

 bined skill of these two wonderful jockeys was insufficient 

 to make the public believe in the honesty of either ; and 

 without such a result, what was their talent worth ? 

 not a fig. 



Naturally, after weighing, I had an interview with 

 Frank Butler, and he gave as an excuse that the mare 

 had lost her form, and had gone a roarer. I replied that 

 if she had it was since the morning ; to which he rejoined 

 that she could beat nothing, in the hope, I imagine, that 

 I would not run her again at that meeting at any rate. 

 He stood some little time impressing this upon me, and 

 rubbing, as was his wont, his full-grown, mahogany- 

 coloured nasal organ. I was, I need not say, much 

 annoyed at the mare's running in this race the York- 

 shire Oaks. I was determined to test its accuracy and 

 learn if there was any truth in Frank's statement, and 

 so put her in the Queen's Plate on Friday. In this she 

 met Hesse Hamburg, who was first favourite at 5 to 2, 

 having only recently won the Brighton Stakes, beating a 

 large field, and Frank was on her. The result of the 

 race is soon told for Bird on the Wing made play 

 directly after starting, was never headed, and won in the 

 most lazy way imaginable by two lengths. The mare 



