224 TRAINERS WITHOUT TRAINING 



1854, he won eighteen ; many over long courses and at 

 heavy weights. Here again it seems to have been im- 

 possible for Mr. Parr to divest himself of his plating 

 proclivities. For we find this good horse doing the 

 drudgery of a hack, and actually despatched to Pontefract 

 to run for a prize of the full value of 15, which he won 

 without the resemblance of a race for it, and again sent 

 on further similarly useful missions. With him in 1854, 

 Saucebox in 1855, and Fisherman in 1856, Mr. Parr may 

 be said to have had luck which few merited, and no other 

 trainer hardly met with. In the hands of a man who 

 thoroughly understood his profession, what, it may be 

 asked, might not the three have achieved ? That he 

 made the worse rather than the better of them we shall 

 see. Saucebox won the St. Leger, and Mr. Parr should 

 have won a really good stake. But he had prepared his 

 own disappointment. The horse had lost the Great Ebor 

 Handicap at York, simply because he was palpably unfit, 

 whilst Mr. Parr thought he was well and sure to win, 

 and lost a great stake over the race. In the meantime, 

 this and other races in which he took part had been 

 gradually preparing the horse for the great event ; but 

 without his oivner's knowledge, who in his ignorance could 

 not take advantage of his great opportunity. And just 

 consider the preparation that, in public, the horse had 

 had. In the early part of the year he won a stake at 

 Chester, a mile and a half, of the value of 67 ; and 

 before and afterwards several Queen's Plates, two miles. 

 In the summer he won eleven races out of the twenty- 

 eight in which he took part. Pretty good preparation 

 for a St. Leger candidate ! 



But this was nothing to the work that Fisherman had 

 to do, at the same age. It is certain that if he had been 

 properly, I had almost said decently, prepared, he would 



