' ALLBROOK ' AND < WEATHERBOUND ' 299 



it was like putting El Dorado in as a four-year-old at 



3 st. 9 lb., and Our Mary Ann as a five-year-old at 4 st. 



4 lb. And the race itself confirmed this estimate in every 

 particular ; for though our horse was beat a head by 

 Sabinus, running a dead-heat with Sterling for the second 

 place, he ought to have won very easily, having at least 

 a stone in hand at the finish, but was badly ridden. 



Hobble Noble's trial has been fully described in the 

 chapter headed ' A Trial for Mr. Merry.' I may say 

 briefly here that it made him 21 lb. better than Joe 

 Miller, a horse that had won that year the Chester Cup 

 and the Emperor's Vase at Ascot, beating all the best 

 horses of the day at weight for age. And as this was 

 equivalent to put Joe Miller in the Cambridgeshire at 

 6 st. 5 lb., nothing could be better than Robbie Noble's 

 chance on paper ; and indeed he ought to have won, as 



1 have shown, but, like Allbrook, he got beat, just, as it 

 were, to prove the glorious uncertainty of racing. I 

 have shown how this disappointment came about, and it 

 will be remembered that I did not train this horse, but 

 merely tried him, and tried him satisfactorily, for the 

 race. 



Weatherbound' s trial was to all appearance, if anything, 

 better than the two just given. For she could and did 

 beat Dulcibella at even weights, and Dulcibella had just 

 won the Cesarewitch easier than it was ever won before 

 or has been since. Moreover, she showed she could give 



2 st. to Sutherland, the winner of the Royal Stakes, and 

 second to Cape Flyaway for the Doncaster Stakes, and 

 beating St. Albans, the winner of the St. Leger, at 10 lb. 

 If the running of the latter were correct, it would go to 

 show that to have beat Weatherbound in the Cambridge- 

 shire he would have had to be put in at 5 st. But this, 

 of course, is absurd, and the fact accounted for, we must 



