PRIME MINISTERS AND THEIR RACE-HORSES 



Rockingham, hopeless as a Minister, and, in his 

 relations to the King, impar congressus Achilli, 

 was remarkable as a patron of the Turf. His 

 signature is appended to the first public document 

 issued by the Jockey Club. " The Whigs are 

 much given to horse-racing," wrote a respectable 

 divine to the King's chaplain some years before 

 this date, and Rockingham was certainly loyal 

 to the tradition. So were his colleagues and the 

 leaders of his political connection. Burke, the 

 Arch- Whig trumpeter, could not induce the Duke 

 of Richmond to put off his party for Goodwood 

 races when an important division was imminent, 

 nor the Chancellor of the Exchequer his fox- 

 hunting at a moment of political crisis. New- 

 market races kept many adherents from attendance 

 at Westminster. 



Rockingham's appointment to the Treasury had 

 been negotiated by the Duke of Cumberland, the 

 breeder of Eclipse. The Duke and Rockingham 

 frequently opposed each other at Newmarket. 

 The young nobleman in 1757 defeated the Duke's 

 horse, Cullen Arabian, in a match for 1,000 guineas 

 over the Beacon Course. The Duke again lost a 

 match to Rockingham when his horse failed to give 

 18 lb. to his opponent's colt, Prospero. However, 

 the hero of Culloden had his revenge at Ascot 

 in the following year, when he ran the famous 

 Herod to victory in a four mile match. The North 

 was Rockingham's favourite battleground. In a 

 match for 2,000 guineas his horse, Whistle-jacket, 

 defeated Brutus over a long distance at York, and 



Lord Fitzwilliam in honour of his uncle is from the pen of Burke. 

 Of his Chief Burke wrote, " his virtues were his arts." 



17 B 



