CHAPTERS FROM TURF HISTORY 



were never afterwards prominent on the race- 

 course. 



During his career of fifty years as an owner of 

 race-horses Palmerston seldom made a bet. He 

 raced from a natural love of the sport, breeding his 

 own horses and often naming them after his farms. 

 Twice during the year preceding his death he started 

 at nine o'clock in the morning from Broadlands 

 and rode over to his training stables, and thence to 

 see his horses gallop on Winchester race-course.^ 

 But, as often happens with men of exceptional 

 vitality, the end came swiftly. He died within 

 two days of completing his eighty-first year, and 

 was buried with public honours in Westminster 

 Abbey. 



IV 



The Earl of Derby. — The fourteenth Earl of 

 Derby was nearly half a century in public life. 

 He inherited a taste for the Turf. His grand- 

 father founded the Oaks ^ in 1779 and the great 

 race to which he gave his name in the following 

 year. More fortunate than his grandson, he won 

 the Derby in 1787 with Sir Peter Teazle, the best 

 of Highflyer's sons. Sir Peter commemorated the 

 romance of his owner's life and the play in which 

 Miss Farren, the celebrated actress, won her 

 admirer's heart. Ten years after Sir Peter's victory 



>■ Life of Palmerston, Evelyn Ashley. 



^ The Oaks derived its name from an alehouse called " The 

 Oaks " which at one time stood upon part of Banstead Downs, 

 in the parish of Woodmansterne. It was afterwards purchased by 

 General Burgoyne, who added to the building and fitted it up for 

 a hunting-seat. Subsequently, the General sold it to Lord Derby, 

 who further enlarged the house and enclosed a considerable part 

 of the adjoining fields (History of Horse-Racing, pub. 1863, p. 214). 



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