THE RING, THE TURF, AND PARLIAMENT 



in the trade of Boniface, and he reahzed that the 

 betting-ring offered exceptional opportunities of 

 making money to a man who could combine a 

 cool head and calculating brain with a character 

 for scrupulous honesty. At this period, although 

 the number of horses in training was few compared 

 with the long strings at Newmarket and provincial 

 training quarters which may be seen to-day, the 

 betting was far heavier. There was practically no 

 wagering by the general public. The professional 

 members of the betting-ring laid the odds them- 

 selves and worked commissions for heavy speculators 

 of the type of the Duke of Queensberry, Lord 

 Abingdon, and the famous confederates. Lord 

 Foley and Colonel Mellish — Mellish of whom the 

 sporting writer of that day says that he never 

 opened his mouth under £500. Gully prospered 

 in his new calling. He soon had all the best 

 commissions in his hands, and the big backers 

 found their business done with skill and fidelity. 

 In 1827 — nineteen years after his last fight in the 

 Ring — he had acquired a fortune sufficient to 

 enable him to buy the Derby winner of that year 

 from Lord Jersey. The Epsom race had brought 

 much criticism upon his lordship, who had inherited 

 from his father, a Cabinet Minister in the preceding 

 reign, a high sense of honour and a spotless character. 

 Lord Jersey's horse Glenartney, an own brother to 

 Middleton, the Derby winner of 1825, was probably 

 the best three-year-old of his year, and if his 

 jockey had not been financially interested in the 

 race would have won it. Lord Jersey ran another 

 horse in the Derby, called Mameluke, but he made 

 no declaration to win with either of the pair. At 



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