CHAPTERS FROM TURF HISTORY 



difference to the family fortunes which the neck 

 defeat of her father's horse had unhappily entailed. 



In his very young days Disraeli trifled with the 

 subject of racing. He published The Young Duke, 

 a romance of fashion, in 1830, but, on his own 

 confession, he never liked it. To the edition of 

 his works in 1853 he prefixed an apology for it, 

 pleading that a young author is apt to fall into 

 affectation and conceit ; but adding, with charac- 

 teristic humour, that " every man has a right to 

 be conceited until he is successful." The hero of 

 the book is, indeed, a sublime coxcomb. At 

 Ascot he bought up all the winning horses at an 

 average of 3,000 guineas " for each pair of ears " ! 

 At Doncaster, which the boy-writer christens " the 

 Carnival of the North," the hero runs his horse 

 Sans Pareil in the St. Leger. Sportsmen will be 

 surprised to hear that ninety horses started in 

 the race and that the start was a fair one. The 

 young Duke's horse ran, but with no success, and 

 the noble owner lost £25,000 — a sum he con- 

 sidered " too trifling to be thought of." 



"This is the most successful meeting, I should 

 think, that was ever known at Doncaster," observes 

 the heroine. It was certainly the most remarkable. 

 Subsequently, the Duke goes to Newmarket, where 

 "a Club discharges a crowd of gentlemen and a 

 stable a crowd of grooms." He exclaims : " This, 

 then, is Newmarket : if it required £25,000 to make 

 Doncaster amusing, a plum at least will go in 

 rendering Newmarket endurable." He began to 

 find Newmarket not so disagreeable. He galloped 

 about the course and his blood warmed. " Even 

 the jockeys were civil to him, and welcomed him 



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