DISRAELI AND THE RACE-COURSE 



at Mentmore, and people turned up their noses 

 at his scheme and his sire for a while, and yet 

 eventually that blood gave him the Derby, the 

 Oaks and the St. Leger in one year. I should 

 like to see that done at dear Weston." 



Disraeli here is writing of the Goodwood Meeting 

 of that year, and had evidently heard by telegram 

 that his friend's horse Glendinning had run second 

 in the Drayton Handicap to Glenmarkie. Owners 

 set their horses severe tasks even in those days. 

 Previously Glendinning had run unplaced in the 

 Stewards' Cup on the Tuesday, and, after his 

 second defeat, was pulled out again on the Friday, 

 when, with Archer riding, he beat Mr. Sturt's 

 Beechnut by a neck in a match for £200 over five 

 furlongs. This success must have been very agree- 

 able to Disraeli, for reasons which appear in the 

 biography.^ Apart from this particular incident, 

 Disraeli's observations are interesting, although 

 they reveal no little ignorance of the philosophy 

 of racing. It is not for a great nobleman as such 

 to command success on the Turf, where all men 

 are equal, whether above it or below it. Disraeli's 

 friend Lord George Bentinck undoubtedly had his 

 triumphs on the race-course ; but the end of his 

 ambition w as to win the Derby. He never achieved 

 it. True, he bred Surplice in 1845, but the colt 

 was included in the stud which he sold across the 

 breakfast-table that fatal morning at Goodwood. 

 Two years later, when Surplice won the Derby, 

 Bentinck mourned his misfortune. " All my life 

 I have been trying for this, and for what have I 

 sacrificed it ? " For what indeed ? For a futile 



I Life of Disraeli, vol. v. p. 248. 



