VI 



THE FRAUD OF A DERBY 



Why, what an intricate impeach is this ! 



And I was ta'en for him, and he for me. 



Comedy of Errors, Act V, Sc. i. 



Castigatque auditque doles subigitque fateri. 



^neid, VI, 567. 



In the month of September last a Judge of the 

 High Court was engaged for many days in trying 

 a series of Turf frauds. The prisoners were con- 

 victed of conspiracy and of obtaining stake moneys 

 by false pretences in relation to certain races in 

 which horses had been substituted for those 

 originally entered. Complicated and tedious as 

 were the charges, they recalled to the minds of 

 many readers the most famous case of fraud 

 which has ever stained the annals of horse-racing. 

 It is an old story : but perhaps its importance 

 in the long tale of racing life deserves that it 

 should be rediscovered from its burial in the dust- 

 heap of drowsy documents. 



The race for the Derby of 1844 was won by 

 a horse called Running Rein. This animal was 

 subsequently proved to have been a four-year-old 

 whose real name was Maccabaeus, and who was 

 disqualified. The race and the stakes were awarded 

 to the second horse, Orlando, the property of 



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