EARLY TRIALS. 131 



4 lbs., beat Chopette, 8 st. 12 lbs., half a length tor second place 

 to Black Stocking in a free handicap ; allow 2 lbs. for this beat- 

 ing, and the handicap would stand : 



so that to complete the argument Ecossais must have been as 

 good as Luisette at 12 lbs. But without the actual details of 

 the trial, which are not forthcoming, this must needs be all 

 guesswork, and it is open to the ingenuity of students to solve 

 the problem in some other manner, though an ex post facto 

 argument from the running of Prince Charlie and Luisette in 

 the Cheveley Stakes at the July Meeting, 1873, must be barred ; 

 for Ecossais had by that time practically walked over for the 

 New Stakes at Ascot, and for the July Stakes ; they laid six to 

 four on for the one and six to one on for the other, and he won 

 each time in a hack canter. 



It is beyond dispute that, though Ecossais could not stay, 

 he ripened into one of the fastest sprinters of his time, and was 

 a member of the famous tri-equirate — Trappist and Lollypop 

 were the other two — who, under the guidance of Archer, Cus- 

 tance, and J. Goater, used to go about the country taking each 

 other's numbers down to the alternate joy and despair of their 

 respective admirers. It was not entirely a dummy rubber ; for 

 Lowlander had speed enough to enable him every now and then 

 to cut in with such first-class company, though seven furlongs 

 or a mile was perhaps his best course ; and it was just before 

 a brush with this horse at Newmarket, wherein Ecossais showed 

 himself really in form, that, in the middle of September 1876, 

 Chamant, then two years old, was tried with him at 10 lbs., 

 and beat him by six lengths ! After this Jennings must have 

 been able to look on with calm assurance at the races for the 

 Middle Park and Dewhurst Plates. 



K 2 



