EARLY TRIALS. 



145 



on March 14 which gave the Heath House people the very 

 mild confidence which they expressed by taking 5 to i — about 

 a chance for which subsequent knowledge showed there could 

 be no mathematical expression. 



T.Y.C. 



Won by three lengths all out, third three lengths off, Frances 

 beat Judith a length, and the Griselda, fitly afterwards 

 named Verdigris, has 'bad 'written against her name, though 

 she turned out very smart indeed, and far in front of any of 

 this lot except the winner ; but she met with an accident, soon 

 after winning the Hyde Park Plate at Epsom, and was sent to the 

 stud the following year. Maiden Belle, though not much of a 

 public performer, came to be reckoned the best trial horse at 

 Newmarket, and the form that could get within three lengths 

 of her at 16 lbs. less than weight for age might have given the 

 Duke's allies more confidence than it appears to have done. 



Donovan, of course, won the race at Lincoln easily, beat- 

 ing ten others, of which Leap Year was the favourite, and 

 Lord George the only one really worth his keep. 



Perhaps the most curious feature in the private life of 

 Donovan as a two-year-old was his comparatively slight supe- 

 riority over Melanion, a bay colt of the same age by Hermit — 

 Atalanta, also the property of the Duke of Portland ; unless 

 we reverse the medal and wonder how an animal once so little 

 inferior to Donovan should have made no mark worth noticing 

 in the calendar. 



