EARLY TRIALS. 135 



day,' and that she should not have transmitted her merits even 

 through a single descendant. 



Colonel, now General, Pearson, her owner, liked to know 

 the best or the worst of them at home. ' Let them learn what 

 the prickers mean,' he would say, though he betted, if at all, 

 on a small scale ; and in March, 1866, he and Mr. Sutton l tried 

 Achievement at 10 Ibs. with a seven-year-old mare called Gri- 

 sette, half a mile and a hundred yards, when the young one 

 won in a canter by six lengths ; and on the Tuesday in the 

 Craven Meeting she met her first engagement, the Beacon 

 Stakes, over the last half mile of the B.C. 



' What a certainty ! The best two-year-old I ever tried in 

 my life,' said Mr. Sutton, as the mare, not half extended, swept 

 past the post two lengths in front of Verulam ; a remark made 

 to himself in the excitement of the moment (for Mr. Sutton 

 used to put it down heavily when he fancied them) but which 

 was not lost on at least one bystander, who never failed to 

 follow the mare throughout the whole of that wonderful year 

 wherein she ran thirteen times, beating such horses as Hermit, 

 Friponnier, Marksman, and all that was most gilded of the 

 equine youth of the day, being beaten herself only twice, once 

 when in the Clearwell Stakes she attempted to give 4 Ibs. to 

 Plaudit, and with 9 st. 3 Ibs. on her succumbed by a head, and 

 the second time when, in the Middle Park Plate, The Rake 

 avenged for Mr. Pryor the defeats of Friponnier, Verulam, &c., 

 the mare giving 5 Ibs. and going down by two lengths. In 

 fact, she and The Rake must have been as nearly as possible 

 the same animal. 



General Pearson was a strong man with strong views on 

 most subjects, but his theory of breeding was so awful in its 

 simplicity that it may well be here quoted. He was wont to 

 say, ' By the winner of the Leger out of the winner of the 

 Oaks that's the proper pedigree for a racehorse ! ' 



But we may be permitted to drop back a year or two in order 

 to register the first rehearsals of Lord Lyon, Achievement's 

 1 This was the only private trial Achievement ever had. 



