THREE- YEAR-OLDS. 



161 



These are the details : 



One mile and a half. 



Won by two lengths ; four lengths between second and 

 third ; two lengths between third and fourth. 



Here again is a flying in the face of the weight-for-age 

 theory, for the three-year-old Morna is set to give 7 Ibs. to the 

 four-year-old Lictor, which, by the way, she fails to do by two 

 lengths ; but we fancy that Lictor's staying powers (he won the 

 Liverpool Cup in the autumn of that year carrying 7 st., with 

 fourteen other runners) had not then been discovered. At any 

 rate, he had, during that spring, only competed over short 

 distances, and his one win had been achieved on the Bretby 

 Stakes Course, where he gave 4 Ibs. to the aged Historian. 



On the other hand, Blue Gown is asked to give no less than 

 2 st. 3 Ibs. to Morna, or 12 Ibs. more than weight for age, but 

 it must be remembered that the mares w r ere supposed to be 

 exceptionally bad that year, and that a Derby winner is not an 

 ordinary trial horse ; yet Pero Gomez was asked to do a great 

 thing with him, viz. to beat him at i61bs., or 3 Ibs. less than 

 weight for age. Sir Joseph evidently considered that his Derby 

 colt would want to be fully a stone better than his Oaks filly, 

 and as a matter of fact Pero Gomez was lolbs. better than 

 Morna ; for, as we have said, the trial was all wrong, or wrong 

 so far as the first two were concerned. Even unto this day 

 Porter has not ceased to wonder what Wells and Adams could 

 have been about on the two cracks, but supposes that they 

 must have been watching each other, and have allowed the 

 stable lads on Morna and Lictor to slip away from them. It 

 was a curious coincidence, and a piece of exasperatingly bad 



M 



