204 RACING. 



The father of William and Samuel Chifney died within the 

 rules of the Fleet Prison in 1807 at the age of fifty-two. He 

 had been the Prince Regent's jockey from 1784 until 1804, 

 when he was arrested by a saddler named Latchford for debt 

 and thrust into prison, from which death set him free two and 

 a half years later. He had ridden the Prince's Escape in those 

 two memorable races in 1792 which made his Royal Highness 

 eschew Newmarket for ever, and had written * Genius Genuine ' 

 a somewhat flimsy performance in 1795. Like himself, his 

 two sons were destined to bite the hard crust of adversity. 

 When * Nimrod ' wrote his Turf article in the ' Quarterly Review ' 

 of 1833, he spoke of 'the houses of the Chifneys at New- 

 market as stylish things. That of Samuel, the renowned 

 jockey, is upon a large scale and very handsomely furnished ; 

 the Duke of Cleveland occupied apartments in it for several 

 years during the meetings. That of William Chifney, the 

 trainer, is still larger, and perhaps, barring Crockford's, the 

 best in Newmaket.' Such was the text as it came from ' Nim- 

 rod's ' pen ; but in a note appended at the foot of the page 

 occur the following melancholy words : ' We are sorry to have 

 to state that a reverse of fortune has been the lot of the 

 Chifneys, and that the houses mentioned above are in the 

 hands of their creditors.' Samuel the jockey died at Brighton, 

 a pensioner upon Frank Butler, his nephew, and is buried in 

 Hove churchyard; William died in 1862, as we have already 

 stated, in very poor circumstances. Both brothers were far 

 too easy-going and careless in money matters : but the end of 

 William, who was as industrious and active as Sam was the 

 reverse, should have been very different. It was necessary for 

 a horse to have limbs of iron and a constitution a toute epreuve 

 to stand William Chifney's training ; but those able, like Priam 

 and Zinganee, to endure it seldom failed to stay home. It was 

 on the model of the Chifneys that old John B. Day, and his 

 two sons John Day and William Day, laid down the rules which 

 guided them in their racing operations, and in his useful 

 and instructive work, * The Racehorse in Training,' the latter 



