50 MALTON. 



impossible for them to do any work owing to the 

 long continued storms. But they were soon to 

 be undeceived, for Hawkeye beat a good field on 

 the first day, and was in the pink of condition, 

 and the Malton men put a bit more on their 

 favourite. But when, on the following day, 

 Castor won the Hainton Handicap in a hand 

 canter, they looked ujDon the big handicap as 

 already their own, and girding up their loins 

 carried on the battle with the bookmakers so 

 pluckily that their horse left off" first favourite, 

 and only on two occasions during the last twenty 

 years has so short a jDrice been taken about any 

 horse for the first big handicap of the season. 



But Fulmen, who was by no means handi- 

 capped on his best form, and was meeting the 

 favourite on Tibs, better terms than weio^ht for 

 age, had come back to something like his former 

 self, and beat the favourite, who, by the Avay, had 

 none of the luck of the race, by a length-and-a- 

 half. This was bad enough, but when Bread 

 Knife ultimately went wrong, owing, Mr. I 'Anson 

 thinks, to the inclement weather which was 

 prevalent during the time he was undergoing his 

 preparation, it was disaster indeed. And there 

 is little doubt that this is the true cause of his 

 infirmity ; '•'' for Castor, Avho had been in strong 

 work at the same time, became similarly afiected, 



"'Bread Knife and Castor both took cold, and a severe attack 

 of influenza left them whistlers. 



