WHAT PRETTY POLLY WAS 



can, for it is the worst course imaginable for him." 

 And so it appeared, for he could not act at any part of 

 the journey, sprawling down the hill. Well, that was 

 a mistake, but nothing would shake me in the idea that 

 Polymelus was one of the best horses I had ever seen. 

 He came up for sale in the autumn, and his late owner 

 had deputed someone to look after his interests. 

 They thought that four thousand guineas would be a 

 sufficient maximum to give to their bidder to buy him 

 in. He reached this sum, and then there was hesitancy, 

 and the amateur agent was nonplussed as to what 

 to do. In the meantime, the bidding proceeding 

 quickly, Mr Sol Joel secured this truly beautiful horse 

 for, I think, four thousand three hundred guineas. 



Things were not going too well when I had a dash 

 on him for the Prince Edward Handicap, giving the 

 advice in the Express that he was a horse to gamble 

 on. He was just beaten by the three-year-old, Aurina. 

 His weight in the Duke of York Stakes, the next event 

 he ran in, was eight stone three, and he had eight 

 stone in the Cambridgeshire. The Kempton Race was 

 the first he figured in with the new colours, the pink 

 and green of Mr S. B. Joel. Baker was very useful in 

 advising Charles Peck as to what he knew about the 

 horse. Ready was more desirable than ever in these 

 autumn days, but I managed to take home a couple 

 of hundred profit on Duke of York Stakes day. 

 Directly Polymelus was weighed in I begged a man 

 I knew to go in and get five thousand to four hundred 

 about the horse for the Cambridgeshire. He had 

 incurred a ten-pound penalty, which brought his 

 weight up to eight stone ten. But what did it matter 

 with a horse like that ; a few pounds would make no 

 matter. 



While 1906 was a lucky year, still it was a terrible 



