MR SOL JOEL'S ANXIETY 



series of mischances. I have told you how Spearmint 

 was one of them and Polymelus the other foolishness — 

 a missed chance. There was credit then, and plenty of 

 ready, so why I couldn't take five hundred to forty — 

 well after that I ought to take a " minder " and nurse 

 with me. A wretched two hundred to twenty was 

 all I got about Cambridgeshire, and then he began to 

 shorten and I wouldn't have another copper on him, 

 although esteeming his chance as something like a 

 certainty. I was with Mr Sol Joel in the paddock 

 before the race. He told me that he had just taken 

 two thousand two hundred to two thousand more — 

 really he had backed Polymelus to win him over 

 sixty thousand pounds. He was in the corner of the 

 paddock, and told me he had just left Maher, who told 

 him not to be worried in the slightest until just below 

 the distance — about three hundred yards from home. 

 " That's where I shall come away," said Danny to me. 

 "Well," added Mr Joel, "I hope to God he does; I 

 think he'll win, in fact I am sure he will ; at the same 

 time it's a big thing I have on." Personally I had no 

 doubt whatever that Polymelus was one of the best 

 things ever seen, and so he proved, for Danny did just 

 as he had said he would. 



While on the topic of 1906 the success of Velocity 

 in the Doncaster Cup was one of those anticipated 

 certainties which mark a period in the season where 

 things go with a bang. I thought he would win, but 

 when I looked over the rails and saw him in the parade 

 he had the stamp on him of a certainty, and some of the 

 Troutbeck winnings in the St Leger — another nap — 

 had to be played up on him. What a great horse he 

 was, and what a pity he died ! As a three-year-old 

 three months before the race he nearly became the 

 property of Sir Ernest Cochrane. He was staying in 



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