ST AMANT'S DERBY 



would have done any better; Mr Thursby has always 

 been in a class by himself among amateur riders. St 

 Amant had previously won the Two Thousand Guineas 

 from John o' Gaunt and Henry the First. Cannon 

 also told me on the first day at Doncaster that he 

 thought he should take the triple crown, in fact, he 

 was very confident of winning the St Leger. I said 

 to him : " Cannon, you will never beat Pretty Polly in a 

 creation of cats. Don't get it into your head that you 

 will." I couldn't afford to back the mare, as she was 

 at five to two on, but got seven to one about Henry 

 the First, one, two, three in a field of six, and later 

 got fifty to ten, one, two. He ran second, starting at 

 fifty to one for a win. St Amant was not in the first 

 three, he wouldn't have it. Certainly he won the 

 Jockey Club Stakes the following year, but this was 

 through his having a course of schooling over hurdles. 

 This was the idea of young Tom Cannon, and it was 

 the greatest feather in his cap. I remember getting 

 a nice price about him for the race, something about 

 ten to one if I remember correctly, and it made that 

 evening in Newmarket tolerable. He was a peculiar 

 horse, and better than the majority may have con- 

 sidered him. Although the year was not a remarkable 

 one bar Pretty Polly, it was much above the average. 

 When St Amant won the Derby Mr Rothschild gave 

 away a certain number of souvenir match-boxes to 

 commemorate the victory of his horse, and I am the 

 fortunate possessor of one of them ; he was very 

 gratified at the victory. That was the year when the 

 thunderstorm raged when the horses were at the post. 

 Mr Edmond Blanc had sent over Gouvernant to run, 

 and I took the journey to Boulogne to see him arrive 

 and journeyed across the Channel with him. Every- 

 thing was in his favour. I saw him get out of his box 



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