116 FAMOUS RACINO .AIEN. 



Walking up to Payne, lie said, " Never mind, Mr. Payne, you can 

 afford to wait ; you will get it all back on Memnon next year." 

 •The racing neophyte was not slow to profit by the judgment of 

 the ex-prizefighter. He backed Memnon for the St. Leger of the 

 next 3^ear, and did get his money, or at least a very considerable part 

 of it, back again. Twice Mr. Payne failed only by a hair's breadth, 

 so to speak, in pulling off immense coups. The first was m Lord 

 Lyon's year, when he backed Savernake, who lost the Derby only 

 by the shortest of heads ; the second was in Cremorne's year, 

 when Pell Mell, whom Mr. Payne had backed to win many thou- 

 sands, got up to the winner of the Derby, but failed by a head 

 to get past him. In conjunction with (reneral Peel, jNIr. Payne for 

 some years managed the (llasgow Stud at P^nfield, from which 

 paddocks in later years Sefton was turned out, over whose Derby 

 victory in 1878, Mr. Payne won a large stake — the last race 

 for the Blue Riband he was ever to see. But, perhaps, we 

 may best sum up Mr. Payne's racing career in the words of 

 an able writer in the leading organ of sport, who says : — " It 

 was computed by an old Newmarket trainer, who knew him 

 well, that in times anterior to the introduction of railroads, j\Ir. 

 Payne had spent more money in chaises-and-four than would 

 have sufficed, if capitalised, to yield a competency to a man of 

 moderate desires. The amount that he expended in travelling 

 during his long and active life must have been enormous, and 

 many of his merriest stories and experiences were connected 

 with the turf. He had owned racehorses almost without inter- 

 mission from 1824 to 1878, and yet candour compels us to 

 admit that he never possessed a really first-class animal. He 

 never won the Derby, Oaks, St. Leger, or Two Thousand Ouineas, 

 and his solitary victory with Clementina for the One Thousand, was 

 achieved with a filly that he bought reluctantly, at the instance 

 of ]Mr. Francis Villiers, from the fifth Earl of Jersey. He was 

 under the impression that a fine colt of his, named The Trapper, 

 would have won the Derby, had he not hit his leg just before 

 the race, when quoted at 8 to 1 ; but he was equally sanguine 

 about Grlendower, who could only get the second place in the 

 Two Thousand Guineas. But, considering his long and multi- 

 farious experience, he was never a good judge of racing. His 

 favourite jockey, Flatman, used to be convulsed with merriment 

 as he narrated the conflicting opinions of Mr. Payne and Mr. 

 Greville when they stood together, representing the winning 

 post at the end of a trial, and could not agree as to which 

 horse had won. He took delight in telling anecdotes, partly at 

 his own, partly at his confederate's expense, and none of them 

 was merrier than his account of the trial at Littleton, in 

 which Mr. Greville's Ariosto passed successfully through a severe 

 ordeal. " Let me give you the liver- wing, Payne," said the 

 delighted Clerk of the Council, as they sat down in their trainer 



