148 THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



CHAPTER IX. 



PRIAM AND ZINGANEE. 



" Now fitfully by gusts is heard, 

 He's fifth he's sixth he's fourth he's third : 

 And on like an arrowy meteor flame, 

 The stride of the Derby winner came." 



SIR F. H. DOYLE. 



THE years 1829-31 may be said to have seen the 

 Brothers Chifney at their zenith. Up to that 

 time they had kept no private horses of any high 

 stamp, although Pendulum was a fair country runner; 

 whereas in 1828 they brought out Zinganee, in 1830 

 Priam, and in 1831 Emiliana. The latter filly won 

 the Clearwell and the Prendergast Stakes, with 

 Robinson on her, in such style that both Derby and 

 Oaks seemed almost mortgaged to the stable ; and 

 even the quiet Sam is reported to have taken his 

 pipe out of his mouth, and remarked, in one of his 

 unwonted inspirations, that " if he did not win them 

 he would be hung to the nearest tree." The backers 

 of the chesnut at the Corner derived much comfort 

 from this handsome proposal; but during the winter 

 she "got a leg," and was so out of tune on the 

 Derby day, that Sam (who rode 21bs. over-weight) 

 could make nothing out of her, although she re- 

 covered her running in a measure towards the close 

 of the season. The coarse, coffin-headed Margrave, 

 whom she had beaten cleverly in the Clearwell, was 

 fourth, and Beiram fifth. Mr. Petre's Rowton came 



