154 THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



far beyond the Swinley post, Zinganee lying off 

 about seventh, and Wheatley on Mameluke, watch- 

 ing him so jealously that whenever Sam eased his 

 horse for a few strides, he instantly followed suit. 

 Three-quarters of a mile from home, the Windsor and 

 Belvoir Castle chances were quite out, aud, as Will 

 Chifney had foreshadowed in his prophetic note to 

 Lord Darlington, Zinganee suddenly went through 

 his horses like a minie-ball, Mameluke still hanging 

 on to his quarters until half way up, when he could 

 live the pace no longer, and Sam landed the Bretby 

 colours amid loud shouts enough to scare every 

 faun and dryad from the shade of Herne Oak for 

 life a clever first by two lengths. The Chifney s 

 won about 1,200 on the race, and took 500 of "it 

 at 2J to 1 through Mr. Greville, just before starting. 

 Mameluke's running did not surprise his friends, as 

 he was always suspected to be rather a jade over a 

 distance of ground. His temper had been perfect 

 when he was in Tiny Edwards' s hands ; but it had 

 been sadly ruined, as Bloomsbury's was in after* 

 years, during his St. Leger training at Hambleton. 

 After his gallops on the Moor, he had been allowed 

 to walk about among the horses which were grazing 

 there, until at last he politely took to noticing them, 

 and rearing whenever he passed one. This habit 

 utterly nullified his training ; and when he came to 

 the St. Leger post, among a very large field of 

 horses, he could hardly be got to face it at all. By 

 the aid of Mr. Gully's cart-whip and Sam Chifney's 

 whalebone, he did get off at the eleventh hour of 

 asking, but he was nearly one hundred yards behind 

 Matilda ; bad as the mare was, it was ' ' her day/' 

 and he could not, with all Sam's nursing, give 51bs. 

 and hold his own, when he crept up to her within 

 the distance-post. Robinson always entertained the 

 highest idea of Mameluke before the Derby, while 

 Tiny Edwards (who was always one for quick work) 



