Lord Darlington and Mr. Thornkill. 137 



Exeter still more, by defeating the much-vaunted 

 Varna in 1829 ; while his friend Robinson, on Lucetta, 

 had an equally noted triumph over her fair stable 

 friend Green Mantle. It was on the strength of the 

 high opinion which they entertained of Merchant that 

 the Chifneys were first tempted to buy Zinganee from 

 Lord Exeter. Sam had of course ridden Merchant in 

 his two-year-old races ; and both he and Will were so 

 convinced that Wheatley had not made enough use of 

 Zinganee when he ran second in the Prendergast, that 

 they soon afterwards made an offer of 1200 /for him. 

 His lordship returned them an answer to the effect 

 that, considering the horse's good engagements, I5oo/. 

 was about his price ; and a cheque for that sum was 

 at once forwarded. Reformer never did much to 

 wipe out his Derby failure, and Sam's principal per- 

 formances consisted in winning a match on him against 

 Don Carlos, and running a dead heat with the same 

 horse in a second match. Ringleader also won a 

 somewhat extraordinary match against Strephon. 

 The horses had run a match before, which had come 

 off easily in favour of Strephon ; but Will Chifney had 

 kept his weather-eye open, and considered that Buckle 

 had so completely out-generalled Will Arnull, that, if 

 Mr. Thornhill would only buy the horse, and put Sam 

 " up," things, as in the Merry-go-round match, would 

 be altered. He was so set in his opinion, that Mr. 

 Thornhill acquiesced, invited Mr. Lechmere Charlton 

 to shoot at Riddlesworth between the Second October 

 and the Houghton meetings, and succeeded in 

 making another match at the same weights and dis- 

 tance. Mr. Charlton jumped at such an apparently 

 foolhardy offer, and was not a little chagrined at the 

 result. 



During the seasons 1830-42, Mr. Thornhill's horses 

 were in the hands of Pettit ; and Connolly had nearly 

 all the mounts above 7st. /Ibs. Still, auld acquain- 

 tance could not be entirely forgotten, and Sam ap- 



