PRINCE PALATINE 



avoided speculation. I once fancied that I was 

 almost alone in the belief that Stedfast ought to 

 have won the Derby, but I see a writer in the 

 Sporting Chronicle, for whose opinion I have long 

 entertained the greatest respect, strongly supports 

 this view, and there are others who agree with 

 him. Here, then, we had a practical Derby winner, 

 so to describe the son of Chaucer and Be Sure, 

 against an actual Leger winner, and one, moreover, 

 who had taken the Doncaster race with unsurpass- 

 able if not absolutely unprecedented ease. It was 

 the 7 lb. on which everything turned. At even 

 weights I should have backed Prince Palatine, and 

 should apparently have profited by the transaction, 

 for surely less than 7 lb. would have turned the 

 scale. I seldom talk to present-day jockeys, because 

 some of them tell such contradictory stories, not 

 even giving the same account of a race to the 

 owner and trainer of the horse on whom they 

 have been beaten, and not a few of them really 

 do not seem to know what has happened in 

 the course of the contest. Someone told me, 

 however, that Maher was not particularly pleased 

 with his own performance on Prince Palatine, 

 and thought that if he had adopted a different 

 plan of campaign, waiting a bit longer apparently 

 and coming with one run, he might just have 

 got home." 



58 



