THE LIFE OF A SPOllTSMAN 



' It is so,' replied Raby ; ' but I approve of the iirincix)le ; 

 it encourages the breeding of powerful thorough-bred horses, 

 which at present are very scarce. I was at Newmarket in the 

 Craven meeting, and I did not see half a dozen horses in 

 training, equal to my weight over a country.' 



Now then for the race. Fourteen horses came to the post, 

 and, after one false start, all got away except one, who reared 

 and fell back upon his rider, but without materially injuring 

 him. Our hero, upon Nameless, got a good place in the ruck, 

 which he kept three parts of the way, riding strictly to orders. 

 In fact, he looked very much like a winner half a mile from 

 home, his hands being quietly down, and the fourth out of six 

 that were in front, with all the rest beaten oti'. 



' Nameless is winning,' roars O'Hara ; ' by the powers, but 

 I shall lose my £200 ! ' 



But Nameless did )iot win. His rider let him loose too soon, 

 and, forgetting the advice of his trainer, to give him the third 

 pull, was beaten a clear length by the two leading horses, who 

 contested the race to a head— the Prince's horse winning by 

 the admirable jockeyship of Lord Solville. 



And now for the scene at the scales. 



' You made but one mistake, sir,' said his trainer ; ' and 

 that was a fatal one. Had you recollected what I told you, 

 and pulled back, or, I should rather say, eased, your horse a 

 little within 200 yards from home, you could not have lost the 

 race. Depend on it, you have the best horse of the field, 

 but you were beaten by being outridden by my Lord and 

 Mr. Burrell, as I feared you would be, if it came to a race, 

 which it did. I never saw finer riding at Newmarket than 

 what my Lord showed us to-day. He took a pull at his horse 

 not a hundred yards from home, and won his race by so doing, 

 for the other horse had the best of it up to that time. Onlj^ 

 think what a thing a pull must be to a horse at the end of two 

 miles, with thirteen stone on his back, and in such a fast-run 

 race as this ! ' 



' I certainly lost the race,' replied our hero, ' by omitting 

 the pull within the distance, according to your directions; 

 but the fact was, my horse appeared to me to be running over 

 his horses, pulling so very hard, that, thinking I had the 

 race in hand, I was unwilling to pull him back, from fear of 

 putting him out of his stroke, or causing him to change his leg.' 



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