ItACB-EOESES.] 



MODEEN VETERINAKT PEACTICE. 



[EACE-noaSE3. 



subscribers. As the horses were starting, 

 Lord Grasvenor asked the Earl of Abingdon 

 the price of Pot-8-os. "Fifteen hundred 

 guineas," was the reply. " With the chance of 

 the race ?" " Oh, certainly !" The transaction 

 was closed ; and, in a few minutes after, Pot- 

 8-03 and the subscriptions were Lord Grosve- 

 nor's. This horse died at Heme Park, New- 

 market, in 1800, aged twenty-seven. His pro- 

 geny hold a place in our best pedigrees. 



HIGHFLYER. 

 This is one of the most celebrated racers on 

 record. He was never beaten, and never paid 

 forfeit. He was a bay horse, descended from 

 King Herod, and foaled in 1774. Sir Charles 

 Bunbury bred and sold him to Viscount Bo- 

 lingbroke, and he afterwards becarse the pro- 

 perty of Mr. Eichard Tattersall. He flourished 

 between the years l776-'80 ; witnessed the 

 establishment of tlie St. Leger, the Derby, 

 and the Oaks ; and when he was christened, 

 the statesman, Charles James Eox, was present 

 at a festive meeting. Although he never 

 started after five years old, his winnings 

 amounted to upwards of nine thousand three 

 hundred pounds, and his immediate descendants 

 netted about one hundred and seventy thou- 

 sand, four hundred pounds. He died at " High- 

 flyer" Hall, Cambridgeshire, an elegant villa 

 near Ely, the property of Mr. Tattersall, Oc- 

 tober 18th, 1793 aged nineteen years. 



ESCAPE. 



On the 20th of October, 1791, Chifney, the 

 jockey of the Prince of Wales, afterwards 

 George IV., rode the prince's famous horse 

 Escape, by Highflyer, in a sweepstakes, from 

 th.e Ditch-In, a distance of about two miles, 

 against Skylark, Pipator, and Coriander; and 

 the last won. On the following day Chifney 

 rode Escape against the same horses over the 

 Beacon course, a distance of four miles, and 

 won. The betting on this race was four and five 

 to one against Escape. Public rumour stated 

 that the prince had gained a vast sum ; but he 

 gave a flat denial to his having won above four 

 hundred pounds on the race ; and having be- 

 lieved, as it was generally rumoured, that Chif- 

 ney had ridden hooty, a public investigation 

 took place, and the whole resulted in the final 

 retirement of his royal highness from the turf. 



Escape beat the best horses in England, 

 over the course of four miles, and was him- 

 self beaten on the same course, by middling 

 horses. He beat Nimble, one of the speediest 

 liorses of his day, across the Plat, a distance 

 of a mile and a quarter; and was beaten on 

 the same course, in a private trial, by Don 

 Quixote, and Lance — horses, we believe, of in- 

 ferior speed to Nimble — several lengths before 

 half the course was ran, and very easily, and 

 a great way at the end ; yet in another trial, 

 two miles over Epsom, he beat Baronet and 

 Pegasus, giving the former, a horse of his own 

 year, and a winning racer, the enormous weight 

 of twenty pounds. Baronet nevertheless beat 

 him, at the same weight and distance, a few 

 days after, at Ascot. 



Erom a detailed account of the trials and 

 public races of Escape, he clearly appears to 

 have been a most uncertain runner. He seemf; 

 to have possessed capital speed, and even great 

 powers of continuance, when well to run; 

 but to have been materially afiected by the 

 very slight and very usual mistakes in train- 

 ing; to have been subject to have the edge 

 of his speed totally blunted by a few degrees 

 of overwork; and his powers, both of speed 

 and continuance, paralysed and rendered inert, 

 by want of due exercise, or by errors in feed- 

 ing, more particularly near the time of his 

 running. There, also, most assuredly, is a 

 perfect analogy of nervous sensibility, of irri- 

 tability, and vacillation of fibre, between the 

 human animal and the race-horse. As men 

 difler, so do horses ; and the warm-tempered, 

 free, unequal, and nervous Escape, ought to 

 have had for his trainer, his manager, and his 

 jockey, such discriminating persons as could 

 fully appreciate his temperament and disposi- 

 tion. Hard-headed and indiscrimiuating grooms 

 of the common type, could have no real con- 

 ception of the delicacy, vigilance, and care with 

 which such an animal required to be treated. 



As the failure of this horse led to the trial 

 of Chifney, his rider, and the retirement of 

 the Prince of Wales from the turf, this seems 

 the proper place to give the opinions relative 

 to the management of a race-horse, elicited 

 from Chifney at his trial ; and, although 

 they are the sentiments of an uneducated, 

 yet they are those of a practical man, aad, 

 on that account, deserving a place in tbu 



79 



