244 CHASING AND RACING 



Newmarket was accountable for by the state of the 

 " going " on that occasion ; for it was adamantine, 

 and one could hardly see the field for dust as they 

 ran. 



" Mr. Jersey " was an enthusiast in racing as 

 she was in other matters. Whatever her fair hand 

 found to do she did it with all her might, and did it 

 well. She had an idea, and a very well-founded one to 

 boot, that our native racing stock was, taken as a whole, 

 deficient in that all important quality stamina ; that 

 in this respect it was, in fact, degenerate. She had 

 marked the constant and remarkable success of the 

 Musket blood in the Antipodes, and determined to 

 import some of it, with a view to an improvement in 

 our native productions. Her first venture was a 

 highly successful one ; for when Merman had become 

 acclimatized he became a power in the land, for, after 

 winning the Caesarewitch of 1897 (for which he was 

 boldly backed by his owner and her friends, including 

 the writer), he put a seal on his fame by carrying off 

 the Ascot Gold Cup two years later. In the mean- 

 time he had been rather unluckily beaten in the 

 Chester Cup of 1898, which was won by a lightly- 

 burdened outsider named Up Guards ; the peculiari- 

 ties of the cramped Chester Course and the short run 

 in being unfavourable to such a far-striding horse as 

 the "Aussie. 11 



Though not what might be considered a " picture 

 horse," Merman was the possessor of some outstanding 



