AND TIMES OF JOHN OSBORNE 73 



value of £955, not to speak of £2800 in bets. 

 Goldfinder won him more than £3000 in the 

 Shrewsbury HandicaiD. Subsequently he won at 

 Wolverhampton with the same horse as much as the 

 Ring would let him. But one of his greatest coiifs 

 was at Warwick, where Goldfinder won him £900 in 

 stakes and £6000 in bets. His star was still in the 

 ascendant at Manchester a fortnight later, when he had 

 a big haul over his mare Trickstress, and landed the 

 Great Shrewsbury Autumn Handicap with Doubt. On 

 his own horses the recreant won heaps of money, but his 

 inordinate passion for gambling led him to back other 

 people's. He fell a prey to the astute and deep- 

 designing bookmakers, and he came under the clutches 

 of the ' sixty per shent ' merchants as his fortunes left 

 him. The bookmakers took advantage of him by laying 

 him less than the market price, and it being known at 

 times he was short of monev, his commissioners would 

 frequently insist on hedging a great portion of the bets 

 they had invested for him. In 1852 Doubt did him 

 service, but his success was counterbalanced by the 

 successive defeats of Goldfinder at Liverpool, Notting- 

 ham, and Leamington. He now became seriously 

 embarrassed in his finances. He had backed Goldfinder 

 for enormous sums, and was so enraged at losing that he 

 attributed the cause to the jockey and refused to let him 

 ride for him any longer. A more unfounded case for 

 suspicion never arose on the Turf, as it was evident to 

 all racing men the horse was sore, and it was asking 

 him too much to come out within so short a period for 

 so many races. 



" The following year (1853) he brought off a great 

 couf — the greatest he ever landed during his 

 sensational career — by winning the Chester Cup, long 



