27G 



ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



without furnishing a surprise in the defeat of Wheel 

 of Fortune by Euperra in the Great Yorkshire Stakes, 

 worthy of being compared with the most sensational. 

 The Miner's defeat of Blair Athol, Saacebox's victory 

 over Rifleman, and the triumph of Trent when con- 

 ceding 1 lb. to Apology had all invested the "Great 

 Yorkshire" with exciting Turf history. It was a 

 rather curious feature, too, that in two or three of these 

 surprises, though in opposite ways, the Vicar of Ashby- 

 de-la-Launde was concerned. When Blair Athol went 

 under it was to the horse owned by the Lincolnshire 

 parson ; whilst, when Trent won, the " cloth " was 

 beaten, and on each occasion the verdict was reversed 

 at Doncaster, where Trent could only get third to the 

 supposed lame Apology, Leolinus splitting them; and 

 The Miner was unplaced to the pale chestnut, whose 

 white blaze face came looming through the rain on 

 that dreary St. Leger day of 1864. 



When the season of 79 was wound up Osborne 

 was eighth on the list of winning jockeys, the relative 

 state of the poll amongst his confreres in the pigskin 

 being as follows: — 



If giants of the old school of jockeys, like Jim 

 Robinson or Nat Flatman, had been told that the time 



