AND TIMES OF JOHN OSBORNE 301 



reason was alleged that he keenly felt some severe and 

 what he considered unjust strictures that had been 

 made upon his actions. He was of a most obstinate 

 nature, and all that he did afterwards arose from his 

 strong and obstinate will. During his twelve years on 

 the Turf, his stud and betting, so it is alleged, cost him 

 £200,000. He gave an enormous price for Fahnouth, 

 who could not win him a selling race, and almost 

 equally unfortunate was his purchase of Prestonpans. 

 Without doubt he allowed the Derby to slip from his 

 possession by not entering that really great horse 

 Isonomy. In all, he won £120,000 over Isonomy, 

 £40,000 of that sum being cleared over his Cambridge- 

 shire victory of 78, when as a three-year-old, csucrjing 

 7 St. 1 lb., he defeated thirty-seven others. Harbinger 

 lost him a small fortune, and the frequent defeats of 

 Fernandez cost him £20,000. He won £40,000 on 

 Playfair's Cambridgeshire, and £27,000 when Sterling 

 won the Liverpool Cup. The largest amount he ever 

 attempted to win was when Sterling was beaten a short 

 head in the Cambridgeshire, on which occasion the first 

 commission he threw into the market was returned at 

 £66,000 to £1000. No j^rice would stop him when he 

 set his mind on buying a yearling, and Mr. Tattersall, 

 who knew his customer well, was wont to say at the 

 sales, " Another hundred to you, Mr. Gretton ? " to 

 which he rarely failed to get the desired nod. 



John Osborne had reason to be proud of his York 

 experiences at the August Meeting on the Knavesmire 

 in 1882, for in addition to Victor Emanuel's win in the 

 " Ebor," the game little horse carried him home in the 

 Queen's Guineas; and Peppermint effected another 

 of the many surprises in the Great Yorkshire Stakes 

 for which that race had long been notorious. Pepper- 



