AND TIMES OF JOHN OSBORNE 385 



Lobster, the fornier winning by a neck. On returning 

 to scale, Fagan, who rode Lobster, lodged an objection 

 against Chandley, who had the mount on Warlaby, for 

 boring. The late Sir John Astley and two local 

 stewards adjudicated ; the objection was sustained, and 

 the race awarded to Lobster. A¥hatever boring there 

 might have been, not a single spectator saw it from 

 the stand. To say the least of it, the decision was an 

 unhappy one and created no end of dissatisfaction. 

 When the disqualification became known a furious 

 passage at arms took place between Tom Spence and 

 "Paddy' Drislane. The latter's "Irish blood" was 

 up and he offered to match Warlaby to run Lobster at 

 the same weights, over the same course for a thousand 

 aside, at York, the following week. Both combatants 

 went into the weighing-room in a terrible state of 

 excitement, but Mr. Spence retired, declining to sign 

 the proffered document to bind the match, Drislane 

 being left in possession to fret and fume, to swear all 

 sorts of things against the meeting, the stewards, and 

 ever}'body else. Much sympathy was expressed for the 

 " Grand Old Man " of Middleham, who had ample 

 reason to feel sore at what was a most cruel decision 

 against him. Doubtless his anger was accentuated all 

 the more by losing his mare Jessie in the preceding 

 Yarborough Handicap. 



Of the many stories clinging to James, or " Paddy," 

 Drislane, as he was familiarly dubbed, the following 

 illustrates what a chapter of misfortunes can befall a 

 man " out of luck " within the space of twenty-four 

 hours. The incidents happened in 1875 — the year Mr. 

 Tom Holmes's " rat of a mare " won the Northumber- 

 land Plate from end to end in fetlock-deep going, her 

 jockey, Harry Morgan, in the white jacket of the 

 2c 



