AND TIMES OF JOHN OSBORNE 41J 



The following interesting particulars concerning Osborne's long 

 connection with the turf are taken from the Daily Telegraph : — 



It is thirty-eight years since the late General Anson — at that 

 time dictator and Lord Paramount of John Scott's powerful training 

 stable at Whitewall, near Malton, in Yorkshire — stood in the Jockey 

 Club stand upon Epsom racecourse as the horses took their preliminary 

 canters just before the race for the Derby Stakes in 1853. General 

 Anson had a heavy book on the race, and stood to lose large sums by 

 more than one starter that he had not backed. As he gazed with some 

 anxiety upon the strip of greensward stretched out before him, a dark 

 brown colt named Honeywood, by Sweetmeat, galloped by, whose action 

 seemed the very poetry of motion. The horse's coat shone, as Byron 

 says, "like stars on the sea," and he was ridden by a young jockey 

 whose lithe and elastic body swayed in harmonious unison with the 

 stride of his mount. No finer judge of a racehorse ever lived than the 

 owner of Attila, The Princess, and lago ; and the effect produced upon 

 him by Honeywood's look and action was manifestly depicted upon his 

 countenance. He stood a very large sum against the representative of 

 the Ashgill stable as Honeywood, trained by John Osborne, sen., and 

 ridden by John Osborne, jun., galloped by. "What would you do in 

 my circumstances 1 " asked the General of the companion and friend by 

 his side. It should be added that Honeywood was greatly fancied by 

 old John Osborne, who had backed him heavily through Mr. George 

 Payne, and his price just before the Derby was seven to one offered. 

 At that critical instant another animal — certainly unsurpassed, and, in 

 the opinion of many, never equalled by any of his predecessors or 

 successors as Derby winners — caught the attention of General Anson 

 and of his deeply interested companion. It may, perhaps, be remembered 

 by some of the few survivors who were present at the Derby of 1853 

 that in the preliminary canter Frank Butler sent Mr. Bowes's magnificent 

 colt. West Australian, along at his topmost speed. No figurative 

 description of the noblest of quadrupeds could have done justice to the 

 way in which West Australian went on that memorable day. Turning 

 to the General, the companion by his side — who was none other than 

 the late Mr. J. R. Ives — exclaimed, " I should stand upon that horse in 

 your own stable which has just galloped by and forget that there is 

 another in the race." 



The words were prophetic, and in a few minutes the last Derby that 

 General Anson ever saw was over. In it the Ashgill colt, Honeywood, 

 was beaten a long way by West Australian, and almost the only living 

 memento left of the race is the rider of Honeywood. Scarcely a Derby 



