CHASING AND RACING 135 



sufferer myself. I had a little horse called Armada * 

 in the Great Metropolitan. He had won the Tattersall 

 Sale Stakes at Newmarket — not a selling race, but one 

 for three-year-olds bought as yearlings at Messrs. 

 TattersalFs auctions. Thus he incurred a 51b. penalty 

 at Epsom. I tried him to be an out and out stayer, so 

 helped myself to ;^3300 to ;/^ 100 against him, and ;£8oo 

 to ;^ioo, in another hand — a doubtful one — for a place. 



Allsopp f was up. As soon as the big field was round 

 Tattenham, and in the straight, my green jacket was 

 seen to be well in front, but not on the rails. Armada's 

 victory seemed assured, as he had two lengths to the 

 good at the distance, where to my horror, he was 

 allowed to slacken off ! No doubt his jockey thought 

 he was winning in a canter, and did not want to make 

 an exhibition of him. Fatal error I All of a sudden 

 Dick Chaloner, on the Duke of Beaufort's Parlington, 

 dropped from the clouds and slipped up on the rails. 

 Before Allsopp could get Armada going again, the 

 other had beaten him a head ! Cruel luck this ! 

 And I did not even get my place money, for my 

 " commission agents " had come to the conclusion 

 that it was time they " did a guy." They certainly 

 did me 1 



Only once in my life have I ridden a dead heat, and 

 it was Weasel who presented me with the record. 



* Armada br. c. by Fernandez (brother to Isonomy) — Sota di 

 Roma by Pero Gomez. 



f Allsopp was only a lad at that time. 



