DEFEATS ACCOUNTED FOR. 155 



mentioned, become the more perplexing the more they are 

 studied ; and even to the cognoscenti are little better than 

 enigmas. It is not, I feel sure, possible that any one should 

 give a satisfactory solution why the races so opposite in results 

 ended as they did, or say which of the two results was the 

 right one, or if both or neither were correct. 



There are instances again when defeat of highly-tried 

 horses may be accounted for ; as, for example, when Ninirod 

 beat FisJiernian and Marionette at Stockbridge in 1859. The 

 owner of FisJierman gave me £2^ and paid Nivirod's stake 

 (;^io) to make running for him. This the rider of Marionette 

 also knew, and Fisherman and Marionette waited together 

 so far behind that they never could get up and were easily 

 defeated, both being about two stone better than the horse 

 that was enabled to beat them through the circumstances 

 described. A singular case of this sort took place not many 

 years ago at the same spot, when odds of fifty to one were 

 actually laid on a horse which waited such a long way behind 

 his stable companion, a mare, that he could never catch her, 

 and so was defeated by a head. These are mistakes oc- 

 casioned by the want of foresight and common prudence on 

 the part of the jockeys : and who knows how many other 

 mistakes are made by them in a different w^ay in large fields, 

 that are not detected .'' 



I have elsewhere said that horses are not always well 

 though they may appear to be in the most perfect health ; 

 and others in their races meet with disappointnients which if 

 known at the time would account for much of their in-and- 

 out running. But surely there must be at the bottom of all 

 this extraordinary and inconsistent running, some all-powerful 

 cause (which, though unknown, is certain in its effect) that 

 time may help to unravel for us. 



