SIXTY YEARS ON THE TURF 



out to be my man, Quince, and he considerably- 

 surprised me by sending a telegram containing the 

 correct result to my London address.] The gallop 

 was in the highest degree satisfactory, and read the 

 better after Missive, who had been beaten a long 

 way, headed a respectable field at the Chester 

 Autumn Meeting for the Handicap Stakes, a mile 

 and seven furlongs affair. We then agreed to have 

 4000 so vs. on Mr. Sykes for the Cesarewitch, and 

 Mr. Clark wished immediately to commence betting, 

 the race being fixed for the following week. At 

 that time it was easy to back a horse from Saturday 

 to Monday night to win any sum in reason — say a 

 hundred thousand pounds — without exhausting the 

 market. Consequently, the day being Wednesday, 

 I urged that nothing should be done till the end of 

 the week, especially as no news of the horse's well 

 or ill being had reached us at Chester. We met at 

 Mr. Clark's chambers in London on the Friday 

 morning', to arrang-e the details of the financial 

 campaign. Some twenty letters were awaiting him, 

 and among them three communications from the 

 trainer of Mr. Sykes — saying, first, that the horse 

 was not himself ; second, that he was no better ; 

 and, third, he was still bad. We were a very 

 flabbergasted party ; also an indignant one, inas- 

 much as the trainer had been told to write to 



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