SIXTY YEARS ON THE TURF 



I really think you ought to have thrown the race- 

 in to the deal." 



Target, I suspect, led Ladas a bit too well in his 

 gallop, for he was allowed to start at 66 to 1 at 

 Epsom, and ran without distinction. 



My task and my readers' labours are now nearing 

 a close. For those w^io have followed me, even in 

 haphazard fashion, I can only extend the thanks of 

 an old man, well past the allotted three score and 

 ten, and trust that if not instruction they have 

 derived some amusement from a perusal of these 

 pages. One incident and one explanation follow, 

 and then the pen is put aside. Most followers of the 

 Turf, and all who are keen on the noble art of boxing, 

 know my young — young to me in years — friend, Mr. 

 T. W. Gale, otherwise " Tommy" to all and sundry. 

 We were together in Edinburgh at the time Mr. W. 

 E. Gladstone was stumping Scotland. In my later 

 time I have frequently passed for that Right Hon. 

 gentleman's " double," though, I suppose, two more 

 mentally and politically opposite men never were 

 bom. As my photograph precedes these pages, 

 readers can judge of any similarity between myself 

 and the " Grand Old Man." Mr. Gale was always 

 insisting on the likeness, and one evening at Waverley 

 Station he and his friends passed the word round 



288 



