FAMOUS HORSES 87 



the better of the two subsequent running, both in the 

 St, Leger and in the Lancashire Plate, most unmistak- 

 ably demonstrated. Orme was sufficiently recovered 

 by July to take part in the Eclipse Stakes, which he 

 won, his victory producing a great burst of enthusiasm ; 

 but in the St. Lesfer, La Fleche, who had meantime 

 narrowly escaped defeat in the Oaks from a moderate 

 mare called The Smew, thus strengthening the 

 supposition that she was not herself at Epsom, won 

 with considerable ease, Orme never looking in the 

 least dangrerous from start to finish. There was an 

 Orme party and a La Fleche party, between whom 

 feeling ran very high, each eulogising the animal of its 

 choice and endeavouring to depreciate the perform- 

 ances of the other. The truth appears to be that over 

 a mile the colt would have beaten the filly ; but Orme 

 assuredly did not stay, and in contests of a longer 

 distance the filly would have had no difficulty in 

 •defeating- the colt. She ran in all sorts of races, some 

 of which are mentioned in the chapter on 

 " Handicaps." Whether she will prove worth the 

 money (12,600 guineas) paid for her at the sale of her 

 late owner's horses is, of course, a question for the 

 future. Her daughter, La Veine, though a mere pony, 

 won a race in the autumn of 1897. 



Whilst La Fleche and Orme were running their 

 three-year-old races, a two-year-old named Isinglass 

 was gradually making a reputation which was some- 

 what grudgingly accorded him. Racegoers were 



