102 THE TURF 



the huge weight of 9 st. 12 lbs. The performance 

 had been deemed well-nigh impossible until it was 

 accomplished by that good horse. To go into the 

 history of this race, however, it may be said that 

 Isonomy was very lucky to win ; a colt called The 

 Abbot, who was only just beaten, could not have 

 lost but that his jockey rode with a most total dis- 

 regard of the orders that had been given him ; never- 

 theless the latter was in receipt of a great amount of 

 weight from Isonomy, whose performance would still 

 have been memorable even had he just been beaten. 

 But there is naturally a glamour about success. Be- 

 tween defeat and victory there is only, in many cases, 

 a difference really of a very few inches — a pound or 

 two, if it be calculated in weight. A little luck in the 

 course of the race would have turned the scale ; but 

 the horse that is just beaten is apt to seem a very 

 inferior animal to the horse that just wins. It was 

 supposed that the gallant little Bard would have taken 

 this Cup in 1886, but the lightly-weighted Riversdale, 

 with 6 St. I lb. to carry, just had the best of him, 

 though this defeat scarcely diminished the prestige of 

 The Bard, who carried 8 st. 4 lbs. over this mile and 

 three quarters. Carlton, a good sound stayer, as he 

 showed in the Chester Cup and the Manchester 

 November Handicap, won here in 1887 with the 

 respectable burden of 8 st. 9 lbs., and L'Abbesse 

 de Jouarre, the year after her Oaks victory, was 

 successful with 8 st. 6 lbs. 



