92 HORSE-RACING PREVIOUS TO VANS. 



to this horse," exclaimed Buckle to the trainer, " but 

 he is as blind as a bat." No reply was made by 

 the trainer, who, as subsequently became known, 

 lost a heavy stake by backing Middlethorpe for 

 the match, which, in Wizard's condition, it would 

 have been impossible for Middlethorpe to lose had 

 not his jockey fallen off. 



In order to get back his losses, Wizard's trainer 

 persuaded Mr Wilson to make another match be- 

 tween Wizard and Middlethorpe, conceding 2 Ib. 

 to the latter. It came off over the Two Middle 

 Miles in the First October Meeting 1811, and again 

 the dishonest trainer had to put up with a costly 

 defeat. He backed Wizard for enough money to 

 get back all his previous losses. Unfortunately 

 the horse, on whom odds of 7 to 4 were betted at 

 the start, fell lame in the race, and Middlethorpe 

 won by more than a hundred yards. 



In 1836, when James Robinson won the Two 

 Thousand Guineas upon Bay Middleton, and the 

 Portland Handicap upon Sheet-Anchor, the follow- 

 ing remarks were made by a sporting writer at 

 the time : "A very remarkable display of jockey- 

 ship occurred on the part of Jem Robinson at the 

 First Spring Meeting at Newmarket over the 

 last three miles of the B.C. upon Mr Cooke's 

 Sheet-Anchor, when he beat Lord Chesterfield's 

 Hornsea, ridden by William Scott, and Mr Mos- 

 tyn's Birdlime, ridden by T. Lye, in addition to 

 Hevenge, Rioter, Pelops, Tiber, and other starters. 



