KANGAROO. 133 



Lord Hastings and other patrons of the Danebury 

 stable backed very heavily, taking 7 to 4 to thou- 

 sands of pounds. 



Kangaroo was a very powerful muscular horse, 

 and appeared to those who eyed him superficially 

 to be not half-trained when he won at New- 

 market. When I delivered the horse to John 

 Day, he told me that he should give him a couple 

 of good sweats, and try him before he ran for the 

 Two Thousand, distant a fortnight from that day. 

 John Day added that by so doing he expected to 

 improve Kangaroo a stone in a fortnight. My 

 reply was that I doubted whether he or any one 

 else could make the horse an ounce better than 

 he was that day. In addition to severe daily 

 gallops, such as Danebury has always been famous 

 for, Kangaroo had two long and distressing sweats, 

 and when tried was a worse horse by two stone 

 than when he beat Koenig and a large field so 

 easily. In point of fact, Kangaroo never won 

 another race, although he ran at last in very 

 inferior company. He was practically ruined by 

 an injudicious attempt to make him better. 



Precisely the same thing happened in 1855 with 

 Oulston, a fine upstanding colt, son of Melbourne 

 and Alice Hawthorne. Oulston did not start for 

 the Derby which Wild Dayrell won, and for which, 

 in point of fact, Oulston was not trained. He was 

 brought out by Mr Pad wick, his owner, to run 

 for the Queen's Vase at Ascot in the expectation 



