PREFACE IX 



yet can hold more than his own against the feathers and 

 middleweights of the stable, with a nerve as cool and 

 unruffled as it was in the far-distant days of Vedette, 

 who gave him his first Two Thousand as far back as 

 1857. John Osborne is quite a parallel to the famous 

 Frank Buckle, whose career ended on 5th November, 

 1831, on the very corresponding day that he began as a 

 jockey fifty years before. Buckle's firmness of nerve and 

 great faith in his skill and resources as a horseman were 

 as unimpaired at the end as they were at the outset of 

 his career. He remained four years longer before the 

 public as a jockey than did our hero, but as against that 

 John Osborne is yet actively pursuing his profession as 

 a trainer. In the quadruple capacities of jockey, 

 trainer, owner, and breeder of thoroughbreds, John 

 Osborne's record is unexampled in the history of the 

 Turf. 



The main idea of this work has been to cast John 

 Osborne as the leading actor, connecting him more or 

 less with many figures, both human and equine, which 

 have moved along with him in the great Turf drama 

 played during the major part of this century. 



J. B. RADCLIFFE 



NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE 

 June 7, 1900 



