AND TIMES OF JOHN OSBORNE 83 



many other trainers who have had a Derby horse of note 

 under his charge, old William I'Anson had a most 

 anxious time of it in the preparation of Blair Athol. 

 As a two-year-old he only came to hand in the autumn, 

 and with a schoolmi stress like game old Caller Ou in 

 the stable, the trainer was plainly and irresistibly told 

 what a gem he had in Stockwell's son. The secret was 

 well kept by " Old William " and Jackson. But in the 

 spring of 1864, the colt then being a three-year-old, and 

 never yet having had his eyes opened on a public race- 

 course, it was found that he was subject to occasional 

 traits of lameness. The most careful examination by 

 the trainer for the cause was fruitless. Blair Athol 

 missed his engagement in the Two Thousand Guineas. 

 Even in the early interval between the Rowley Mile 

 race and its great connecting link at Epsom, Blair 

 Athol's mysterious defect could not be accounted for. 

 But the secret at last oozed out, and the miscreant 

 discovered. A great friend of old William I'Anson was 

 the late Mr. James Colpitts, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, 

 who will be familiar to many of the " old school " as 

 having kept for many years the hotel connected with 

 the grand stand in the days when Newcastle races were 

 held on the Town Moor, prior to their transfer to 

 Gosforth Park, now one of the grandest racing arenas in 

 the kingdom. It so happened in the spring of '64 that 

 Mr. Colpitts had been on a visit to his old trainer- 

 friend at Malton. He went into a barber's shop in the 

 Yorkshire town, and quite by accident overheard a con- 

 versation between a stable lad (whose duty it was to 

 look after Blair Athol) and the barber. The lad, 

 evidently bearing some resentment against his master, 

 openly avowed that "No Blair Athol will win the 

 Derby." Then he went on to state how he frequently 



