AND TIMES OF JOHN OSBORNE 125 



got to the distance, away came The Wizard, steaming 

 on like the Great Eastern without an engineer, 

 Johnnie Osborne in vain trying to steady him, and ' The 

 Wizard in a canter' broke from thousands of voices. 

 But the race is not always to the swift, and a few strides 

 from home, ' Johnnie ' raising his hands to ease him, his 

 head went up, and Fordham, who had almost hopelessly 

 persevered with his horse, pounced on him like a 

 ' Whicher,' and won by a head. Great must have been 

 the delight of the ring when the American's number 

 went up, for many of them had stood an extra shot 

 against him, believing he could not stay, and all the 

 annals of the Humane Society do not present so narrow 

 an escape as they had from the old man's favourite. 

 ' When John Scott's fond, he is bad to oppose,' has 

 always been an axiom, and we have heard the last of 

 The Wizard. Of Starke Mr. Ten Broeck may really be 

 proud, as he is a real genuine good horse, and bore his 

 flogging like a sailor going round the fleet." 



As a contemporary of John Osborne in the pigskin, 

 George Fordham is worthy of a few inches' space 

 in our gallery of jockeys. Fordham's ugly seat was 

 always made worse in appearance by the careless manner 

 he adopted in going to the post, and an incurable habit 

 he had of shrugging his shoulders. His eminence and 

 almost phenomenal success as a jockey were as much 

 due to his talents as to his good fortune. It has been 

 truly said that without the adventitious aid of the 

 fickle goddess, the highest accomplishments in horse- 

 manship are good for nothing. When he had established 

 a reputation, Fordham naturally had a choice of good 

 mounts. He had good hands, which were only surpassed 

 by his expertness in gammoning in a race. His 

 " kidding,' 5 to use a slang phrase, gained him " The- 



