AND TIMES OF JOHN OSBORNE 211 



by a length and a half in a Free Handicap at New- 

 market Houghton Meeting, this performance clearly 

 proving that his victory over her in the spring 

 was quite untrustworthy. Three "brackets" was her 

 record as a three-year-old in 71, supplementing these 

 the next season by taking several Queen's Plates the 

 following year, in addition to the York Cup, in which 

 she triumphed over Albert Victor by a head, upsetting 

 the odds of 4 to 1 laid on him. Her short but useful 

 career ended in the Queen's Plate at Edinburgh. She 

 broke down so badly in this race that it was impossible 

 to train her thereafter. 



Continuing the tete-a-tete, our hero relates 



" Passing over 70 and 71 as uneventful for 

 the stable, we come to 72, when we had Thorn, 

 Mendip, and Grand Flaneur as two-year-olds. 

 Arthur Briggs, who trained for Mr. R. N. Batt, 

 the owner of Thorn, died in the spring of this 

 year, and Mr. Batt's horses came to Ashgill. We 

 tried Mendip and Grand Flaneur, both good 

 horses. They began coughing before getting to 

 Newcastle, and both were beaten. Grand 

 Flaneur was bred by Mr. 'Sandy' Young, of 

 Richmond, and was got by Saunterer out of Miss 

 Digby, by Touchstone. He belonged to a 

 Scottish gentleman, who died in July, and the 

 horse was sent up for sale at Newmarket. It took 

 five of us to buy him, viz., Mr. Thomas Dawson, 

 my brothers William and Robert, Mr. Harry 

 Bragg, and myself. You ask, ' How was that? ' 

 Well, we all had a fancy for him, and we all joined 

 in buying him, and got him for 50 gs. ! So we 

 each had a ' tenner ' share. We ran him in a 

 race that autumn, the winner to be sold for 



