AND TIMES OF JOHN OSBORNE 319 



was another that began to race early, and was kept long at it with no 

 bad result, for after a distinguished stay on the Turf she proved 

 valuable at the stud. She won the Champagne at Catterick over three- 

 quarters of a mile as a two-year-old in March. At three years she 

 secured the Derby Handicap from a big field at Liverpool, ran close up 

 with the three placed horses in the Cambridgeshire, when only a head 

 and a neck separated, Nat being the winner. At five years she met with 

 several successes and ran many times, and afterwards at the stud she 

 did well, her best son being probably Mildew. Heaps of others could 

 be qiioted who nourished on the early work given them." 



And there we leave the subject ; but we talk of how, in his early 

 youth, " Mr. John " was sorely tempted to accept a good appointment in 

 India. If he had, what an important chapter in racing history would 

 have remained uncreated of days before railways facilitated the 

 journeys of racehorses ; of a walk with a horse from Middleham to 

 Liverpool at the instigation of his father, who, as all the world knows, 

 was a trainer and owner of horses before him ; of a Liverpool Cup won 

 on Bon-Mot, when the veteran's bodily weight was but five stone ; of 

 long country walks in Yorkshire lanes for pleasure and business com- 

 bined; of the wonders of nature on view in these rambles; of the 

 abodes of the kingfisher, the water wagtail, and other feathered beauties ; 

 of trout streams and northern leafy nooks and crannies ; of the charms 

 of the early morning and the value of seeking rest long before midnight; 

 and so by these stages we come back again to racing. 



I recall what a fright " Mr. John " gave some people at Epsom in 

 1879, when he was so nearly winning the Derby on a 100 to 1 chance. 



" Yes, the history of that race is curious," said Mr. Osborne. " At 

 first we did not intend to run Palmbearer. But he came on rapidly, 

 and won two races at the Doncaster Meeting. Then I wired to his 

 owner, Mr. Trotter, and asked him what I should do, for I knew that 

 that gentleman who owned him had a notion of running him at Epsom. 

 The reply came, 'Send him on to Epsom and let him take his chance.' 

 So Platt" all this time Willie Platt had been sitting in a corner of 

 the railway carriage we occupy " went on to Epsom with the horse, 

 and I returned home to Middleham for the Sunday. Meanwhile I 

 wired again, 'Who would you like to ride him?' and on arriving at 

 Northallerton, on the homeward journey, there was an answer to the 

 effect, 'You, if possible.' I agreed to ride the horse, although I had 

 been engaged to ride Caxtonian, with the proviso that I was not wanted 

 for our own stable. Just before I left Doncaster a gentleman said, 

 ' Are you going to run the horse at Epsom, John 1 ' I did not know 



