328 ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



can remember her winning at Bichmond as a 

 four-year-old in '42. It was in the Queen's 

 Plate; she beat a horse belonging to Colonel 

 Cradock. The following year she beat Nutwith 

 the week after he had won the St. Leger for the 

 Cup at Eichmond ; it was a slashing race, too. 



" Coming away from Alice Hawthorn, what 

 next would you consider the best horse of your 

 time? 



"Well, there are so many good horses to 

 remember. There was Van Tromp, The Flying 

 Dutchman, and West Australian. Teddington 

 was a nailing good horse; a thoroughly good 

 horse was Teddington. Job Marson told me 

 when he won the Cup at Doncaster, beating 

 Kingston, that he whipped him farther than 

 ever he whipped a horse in his life. The follow- 

 ing year for the Cup the Empress prize it 

 would be then he fairly wore Stockwell down 

 and beat him a head. That was a fine race; 

 that would be in '53. That was the first time 

 I was at Ascot; I would be a lad twenty years 

 of age then. Teddington was trained by Alec 

 Taylor and belonged to Sir Joseph Hawley, but 

 I rather fancy Sir Joseph had a partner in him, 

 at least so it was said. West Australian was a 

 really good horse. It is hard to say which really 

 was the best. There are a lot of good horses; 

 some say one horse was the best, and some the 

 other. So far as I know personally, Vedette 

 is the second best horse I was ever on. The 

 best two-year-old I ever rode was Exact, by 

 Birdcatcher, out of Equation one of our own 

 at Ashgill. I had nothing to do with Exact 



