AND TIMES OF JOHN OSBORNE 333 



flash riding in going after him." Platt carried out his 

 orders to the letter, and after that performance there 

 were plenty to back the " Butcher Boy." Mr. Foy was 

 a great believer in John Osborne, who held a high 

 opinion of Platt as a jockey, believing, as he did, there 

 was no jockey at that time could give him 3 Ibs. " I 

 have known him win races," added Platt's master, " on 

 some horses that some of the 'crack 5 jockeys have 

 failed on." Poor George Fordham, then in fast-failing 

 health, was on the Heath that Two Thousand after- 

 noon, but he was too ill to wait and see Scot Free win. 

 Indeed, it was an effort for him to get to Newmarket 

 .at all. Ill as he was, he made an attempt to oblige his 

 old friend, Mr. Foy, and ride Scot Free, but he found 

 it was useless and he told him it would only impair 

 the colt's chance if he attempted, being so weak that 

 lie did not feel certain of keeping his seat in the 

 saddle. 



Some idea was entertained by the Osbornes that 

 the home-bred and gigantic Waterford by Wild Oats, 

 out of Piercy by Atherstone, ridden by John himself, 

 might win the Derby of this year, but he could only 

 run fourth to the dead-heaters, St. Gatien and 

 Harvester. The reader need hardly be told that St. 

 Gatien, with whom John Osborne had made a successful 

 acquaintance at Manchester in the John o' Gaunt Plate 

 the previous season, was owned by Mr. "Jack" 

 Hammond, who achieved a distinction in the " blue 

 riband" denied to wealthy men like Lord Derby, 

 Lord Glasgow, and others of blue blood, whose expendi- 

 ture of hundreds of thousands of pounds in the object 

 had been unavailing. 



Mr. John Hammond, as one of the actors in our 

 Turf drama, is fairly entitled to make his bow to our 



