AND TIMES OF JOHN OSBORNE 339 



Gosforth racecourse, evidently desirous of giving his 

 northern tenantry a treat, sent St. Simon to run for 

 the Gold Cup. His only opponent was Mr. Perkins' 

 good horse, Chiselhurst, ridden by Osborne, who gave 

 the Duke's flier such a bustling up to the distance on the 

 sun-baked ground as to necessitate his early retirement 

 to the stud, for he was hardly a sound horse thereafter. 

 At Eedcar, on Mr. Jardine's Beauchamp, he dead- 

 heated with Watts on Lord Zetland's Pinzon, and went 

 on to York to dead-heat again in a match for " twenty- 

 four dozen of champagne," the parties to it being Lord 

 Durham's four-year-old Courtier and Mr. Vyner's 

 four-year-old Fraga, John on the latter, and Jim 

 Snowden, his old antagonist in many a tussle, on the 

 former. A dainty trimming to the card was this event, 

 smacking somewhat of after-dinner causerie between 

 the Peer and the Commoner, and more spicy seeing that 

 the contracting parties were two sportsmen whose bona 

 fides were beyond suspicion, a remark which applied 

 with equal truth to the two celebrated horsemen who 

 steered the respective animals. It was generally 

 calculated that, had the distance been five instead of 

 six furlongs, Fraga would have had a comparatively 

 easy task, but the extra furlong was assumed to discount 

 her chance, there being doubts about her stamina. Still, 

 the betting indicated a " near thing," the fielders, work- 

 ing for small profit, offering to take 11 to 10, which 

 odds were offered on Fraga, but before the flag fell a 

 reaction set in favourable to Courtier, on whom a shade 

 of odds was eventually laid. Fraga came away with a 

 clear lead until nearing the distance, where Courtier 

 joined issue, and getting his head in front at the stand 

 to all intents and purposes there appeared to have won 

 his race, and so thought Jim Snowden, too, as he began 



