5. ASHGBLL; OR, THE LIFE 



occasions. One of his most notable efforts was winning 

 the Newcastle Handicap at Gosforth Park on Mr. 

 Vyners Alb, the race producing a grand set-to between 

 him and Jim Snowden, who had the leg-up on Mr. 

 F. \V~. Lambton's Mischief. At the distance, Mischief 

 was slightly in front of Ingoldis and Alb, on whom 

 John was waiting patiently, creeping up. It was a 

 desperate finish amongst the trio, but Osborne, with 

 one of his Chifney rushes in the last few strides, 

 squeezed Alb through on the rails and won on the post 

 by a head from Mischief, who beat Ingoldis a neck in 

 their places. This was just a finish characteristic of 

 " The Pusher." The veteran was all over smiles when 

 he came back to the paddock- Even the usually unim- 

 pressionable face of Mr. Vyner himself did not fail to 

 show the satisfaction which he felt, most probably as 

 much for the jockey as he did for his beautiful mare. 



Mr. Vyner, who rarely had more than half a dozen 

 horses in training, had reason to be satisfied with his 

 good fortune at this period of his career. He had won, 

 in about a year, the St. Leger with The lambkin, the 

 Cesarewitch and the Cambridgeshire, and a North- 

 umberland Plate, to say nothing of the many races 

 which Hagioscope gained for him ; while few men ever 

 owned a better horse than 



Our hero was in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and 

 had entered upon his forty-third as a professional horse- 

 man when he rode the Duke of Portland's Ayrshire to 

 victory in the Two Thousand Guineas of 1888. This 

 was his sixth success in the first of the "classics," 

 having already won on Vedette in : 57, Pretender in 

 "69, Bothwell in 71, Prince Charlie in 72, and Cam- 

 ballo in "?5. Ayrshire's, like Prince Charlie's, was a 



