AND TIMES OF JOHN OSBORNE 413 



won all the classic races, and some of them several times ; and that, 

 finally, he retires from what may be called his professional saddle with 

 the universal opinion of all who know him that no more honest jockey 

 ever donned boots and breeches, no more upright man ever stepped 

 upon a racecourse there is little to be added to what we have already 

 said. 



At this moment it would be a mere work of supererogation to recall 

 that the same lad who beyond the recollection of all save a small 

 handful of those who will read these words was winning Newmarket 

 Nurseries upon his father's filly Exact probably as good an animal 

 as he ever crossed is now the doyen of his profession. Among his 

 triumphs are numbered the Derby of 1869 on Pretender; the St. Leger 

 of 1863 on Lord Clifden, and of 1874 on Apology; the Oaks of 1874 

 on Apology; the Two Thousand of 1857 on Vedette, of 1869 on 

 Pretender, of 1871 on Bothwell, of 1872 on Prince Charlie, and of 1875 

 on Camballo; and, finally, the One Thousand of 1856 on Manganese, 

 and of 1874 on Apology. Of the smaller races won by him in his long, 

 temperate, and industrious career the list would stretch out indefinitely. 

 To assign to him the highest meed of praise that he deserves for the 

 best-ridden of his many races would be indeed a difficult task, but the 

 popular verdict would probably be in favour of the St. Leger of 1863, 

 which he won on Lord St. Vincent's Lord Clifden. 



There is a well-known passage in Wyon's "Life of Queen Anne" 

 which recounts that when, after having been in office and in places of 

 high financial trust for nearly fifty years, Godolphin, who was Secretary 

 of State under four monarchs, retired into private life, he was exempted 

 from the public suspicion which attached to his wealthier colleagues by 

 the fact that he was poor. In like manner it will be an additional 

 inducement to admirers of " the Bank of England jockey," who is also 

 widely known by the name of "The Pusher," that his fifty years in 

 the saddle, his well-known abstemious habits, his simple mode of living 

 at Brecongill to which he and his brother moved from Ashgill and 

 his utter lack of ostentation, have not enabled him to lay by such a 

 sum of money as many a Newmarket jockey would expect to acquire in 

 a single year. Johnnie Osborne has, moreover, a large family six sons 

 and three daughters and it would ill become the countless supporters 

 of the British Turf that the declining years of such an honour to the 

 calling of jockey and trainer should lack every comfort that generous 

 contributions of money can bestow. The doyen of English jockeys has 

 pursued his trying and arduous profession for a longer period than any 



