AND TIMES OF JOHN OSBORNE 417 



for a parallel to this remarkable true running of two 

 animals, the instance of Sea Song and Deuce of Clubs 

 some three years before comes to mind, with this 

 addition, that after they had dead-heated twice, they 

 ran off the decider. Harry Custance, who started 

 Dissenter and Lodore at Carlisle, mentioned a case that 

 had occurred years before, in which Pinsticker, Polly 

 Agnes, and another ran a dead heat. The three ran 

 off again, when it was a dead heat between two of them, 

 the third being beaten a head only, and in the decider 

 one of them won by a head. 



Mr. W. J. Ford, the present-day Judge and handi- 

 capper, thus describes the two races between Lily Agnes 

 and the French horse Figaro II., at Lincoln, in the early 

 " seventies." ' They ran a dead heat the first time," said 

 Mr. Ford, " but could not agree upon a division. 

 Admiral Rous was also an eye-witness of the dead heat. 

 My father, who was an official of the meeting, said to 

 ' The Admiral,' ' I never heard of a division in a Royal 

 Plate before/ ' The Admiral ' coincided, and it was 

 determined to run it off. John Osborne, who was then 

 as hard as nails, rode Lily Agnes, and Parry, a good 

 horseman at that time, was on Figaro II. It took a 

 good man, I can tell you, to tackle John Osborne single- 

 handed in those days over two miles. I think Parry's 

 mount was the better favourite. Between the two 

 races I went to John Osborne and said, ' You'll win this 

 time on your mare, John.' * I don't know, sir,' was 

 John's reply, ' it's no good thing.' The second struggle 

 was as keen as the first. They ran head and head for 

 nearly a mile, Osborne just making the running. Parry 

 made a great challenge from the distance, but John, 

 by a supreme effort, and by as fine a display of jockey- 

 ship as ever was seen on a racecourse, won by a head. 



2E 



