484 ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



the more fancied stable companion in the ' sobbing * 

 struggle from the distance after galloping the trying two 

 miles. Victor Emanuel, afterwards the property of 

 the present Earl of Zetland, who bought him on the 

 dispersion of Harry Bragg's stud, won the first North- 

 umberland Plate at Gosforth Park in 1882, and now, 

 seventeen years after, John Osborne, approaching his 

 seventy summers, leads back to the paddock a winner 

 in King Crow. These hurried reminiscences are 

 recalled to show what a happy union there has been 

 between Mr. Vyner, the Osbornes, and particularly 

 John Osborne, whom we had the pleasure of congratu- 

 lating this afternoon after the victory of his charge. 

 While many men of note have deserted Middleham of 

 late years, beginning to think John Osborne effete 

 as a trainer, Mr. Vyner has never forgotten the veteran. 

 He has another chief trainer in Mathews, but keeping 

 up the happy alliance which began with his late brother, 

 he has always sent ' Master John ' a few horses to pre- 

 pare for him. Has not the Vyner loyalty been well 

 rewarded, and has not the astuteness of John Osborne 

 as a trainer, more particularly of a long-distance racer, 

 been borne out? Readers of the evanescent and hurried 

 notes which occasionally appear in these columns under 

 the nom de plume of ' Saxon,' have been told recently 

 how we met John Osborne on the eve of this year's 

 Great Northern Handicap at York. Asked what he 

 thought of King Crow's chance on the morrow of the 

 race, ' Master John,' who is never sanguine, but always 

 guarded in his judgments, said, in effect, that he was 

 almost despondent about the horses he had under his 

 charge at Brecongill. If King Crow happened to win, 

 it would be an agreeable surprise to him; if not, he 

 would just have to satisfy himself with the reflection 



