38 THE JOCKEY CLUB 1750- 



CHAPTEE III 



THE LORDS 



The Earl of Abingdon must have been Willoughby 

 Bertie, the fourth Earl, who was born 1740, succeeded 

 1760, died 1799. For his membership of the Jockey 

 Club, it is enough to say that he won a Jockey Club 

 Plate in 1774 with Transit (by Marske), and in 1777 

 with Leviathan (by Marske), and would naturally have 

 belonged to the Club before the earlier of those dates. 

 He was a great breeder, a great racer, and a great 

 bettor ; but, though he lived well into the days of the 

 Oaks, the Derby, and the St. Leger, he apparently ran 

 for none of them but the Oaks just once in 1779, the 

 first year of running for it. The great feather in his 

 cap was that he bred the famous PotSos, the best son 

 of Eclipse, and the sire of Waxy (sire of Whalebone 

 and Whisker) ; but he was so ill-advised, or so 

 ' straitened,' as to sell the horse to Lord Grosvenor 

 at the Newmarket First Spring Meeting, 1778, for 

 1,500 guineas, the purchaser to have the chance of a 

 race (worth 700 guineas) which the horse was about 

 to run, and which he won, thus costing only 800 

 guineas. Lord Abingdon, however, on another occa- 



