12 KINGSCLERE 



headed the list of winning horses in that year 

 (1854) with 10,070/., Andover (who had won the 

 Derby) coming next with 7,095/., and Boiardo, 

 another three-year-old, third with 4,700/. To sum 

 up her deeds in another way, Mr. Howard's ch. f. 

 Virago, by Pyrrhus the First, out of Virginia, ran 

 eleven times as a three-year-old, and was only 

 beaten once, in the County Plate at the York August 

 Meeting, when they laid 2 to 1 on her. With 

 Virago's splendid double victory at the Epsom 

 Spring Meeting in 1854 John Porter's hopes and 

 ambition as a jockey waned. His disappointment 

 there engendered different aspirations. He sported 

 silk afterwards, it is true, but not with any further 

 intention of making jockeyship his career. 



One of the most remarkable horses in the 

 Findon stud was Merry Hart, a three-year-old 

 by Fallow Buck out of Joyful, the property of the 

 Earl of Westmorland. He ran eight times in 

 1863, and was credited once with the barren victory 

 of a walk-over. Merry Hart was bred by a 

 Lincolnshire farmer, and had never had a collar 

 on him, or been ' managed ' in any way, when he 

 was taken in hand at Findon. However, he once 

 came very near rewarding the trainer for all the 

 trouble which had been taken to break him, and 

 that was when he finished second to Catch-'em- 

 Alive in the Cambridgeshire. The respective 

 weights were — Catch-'em-Alive, 4 yrs., 7 st. ; 

 Merry Hart, 3 yrs., 5 st. 12 lb. Won by a 

 head. After the race it was found that the scales 



