BEDMINSTER 23 



6 to 4 about the old-fashioned-looking French- 

 man, Bedminster starting at 7 to 1. Siberia was 

 second, beaten a length, while Longdown and 

 Gladiateur, a head behind Siberia, made a dead- 

 heat of it for third place. Bedminster started first 

 favourite — 7 to 2 against — for the Two Thousand, 

 Gladiateur's price being what Bedminster's had 

 been in the Prendergast. As racing goes and is 

 (sometimes not too logically) reckoned up, theie was a 

 plausible reason, apart from his two-year-old record, 

 for the popularity of Bedminster. Argonaut, 6yrs., 

 had won the City and Suburban carrying 8 st. 11 lb., 

 and the Prince of Wales's Stakes at Newmarket 

 with 9 st. on his back, and Argonaut was the trial 

 horse. Undoubtedly his victory in the City and 

 Suburban was extraordinary. He was giving The 

 Grinder (3 yrs., 6 st. 2 lb.), whom he defeated by a 

 head, a lump of weight. Naturally, although they 

 knew they had a good game horse in Argonaut, the 

 stable were not at all sanguine, and as a matter of 

 fact he started at the somewhat outside price of 

 25 to 1 ; but he brought it off, and, following that 

 achievement by putting up a 7 lb. penalty and beat- 

 ing Diomed, 4 yrs., 6 st. 9 lb., by a neck, with a 

 tremendous field behind, over the Rowley Mile, it 

 was not surprising, perhaps, that the public crowded 

 on to Bedminster for ' The Guineas.' Well, as we 

 have stated, Argonaut had been the trial horse. The 

 trial itself took place on April 27, 1865, and was as 

 follows : 



