MR. F. GRETTON'S RETIREMENT yy 



Bend Or, there was no alternative but to comply. 

 However, unfit as the horse was, and nobody knew 

 that better than John Porter himself, he was only 

 beaten a head by the Derby winner. Then followed 

 the Cambridgeshire, which should — and would — ■ 

 have been his if, to put it popularly, he had had a 

 clear course. As it happened, however, although 

 he was giving Lucetta (4 yrs.) 141b. and the year, 

 he finished but half a length behind the mare. 

 Fordham, who was never the man to submit 

 frivolous objections, lodged one immediately after 

 the race on the ground of a cross. It was an excit- 

 ing scene. The predominant feeling was signified 

 in the accustomed manner, and it was striking 

 enough. Odds were freely laid that Fordham got 

 the race. The case was heard by the Stewards at 

 the end of the day's regular business, and, after a 

 prolonged sitting, the stakes were awarded to the 

 winner. Mr. F. Gretton had Prestonpans and 

 F'ernandez in the Liverpool Cup, which race the 

 former won. The gap between the sentence just 

 written and that which follows might, perhaps, be 

 otherwise and more fully filled. It is, however, 

 quite sufficient to state that Porter ceased to train 

 for the owner of Fernandez with the termination of 

 the season, and during the winter his stud of 

 eighteen good-looking horses were transferred to 

 Alec Taylor's, and not one of them succeeded in 

 subsequently winning a race. Mr. John Gretton, 

 who until then had trained a few horses at Kingsclere, 

 remained, and soon after Lord Stamford placed his 

 stud in Porter's care. 



