'MORAL VICTORIES' 91 



had to put up with what, comparing racing with 

 election returns, the defeated party at the polls 

 call 'moral victories.' He accomplished prodigious 

 things, but they did not count. He was not en- 

 gaged in the Derby, and therefore had to take his 

 chance in certain of the leading handicaps. In 

 one of these, the Royal Hunt Cup, he put in a 

 remarkably fine performance, running second to 

 Acrostic (4 yrs.), 6 st. 4 lb., with 8 st. on his back. 

 He (carrying 7 st. 11 lb.) was in the same place in 

 relation to Energy (8 st. 9 lb.), who was tremen- 

 dously fast — at the time perhaps the speediest horse 

 in training. He ran another second (8 st. 10 lb.) to 

 Sweetbread (9 st. 3 lb.) in the Stewards' Cup at 

 Goodwood. Whether or not his severe seconds 

 under heavy burthens ruined his temper, Duke of 

 Richmond became an arrant rogue. Whipper In 

 did wonderfully well in 1884, as a reference to the 

 record shows — the Kempton Park Easter Handi- 

 cap, the Babraham Stakes at Newmarket, the 

 Combermere Handicap at Chester, the Beaufort 

 Handicap at Newmarket July, and the September 

 Handicap at Manchester, amounting to 2,203/., 

 being placed to his credit. This, too, was the 

 most brilliant year in the running career of the 

 fleet Geheimniss. She passed the post, it is true, 

 second for the Crawford Plate at the Newmarket 

 Craven, which prize was won by The Prince, 

 but it was the fastest finish many old stagers, 

 John Porter himself included, had ever witnessed in 



