A GREAT MATCH DECLARED OFF 107 



was ' walking over ' cheered by the crowd, who 

 cried 'Go on, John! You'll be beaten!' The 

 odds on him mounted by leaps and bounds as he 

 sped on his victorious way. It was no less than 

 100 to 1 for the Champion Stakes at the Second 

 October Meeting, for which Archer carried 3 lb. 

 over- weight. But what of that ? The pair, 

 Archer and Ormonde, obliged ' the gallery ' with 

 the semblance of a race with Oberon and by only 

 winning by a length. At the Houghton Meeting 

 he put in a great performance, giving no less than 

 28 lb. to Mephisto in the Free Handicap Sweep- 

 stakes, and winning by eight lengths. They only 

 laid 7 to 1 on him on that occasion ; the difference 

 in the weights was so crushing. But what did he 

 care for any such disparity ? Weight or distance 

 was all the same to Ormonde. It was not in 

 human — that is to say, not in sporting — nature to 

 permit this phenomenon to pursue his invincible 

 course unchallenged. A number of matches were 

 discussed, in the old fashion, 'across the walnuts 

 and the wine,' at Newmarket and elsewhere, but 

 chiefly at headquarters, where matches are mostly 

 made. The Duke of Westminster was nothing 

 loth, and Porter, like Barkis, ' was willin'.' The 

 nearest approach to a meeting designed, if that 

 were possible, to lower the colours of Ormonde 

 assumed the shape of a sweepstakes of a thousand 

 sovereigns each, half-forfeit, Across the Flat. This 

 course, it may be explained in passing, is one mile 

 two furlongs and seventy-three yards in length. 



