ORME'S SECOND ' ECLIPSE' 149 



even more interesting, certainly to racing men, than 

 his first. He was ridden on that memorable occa- 

 sion by Mornington Cannon, who had of course to 

 put up some pounds of dead weight to scale 

 10 st. 2 lb., which was Orme's ' freightage.' La 

 Fleche carried 9 st. 13 lb., and Orme's former 

 jockey, George Barrett. The course, it should be 

 remembered, is about one mile and a quarter. The 

 public backed La Fleche against the field, and took 

 2 to 1 about Orme. Orme, amid another scene of 

 immense excitement, won by half a length, Baron 

 de Rothschild's Medicis, 3 yrs. old, 8 st. 12 lb., 

 being second, and La Fleche, three lengths off, 

 third. The excuse made for the mare (after the 

 race) was that she was suffering from sexual 

 causes. It was a pity the stable and its followers 

 did not find that out before. The pair met again in 

 the Gordon Stakes at Goodwood (Craven Course), 

 the same distance, Orme giving La Fleche 7 lb., 

 when the result substantially confirmed the Eclipse 

 running. At all events, Orme won by a neck, and 

 nothing was said about ' sexual causes.' The 

 stoutest of horses are not like Tennyson's brook, 

 they cannot run on for ever. Orme partially broke 

 down in the autumn, and such, his trainer is per- 

 suaded, was the cause of his defeat by Childwick in 

 the Limekiln Stakes, when he was giving Sir J. 

 Blundell Maple's three-year-old 2 st. 5 lb. In that, 

 his final race, his suspensory ligament had given 

 way. Orme, if not such a wonder as his sire, was 

 an extraordinary horse, with a wonderful constitu- 



