PALMER'S STUD 311 



Mr. Edwards's Vengeance, by Chanticleer, 4 yrs., 7 st. 7 lb. 



(Aldcroft) 1 



Mr. Snewing's Polestar, 4 yrs., 8 st. 2 lb. (J. Goater) . 2 



Mr. W. Day's December, 4 yrs., 5 st. 5 lb. (Hibberd) . 3 



Betting : 5 to 1 against Polestar, 8 to 1 against December, 9 to 1 

 each against Vengeance and Malacca, &c. 



Won in the commonest of canters by three lengths ; four lengths 

 between second and third. 



The reporter, whose ' fine Roman hand ' will not escape 

 recognition, thus comments and moralises from a racing 

 point of view on the race : — ' The extraordinary coinci- 

 dence of the first and second horses in the race to-day 

 having belonged to the wretch Palmer and his unfortunate 

 victim Cook, afforded an exciting subject for gossip, and 

 recalled afresh the frightful monstrosities of the Rugeley 

 tragedies — how Palmer purchased Vengeance (then called 

 The Chicken) with his poor wife's blood — with a portion of 

 the money which he obtained from the insurance offices after 

 poisoning her; and the subsequent murder of his friend to 

 obtain possession of the large sum which Polestar's success 

 at Shrewsbury had won for poor Cook, in order to meet 

 the pressing difficulties of the moment. ... To judge by 

 the result of the race to-day, if Palmer had managed to 

 escape detection, the Ring would undoubtedly have had a 

 "dressing" in the course of the present season with Polestar 

 and The Chicken, to say nothing of the " good thing " that 

 Gemma di Vergy, another of his stud, of whom he was 

 particularly fond, might have brought off. Vengeance 

 started favourite for the Cambridgeshire (3 to 1), and 

 10 to 1 each against Malacca, and beaten two lengths by 

 Mr. T. Parr's b.c. Malacca by Ratan, 3 yrs., 5 st. 5 lb. 

 (Hibberd), I ; Mr. Edwards's br.c. Vengeance, 4 years 

 8 st. 2 lb. (including 7 lb. extra) (Flatman), 2 ; and Mr. 

 Warrington's b.f. Flyaway, 3 yrs., 6 st. 9 lb. (Bray), 3. 

 Thirty-four ran.' Vengeance did not run again, and 

 evidently went to the stud in 1859. He appears in the 

 return of foals credited with a brown colt, The Bilk, out of 

 Queen Christina (Lord Portsmouth's), and was advertised 

 to serve at 10 guineas, stock pronounced ' very promising.' 

 In 1863 there was a useful plater, called Pony, by 

 Vengeance. In 1864 Vengeance is credited with five 

 winners. One of them, Mr. C. Alexander's Cordelia- 

 Sydmonton (out of Midia), was probably the best. He 



