30 SAM DARLING'S REMINISCENCES 



Newmarket, won a £1,000 nursery one-mile at 

 Derby, and Last Toast won the two-year-old 

 stakes at Sandown. His lordship landed a good 

 stake over each race. 



I trained for Mr. James Best a very smart mare 



called La Bella. She won the two-year-old stakes 



at Kempton, and I took her on to 



Mr. James ^ 



Best and Newmarket. The race she won at 



Kempton was an optional selling, and 

 we were not in to be sold. The race at Newmarket 

 had penalties for winners other than of selling 

 races, and as I was not in to be sold for this optional 

 selling, I carried my penalty as a winner in face of 

 many who thought I should not. It was referred 

 to the Stewards, who said I was right, and the 

 mare won. For the same gentleman I trained a 

 horse called Edward, and qualified him at Chand- 

 lers Ford for National Hunt fiat races. Horses had 

 to be placed in a steeplechase to get a certificate. 

 He was a very difficult horse to get over a fence, but 

 eventually I made him jump, schooling him myself. 

 He was in a Selling Hunters' Flat at Four Oaks, 

 near Birmingham. Knowing that I had sent the 



, , certificate to Messrs. Weatherby's, and 

 Edward and -' 



his not seeing it published in the next 



CGrtiflc^tfl 



Calendar, I promptly wrote to Messrs. 

 Weatherby to see if they had received it. They 

 replied : 



