164 SAM DARLING'S REMINISCENCES 



very good race; though the returned price was 

 short, she made 680 gs., and we let her go. 



Cri de Guerre is the grandam of Zori de Zi, 

 the best horse that has ever been seen in Rou- 

 mania — whatever that may amount to. 



At Newmarket, in 1896, two brother owners 



came to ask me if I would take a two-year-old 



A trial called Bric-a-Brac to train her with 



verified. ^ view to a mile selHnff race at Derby 



Common ^ 



Talk and Autumn meeting. The elder said the 



late R. Peck and Gurry had tried her 

 good enough to win a race of this sort. I agreed 

 to take her. The younger said. Why not send 

 Common Talk — a filly of his own — for company ? 

 They were accordingly despatched without any 

 attendant to Beckhampton. None of my men 

 knew what they were. I had them in two 

 isolation boxes, and called them " The Skins," 

 and sure enough they were thin enough to earn 

 that title. 



After five or six weeks they were much stouter, 

 and I tried them in the afternoon, and found 

 Common Talk the better — of this I was con- 

 vinced — and wrote to the owners to that effect. 

 They were both duly entered in the Mile SeUing 

 Race at Derby. When I met the brothers at Derby 

 the elder said, " Sam, there is a mistake, for Brig- 



