SIR TATTON AND LA FL&CHE 189 



I bid up to 2000 guineas for this mare on behalf of 

 the late James R. Keene, and, having made my own 

 limit, let her go to the next bidder at 2100 guineas. 



The mare, as it shortly afterwards transpired, had 

 slipped foal two or three weeks before the sale. 



Mr Tattersall will remember the occasion, for the 

 mare was bought as one of the mates of Ormonde. 



However, the question was very properly raised that 

 there had been a latent error in the catalogue's 

 description, and after arbitration, over which I think 

 Mr James Lowther presided, the sale was cancelled. 



I mention this one exceptional case as proving the 

 rule. Reputable stud grooms do not have the instincts 

 of horse-copers about them, and they or their employers 

 will tell you the truth it may be sugared over, but you 

 will ascertain all you want to know. 



That is where foreign buyers are at a disadvantage 

 when they come over here in search of bargains, and 

 cannot gain intimate knowledge, but simply buy as the 

 fancy moves them. I should look well trying to buy in 

 France in similar circumstances ; but this is just what 

 poor Cheri Halbronn tried to do in his later years at 

 Newmarket, with the result that, good judge as he un- 

 doubtedly was, he made many bad bargains, which I or 

 anyone with close knowledge would have warned him 

 against. 



There are mares for which, within reason, it is im- 

 possible to give too much, and La Fleche was one of 

 them. The late Sir Tatton Sykes had the chance of 

 buying her and her first foal privately for 10,000 

 guineas, but refused to do so, and in the summer of that 

 year the mare came up at the Newmarket sales. The 

 late Lady Sykes instructed Lord Marcus Beresford to 



