1 86 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



announces Plates of ,30, 10, and ,5 to be run for at Epsom ; where it was 

 apparently fashionable to have very early meetings, for the "Daily Courant " of 

 February, 1709, announces that "On Epsom Downes in Surrey, on the first Monday 

 after the Frost a Plate of /2O will be run for." In 1707 to return to Newmarket 

 and " big money " Mr. Young won ^3,000 by the victory of his Biundel over Lord 

 Granby's Grantham, and at the Spring Meeting of the next year a thousand guineas 

 depended on the match between the Duke of Bedford and Mr. Minchall. 



I have already had occasion to mention another famous horse who was running at 

 this time, the Duke of Devonshire's Basto, foaled in 1 702. I have reproduced a 

 picture of him by J. and H. Roberts, which shows the Judge's box, and the Scales for 

 weighing in the background. Bred by Sir W. Ramsden of Byram near Ferry Bridge 

 in Yorkshire, by the Byerly Turk out of Bay Peg (whose colour he favoured rather 

 than his sire's) he inherited through her two strains of the Leedes Arabian as well, 

 and his courage and beauty were all that could be expected from such noble ancestry. 

 Nothing is recorded of him till he was six, and he very likely did not run until that 

 age, for all his best matches were made at Newmarket in 1708, and the two following 

 years. He beat the Lord Treasurer Godolphin's Squirrel and Billy, Lord Raylton's 

 Chance, Mr. Pulleyne's Tantivy, and the Marquis of Dorchester's Brisk, all good 

 horses, and he carried from 8 st. 3 Ib. to 8 st. 7 Ibs. every time, at distances varying 

 from 4 to 5 miles each. At the stud he chiefly served the mares of the Duke of 

 Devonshire and the Duke of Rutland until his death at Chatsworth at the age of 21. 

 Spanker, sire of his maternal grandam, was bred by Mr. Charles Pelham of 

 Brocklesby in Lincolnshire, and was by theD'Arcy Yellow Turk out of the Old Morocco 

 Mare by Lord Fairfax's Morocco barb. Mr. Pelham was also the breeder of Brocklesby 

 Betty, a dark chestnut mare foaled in 1711, who was got by the Curwen Bay Barb 

 out of Mr. Leedes' Hobby by Lister' s Turk. She was a brood mare even before she 

 was trained and appears in many famous pedigrees, but she was also so good a racer 

 that few of her time could approach her in speed or staying powers, and her record is 

 a fine one. She first appeared at Newmarket at the Spring Meeting of 1716, when 

 rising five years old, and beat a mare of the Duke, of Devonshire's for 100 guineas. 

 In the following August she beat eleven other mares for the Royal Cup, 10 st., four 

 miles. None of the others are named, but their owners were Lords Chesterfield and 

 Lonsdale, Sir James Pennyman, and Messrs. Bethel, Stapleton, Shuttleworth, Smale, 

 Carr, Pockley, Thornton and Bathurst. At the next Spring Meeting she beat eight 

 mares again for the Gold Cup at Newmarket. That August she won " a Silver Tea 



