RACING LADIES, AXD A FOUNDER OF THE JOCKEF CLUB. 223 



ancestor of that famous sportsman to whose memory the first volume of this work 

 is dedicated. 



Horace Walpole relates that when Sir Richard Grosvenor should have kissed 

 hands on his elevation to a Barony in March, 1761, "he was gone to Newmarket to 

 see the trial of a racehorse." Whether true or not, the remark is a very typical 

 description of the man who owned Meteor, PotSos, Gimcrack, Sweet William, Sweet 

 Briar, and Bandy; who won the Derby with John Bull, with Rhadamanthns and 

 with his own brother Daedalus, and the Oaks with Faith, Ceres, Maid of the Oaks, 

 Nike, and Bellina. Nor does this extraordinary record exhaust the list of the first 

 Earl Grosvenor's successes ; and it is to the " yellow and black cap " of the first 

 Duke of Westminster that we must look for anything approaching that splendid 

 series of victories in modern times. One member of that family could, in fact, only 

 be beaten by another. Lord Grosvenor bought the famous PotSos, by Eclipse, in j 778, 

 from his breeder the fourth Earl of Abingdon, who won the Jockey Club Plate of 

 1774 with Transit by Marske. The purchase was not only cheap, but profitable, for 

 PotSos was the sire of Waxy, by whom are Whalebone and Whisker. Hut if Lord 

 Abingdon had repented of the deal he had his revenge in the year after the bargain, 

 for his Cardinal York (4 years, 8st.) beat Lord Grosvenor's filly by Dux out of 

 Curiosity (4 years, 7st. nibs.), in a match for a thousand guineas over the 

 Beacon Course, with an additional bet of 6,000 guineas to 3,000 laid by Lord 

 Grosvenor. It is said that Lord Abingdon was only enabled to post the 

 stakes on this occasion by the aid of his neighbour, "Miser" Elwes, then 

 Member of Parliament for Berkshire ; and if this be so it suggests an excellent 

 reason for the sale of PotSos in the previous year. The beaten filly was named 

 Misfortune, but she must have soon consoled Lord Grosvenor for her first 

 defeat, for she became the dam of Buzzard who was sire of Caslrel, Selim, Bronze 

 and Rubens. 



Many names have been already mentioned which belong more properly to my 

 next volume ; but I shall use the institution of the Jockey Club as the most 

 convenient link by which to pass to that era of Turf history which may be sym- 

 bolised by the first Racing Calendar issued by Mr. James Weatherby, and in which 

 I shall, for the first time, have something in the nature of official records to 

 guide me. For when the Calendars begin in 1773, and the St. Leger, five years 

 afterwards, heads the list of modern Classic Races, I shall be no longer obliged to 

 trust for the most important of my materials to more or less haphazard sources. 



