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A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



of the same age, who beat Hermione for the King's Plate at Newmarket in 1797. 

 It was at the Newmarket Craven Meeting of 1799 that Sir Harry Vane-Tempest 

 matched Hambletonian (with Frank Buckle in the saddle) against Mr. Joseph Cook- 

 son's Diamond (Dennis FitzPatrick up, 8st.) for three thousand guineas over the 

 Beacon Course. Buckle (at 8st. 3lbs.), who was considerably cooler-headed at 

 the crisis than his employer, managed to gain some ground between the 

 Ditch and the Turn of the Lands, which compensated for the pace ol 

 the smaller horse up the hill, and after a rousing finish, which Sartorius has 



The Oat lands Sweepstakes at Ascot. 



brilliantly depicted, the Eclipse blood just asserted its superiority by a head. A 

 fine painting by Stubbs of this stout-hearted horse, being rubbed down after that 

 punishing race, is now in the possession of Lord Londonderry at Wynyard Park, and 

 as the canvas measures no less than 13 feet by 8, I have chosen it as a good 

 example of the typical points of a racer whose blood is in most of the best pedigrees 

 to-day. My illustration is from the engraving by J. B. Pratt. The starter gave the 

 signal between one and two o'clock on the 25th of March, and the St. Leger winner 

 held the lead until Diamond challenged in the last half-mile, and from then on 

 both horses seem to have been cruelly punished, Hambletonian being only just lifted 



