HISTORIC JOCKEYS AND A ROYAL OWNER. 36 x 



r. Mr. Dawson's Coriander 4 to i against 



2. Lord Grosvenor's Skylark ... ... ... ... 5 to i against 



3. Lord Clermont's Pipeator 



4. His Royal Highness's Escape 2 to i against. 



The Prince naturally thought himself "a better jockey than Mr. Lake or Chifney," 

 and considered the race had been lost through the change in his instructions. The 

 jockey, however, insisted that it had been lost through the horse's lack of preparation, 

 and was equally confident that after this sweating Escape would be fit to win next day, 

 saying he would back him to win himself, and urging both the Prince and Mr. Lake, 

 the superintendent of the Royal Stable, to do the same. The Prince did so, and 

 gave precisely the same orders for the race of the next day, October the aist, and 

 Mr. Vauxhall Clark got Chifney's twenty guineas on for him The first race had 

 been over a two-mile course, and the running had not been severe until the last 

 half-mile. On the 2ist, over the Beacon Course, Skylark made the running at once, 

 and kept ahead till a hundred yards from home. The result was as follows : 



1. His Royal Highness's Escape ... ... ... 5 to i against. 



2. Lord Barrymore's Chanticleer ... ... ... 7 to 4 against. 



3. Lord Grosvenor's Skylark ~ ... ... ... ... n to 5 against 



4. Duke of Bedford's Grey Diomed ... ... ... 6 to i against. 



5. Lord Clermont's Pipcator 



6. Mr. Barton's Alderman 



There was very naturally a good deal of comment on this, and Chifney was had up 

 before the Stewards, Sir Charles Bunbury, Mr. Ralph Dutton, and Mr. Panton. 

 The jockey testified that he had had no bets on the first day, and twenty guineas on 

 the second, and that he had waited because he knew Skylark had a turn of speed, 

 "though a jade," while Escape was also "very fast." Sir Charles, however, had 

 evidently made up his mind. No further reasons were given, and the examination was 

 concluded. Chifney knew, of course, that Escap,. could give Baronet twenty pounds and 

 a beating, and that Baroiift had won the Oatland Stakes (page 338) and ^,17,000 at 

 least for his royal master, in a hot field of eighteen, besides having beaten Coriander 

 on the 6th of October. He knew that Escape had been unfit for the Oatlands, and 

 he felt a considerable, and justifiable, distrust for Neale, the trainer, while Casborne 

 had already fallen under suspicion over Creeper 's race at York, and was actually 

 dismissed for doping horses later on. There was also a good deal of tension 

 between himself and Mr Lake, who was evidently anxious from the first to put the 

 worst construction on the business, and not without some success, if we may judge 



