456 



A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



It will be enough to say that they helped to make the betting considerably hotter than 

 was necessary. One year, however, Gully lost. It was over Jerry, and a friend who 

 had taken his advice lost upwards of .28,000, which he only wiped off in part by 

 following the same astute mentor and backing Memnon in 1828. Gully and Ridsdale 

 were baulked in 1827 because Croft and Mr. Gascoigne smelt a rat, and at the last 

 moment gave the mount to Ben Smith instead of Edwards. Mr. Gully's b.c. 

 Mameluke (by Partisan] was only beaten at the last moment by Mr. Petre's Matilda, 



"Sir Hercules" (1826) by " Wlialebone? 



a ComusGlly, who was very little over fourteen hands as a yearling, and turned into 

 one of the smartest three-year-olds ever saddled. Mr. Petre won again the next year 

 with The Colonel, who ran a dead-heat for the Derby with Cadland, as is shown in 

 the fine painting I reproduce for the frontispiece to this volume by permission of Mr. 

 Leopold de Rothschild. He ran another dead-heat at Ascot for the Oaklands, and 

 when he stood at the Hampton Court stucl he was "the beau ideal of an English 

 thoroughbred." Memnon s year must not be passed over, for it was rendered memo- 

 rable by Gully's extreme confidence in the powers of Mr. Watts' bay son of Whisker. 



