468 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



exactly repeated the performance at the next meeting with Fcstiis and fsis, in 

 a handicap sweepstake of .140, and again won the decider, this time by a 

 larger margin. John Osborne had several somewhat similar experiences as a 

 jockey. He rode Cathedral in r865 a dead heat over three miles at Newcastle 

 with Mr. McKenzie's Oppressor, and both horses broke down in the decider, which 

 John won by a neck. 



Before Abdale took to training with Ska/to, a smart son of Colsterdale, who ran 

 some races with Lifeboat that created great interest in 1859, he had a mount 

 on Lord Zetland's Skirmisher (who had been only a neck behind Saunterer as a 

 two-year-old at Ripon) in the Derby of 1857: He was fined ,\Q for disobedience 

 at the post, and among the other jockeys who were there, John Osborne, F. Bates, 

 and William Day survived him, though he was seventy-eight when he died. 

 Skirmisher was by Voltigeur, who never got a winner of the Derby, Oaks, or Leger, 

 reserving the triumphs of his blood until his line was older. But Skirmisher, like 

 Buckstone, won the Ascot Cup, though he could not get into a place behind Blink 

 Bonny at Epsom. The field he beat at Ascot included Gemma di Vergy, Sauntcrcr, 

 Pretty Boy, Leamington, Winkfield, Rogerthorpe, and Warlock. He also beat 

 Strathnarer for the Biennial at York, Fisherman for the Queen's Plate at Doncaster, 

 at the meeting when the Blink Bonny riot took place, and Saunterer again for 

 the Doncaster Stakes. Abdale was not in good circumstances when he died, a 

 misfortune from which even increased fees have not sufficed to save all his 

 successors. The first man who ever gave a jockey ^"500 is supposed to have been 

 Captain Scott ; but it is also related that Captain Dowbiggen (concerning whom 

 Lord Panmure sent the enigmatical message during the Crimean War) gave 

 Robinson /iooo for winning the Leger on Matilda. Certainly Jem was glad 

 enough to get the Duke of Rutland's annual ,50 in memory of Cadlands Derby, 

 and was by no means well off at his death. Frank Butler, Nat Flatman, and Sam 

 Rogers did better for themselves. But Aldcroft was not so fortunate ; and Norman, 

 who rode Stockwell in the Two Thousand and Leger, and Regalia in the Oaks, was 

 not much better off in his latter days than Bell or Marlow ; while Maidment, who 

 won the Derby on Kisber and Cremorne, the Oaks on Hannah, and the Leo-er 



O 



on Hannah and Wenlock, has become very poor, though not in such bad 

 straits as the late Morris, Galopins jockey. No doubt a boy learns something 

 from his father's experience, whether that experience has been good or evil. The 

 names of Watts and Cannon are sufficiently well-known examples ; and there can 



