BRITISH STABLES AND FOREIGN METHODS. 



533 



bad library for a racing man. On Epaminondas for the Chester Cup of 1854 George 

 was pronounced " the most wonderful lightweight that ever got into a saddle," by no 

 less a judge than the late Lord Howth. But he once lost a race by looking round, 

 and that was the Derby on Lord Clifden, who was well ahead at Tattenham 

 Corner. At the Bell " The Kid " looked round and saw Tom Chaloner stealing 

 up. He began to ride for his life, but it was too late, and it was Macaronis 

 number that went up. Exactly the same thing happened seventeen years after to 

 Rossiter, who had made running with Robert the Devil, and was a length ahead 

 when he looked round at the Bell. Fred Archer on Bend Or saw his chance 

 at once, and came with such a terrific rush that the Duke of Westminster was 

 credited with the Derby 

 by the circumstances of 

 a few seconds' riding. 

 It is strange that with 

 all Fordham's successes 

 elsewhere, he only 

 managed to win one 

 Derby, on "Mr. Acton's" 

 Sir Bevys. His delicate 

 handling of a horse's 

 mouth, and his well- 

 known preference for 

 winning "with his head" 

 to any butchery with 

 whip and spurs, were 



especially seen in his victories with Lord Clifden's Homily at Leamington in 1855; 

 with Sabinus over A I/brook in the Cambridgeshire of 1871 ; with Lord Rosebery's 

 Levant (by the desire of Constable, his usual rider) in the July Stakes of 1875; 

 and with Pctroncl in the Two Thousand Guineas of 1880. It was said during 

 his lifetime that no other jockey then alive could have won those four races. 

 The last was ridden without whip or spur, as was his fine finish on Mr. Graham's 

 Formosa for the Two Thousand of 1868. It was also the opinion of Custance, 

 another rival, and therefore well qualified to speak, that Fordham was the best 

 jockey he ever rode against. When George reappeared on one occasion, after two 

 years' illness, Mr. T. Jennings mounted him on Count Lagrange's Pardon at the 



"Ellington " by " The Flying Dutchman" (1853). 



