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A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



all. In the St. Leger of 1858 the catastrophe with Cotherstone was not repeated 

 with Mr. Merry's Blanche of Middlebie, only because Luke Snowden, on his other 

 mare, Sunbeam, realised in time that Aldcroft on The Hadji had got between them 

 and was actually winning. So Sunbeam was called on for an effort just in time, and 

 won by half a length. 



It was Bill Scott who first found out for Whitewall what a real good one they 

 had got in Touchstone s son, and Mr. Bowes did well over both Derby and Two 

 Thousand. On Letcombe Downs, near the little Berkshire town of Wantage, 

 old Tom Parr once asked Saucebox a question on the day before the St. Leger 

 of 1855. He had to be "as good as Scythian in the Chester Cup, with Fanny 



Gray to make the run- 

 ning, and Mortemer to 

 take it up at the end of 

 a mile." The victory 

 by five lengths proved 

 a true portent ; and 

 Weathergage was just as 

 thoughtful on another 

 occasion. But such accu- 

 rate prophecies are rare. 

 With yearlings they are 

 apt to be even more de- 

 ceptive, as Lord George 

 Bentinck must have 

 discovered. General 



Peel's Peter beat Wanderer by a head over three furlongs, receiving iolbs., 

 on Christmas Day, 1877. His defeat by Wheel of Fortune at Goodwood was 

 his only two-year-old failure. T. Jennings was equally fortunate in his trial of 

 Ecassais with the five-year-old Liiisette. With Trappist and Lollypop, Ecossais 

 turned out one of the fastest sprinters of his time. As an instance of a contrary 

 result in two-year-old trials, we may take that recorded of Queen Bertha, who was 

 beaten by Old Orange Girl and Laura on Langton Wold in July, 1862. She won 

 the Oaks, was second in the St. Leger, and left a mark on the Stud Book which 

 not many other mares have beaten. Curiously enough, Fantail, who came in last 

 in the same trial, proved better later on than any of the others except Queen Bertha. 



By permission of His Majesty the King. 



The Marcs' Yard, Sandringham. 



