558 



A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



by the rest of the stable in, of course, an entirely contrary direction. Lord Stamford 

 must have been equally surprised, after seeing Edwards win on the "second string," 

 to discover that he had had a real good race after all. When the public saw Wells 

 in the first colours on Bhie Gown, they did not perhaps pay so much attention 

 as they might have done to Sir Joseph Hawley's declaration to win with either 

 Rosicrucian or Green Sleeves. But it must be remembered that John Porter 

 considered the handsome black-brown son of Beadsman to be as good as anything 

 he had hitherto trained, and lolbs. better than Bhte Gown, whose victory over the 

 two their trainer and owner fancied more may have been due to the fact that he 

 had escaped the influenza from which both had suffered in the sprino-. The 



Derby of 1868 was 

 indeed full of " Turf 

 History." The ill-fated 

 Marquis of Hastings 

 had become involved in 

 the hands of Mr. Pad- 

 wick, and, wrote Admiral 

 Rons to the Times, 

 " What can the poor 

 fly demand from the 

 spider in whose web he 

 is enveloped ? " The 

 eleventh-hour scratching 

 of The Earl, added 

 to the hopelessly bad 

 showing of Lady Elizabeth, had roused all the Dictator's indignation, and 

 whatever may be said of the evils of the modern Racing Press, it would certainly 

 be impossible for it to be practically unknown, nowadays, that a famous filly had 

 lost her form and never been able to undergo any preparation for the Derby. The 

 Admiral, under threat of a libel action from John Day, had to withdraw the letter 

 in which he had permitted a good deal of truth to be obscured by an unnecessary 

 amount of angry accusation. The fact was that Lady Elizabeths amazing two- 

 year-old career led to 40 to i having been laid against The Earl for the Derby ; 

 so when Danebury discovered that the mare had lost her form, and that the colt 

 was one of the best they had ever had at a mile and a half, it was absolutely 



By permission of His Majesty the King. 



" Meadowchat " at Sandringham. 



