FAMOUS RACING STUDS OF THE LAST THIRTY YEARS. 



627 



had. In 1895 His Majesty scored with Florizel II. But the race is no longer 

 what it was, though worth .2,000, and has now been won three times in succession 

 by Mr. Arthur James, with Fortunatus, Perseus, and (in 1903) Rabelais. It is difficult 

 to look back at the meetings for fifty years before Rabelais, and preserve a completely 

 satisfied opinion as to the present state of breeding. 



John Porter, to whom I must now at once return, has had better seasons than 

 that of 1903, which saw the formation of " Kingsclere Racing Stables (Limited), 

 registered October i5th, with capital .30,012," and the Dukes of Portland and 

 Westminster as chief supporters. In 

 1863, just forty years before, George 

 Manning, Sir Joseph Hawley's private 

 trainer, died ; and at twenty-five years 

 old John Porter succeeded him in 

 command of the stables at Catsgore, 

 near Cannon Heath, already made 

 famous by FitzRoland, Beadsman, 

 and Musjid. Sir Joseph's previous 

 winners, Tcddington, Aphrodite, The 

 Ban, Fernhill, and Vatican, were 

 trained by Alec Taylor at Fyfield, 

 near Marlborough, before the Manton 

 Stables had been built. It was chiefly 

 owing to Lord Westmoreland's warm 

 recommendation that " the lucky 

 baronet " choose a trainer so young 

 looking as Porter, who showed his 

 skill at once with Cohimba and 

 Washington at Doncaster in 1863, and St. Alexis (731. 4lb.) in the Great Eastern 

 Handicap at Newmarket. A friendship began which was consolidated by Sir 

 Joseph's kindness when Porter was ill with typhoid fever at Doncaster, and which 

 only ended when the cherry jacket was no longer carried by Templeman, Marson, 

 Alfred Day, Wells, or Huxtable, the jockeys who chiefly rode for Sir Joseph. 

 In 1858 his Beadsman beat Lord Derby's Toxophilite, and the Prime Minister's 

 defeat was watched with so much interest that M. de Montalembert, then visiting 

 the late Lord Dunraven, left a description of the scene which is as forceful as it 



From a pencil drawing bv 

 Jane E. Cook. 



Mr. John Porter. 



