GLADIATEUR 



probably stand on record for all time as the worst 

 bargain ever made in horseflesh, on the part of 

 the purchaser. Argences did not succeed in 

 getting into the first four, still he did quite well 

 enough to be able to supply a valuable line for 

 Gladiateur. Fortunately the Two Thousand was 

 run rather late that season — on May 2 — but, even 

 then, Jennings had only ten or eleven weeks in 

 which to get him into shape, and even that brief 

 preparation was interrupted by occasional lameness. 

 He was not really half lit, therefore, which will 

 account for his starting at 7 to 1, Bedminster, 

 Breadalbane, Liddington, and Kangaroo all being 

 preferred to him in the market. This will also 

 account for Archimedes running him to a neck, 

 with the roaring Liddington only beaten the same 

 distance for second place, as although the former, 

 a chesnut son of Newminster and Equation, 

 belonging to Lord Stamford, was pretty smart, 

 he was not too generous or reliable, and, with 

 both equally fit and well, it is difficult to say what 

 weight it would have required to have brought 

 him upsides with Gladiateur. 



Things went pretty smoothly with the Two 

 Thousand winner between that race and the 

 Derby, and he was possibly never so fit at any 

 period of his career as when he went to Epsom. 

 The opposition numbered tw^enty- eight, but, as 

 far as class was concerned, a worse field had 

 seldom gone to the post for a Derby, and I 

 remember vividly how the big French colt strode 

 round the paddock, Breadalbane following at a 

 respectful distance, looking a regular "triton 

 amongst the minnows." Ridiculously easily as 

 his victory was ultimately gained, it was once in 

 momentary doubt, for Harry Grimshaw was 

 terribly short-sighted, and Jem Goater, who was 



5 



