GLADIATEUR 



a certain sum out of the stakes to allow the F'rench 

 colt to walk over. At the last moment, however, 

 Reginella's number went up, and then Jennings 

 would have been very glad to withdraw Gladiateur, 

 but it was rather late to do so, added to which 

 the horse would have become very excited and 

 intractable if baulked of a gallop at the last 

 moment. He seemed to understand the whole 

 business of racing as well as any human being 

 could do. The moment he saw his van he would 

 walk into it of his own accord, and he was so high- 

 couraged that when he was stripped on a race-course, 

 and became excited, he would forget all about his 

 lameness. So Jennings had to indulge him in 

 another gallop, and he gave 10 lb. to Breadalbane 

 and 14 lb. to Reginella without an effort. Long- 

 down tackled him once more, in receipt of 7 lb. 

 in the Newmarket Derby at the Second October 

 Meeting, only to receive another forty lengths 

 beating for his temerity ; and he wound up the 

 season with his only defeat, a defeat that was 

 far more glorious than the inajority of his triumphs. 

 No three-year-old, before or since, has ever essayed 

 to carry 9 st. 12 lb. in the Cambridgeshire, and 

 though he might not have quite won under any 

 circumstances, Jennings is certain that he ought 

 to have been in the first three. He suffered once 

 more from his jockey being so terribly short- 

 sighted. Jennings had gone to view the race some 

 way down the course, and was horrified to see that 

 Gladiateur was fully a hundred yards behind the 

 leader, and evidently hopelessly out of it. " Where 

 were you at the Red Post ? " he asked of Grimshaw 

 in the weighing-room after the race. " Oh, I was 

 lying in a good place, about half a dozen lengths 

 from the front," was the reply, and nothing would 

 convince poor Harry that he had lain so far out 



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