JAMES MERRY 



should have been 1000 gumeas. If, on the one 

 hand, JNIr. Merry was unkicky to select the colt 

 that was destined to run second in the Derby, 

 instead of the winner, on the other it is by no 

 means certain tliat Marksman was not really the 

 better of the two, whilst Mr. Merry would be sure 

 to have a strong bias in favour of a son of the 

 gallant Dundee, who had done him such splendid 

 service a few years previously. 



James AVaugh, who should certainly know 

 more of Marksman than any one else can do, 

 scouts the generally accepted idea that he was a 

 rogue. On the contrary, he says that he was 

 almost too resolute, and, when his jockey asked 

 him to go, tried to do too much ; but no one who 

 ever rode him, with the single exception of George 

 Fordham, seemed to realise this, or to give him 

 time to settle down into his stride and get him- 

 self nicely balanced. A striking instance of this 

 occurred at Goodwood in his two-year-old days. 

 On the Wednesday, ridden by Harvey Covey, he 

 ran unplaced in the Findon Stakes, which was 

 won by Friponnier, who beat Bismarck, a speedy 

 Weatherbit colt owned by Mr. W. G. Craven, by 

 a head. INIarksman was trying to give 5 lb. to the 

 latter, and Fordham, who did not happen to have 

 a mount in the race, was so convinced that Marks- 

 man had not shown anything like his best form, 

 that he urged AV^augh very strongly to run him in 

 the Molecomb Stakes on the following day, and 

 to put him up. It was difficult to obtain Mr. 

 Merry's assent to this proposal, as he very naturally 

 thought that, having to meet Bismarck again over 

 the same course, and at exactly the same weights, 

 his colt would only be getting another gruelling 

 for nothing, but George was very persistent, and 

 at length was allowed to have his way. Odds of 



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