JAMES MERRY 



a ffood deal faster than was advisable, and he had 

 no sooner whipped round than the flag fell and 

 they were off. 



A few days after this race Waugh began to 

 entertain an uneasy suspicion that all was not as it 

 should have been with Belladrum's wind, and one 

 morning in the First October JNIeeting he was 

 standing with John Osborne at the side of the tan 

 when the colt and Crocus came along together. 

 As soon as they had passed, he turned to his 

 companion and asked, " Does he roar, John ? " but 

 " The soundest-winded horse in the world, James," 

 was the immediate and comforting reply. Daley 

 won twice upon him during that week, on the 

 second occasion beating Martinique and five others 

 for a Triennial Produce Stakes. John Osborne 

 was fourth on Lord Zetland's Brennus in that 

 race, and immediately he returned to the weighing 

 room, before he had even clianged his things, he 

 came up to Waugh and said, "Your horse does 

 make a noise, James." The next morning there 

 was unhappily no doubt whatever about the 

 matter, as, after a half-speed gallop, he was roaring 

 like a bull. Of course the misfortune was kept as 

 quiet as possible, and no one knew anything of it 

 in the stable except Butters, who subsequently 

 married Waugh's eldest daughter, and a lad named 

 Harroway. Mr. Robinson of Tamworth, a very 

 well-known veterinary surgeon, fired him in the 

 throat. In order to divert suspicion from the real 

 object of his visit to Russley, he performed the 

 same operation on a colt by Claret, who was 

 perfectly sound-winded, but Belladrum derived no 

 benefit from the remedy. Indeed, on the occasion 

 of the first good gallop that was attempted with 

 him as a three-year-old. Butters could hardly kick 

 him along, and Waugh speedily held up his hand 



31 



