JAMES MERRY 



was bleeding so freely that the place presented the 

 appearance of a slaughter-house. The work of 

 extricating the horse proved very difficult indeed, 

 but, by AVaugh's directions, a couple of men took 

 him firmly by the head, whilst two or three more 

 got under his quarters, and at last he was hter- 

 ally pulled and hoisted into the yard. Of course, 

 his running at York was altogether out of the 

 question, yet it was hoped that his injuries were 

 only superficial, and would not seriously interfere 

 with his chance for the St. Leger. He did his 

 first gallop after the accident on the following 

 Saturday, and his trainer noticed, after he had 

 pulled up, that his ribs were working in very 

 singular fashion. Still he got through his work 

 all right, and started at 8 to 1 for the Leger, being 

 third favourite to Kingcraft and Palmerston. In 

 this race his misfortunes were destined to culminate, 

 as he jumped the road which crosses the course 

 about three hundred yards from the starting-point, 

 and the concussion broke the fetlock joint of his 

 near hind-leg, so that it was necessary to destroy 

 him. A post-mortem examination made by Pro- 

 fessor Wortley Axe revealed the fact that four of 

 his ribs had been broken in the York accident, and 

 that one of them had never even begun to knit, so 

 that, instead of deserving the stigma of being a 

 coward, which somehow or another attached to 

 him all through his brief racing career, he must 

 have been a marvellously game horse to have 

 gone through his daily work under such painful 

 conditions. 



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