DANEBURY DAYS 



possessing a tremendous turn of speed, and proved 

 quite invincible in his first season. 



A very easy task at York completed The Duke's 

 labours for 1864, and a bad attack of influenza 

 in the following April prevented him from taking 

 part in the Derby. Indeed he did not make his 

 first appearance for the season until the St. Leger, 

 for which he started second favourite at 5 to 1. 

 According to my memory of the race, he over- 

 powered Fordham, who never got him fairly in 

 hand until the Red House was reached, but I have 

 failed to obtain absolute confirmation of this 

 opinion. However, the point is an unimportant 

 one, as under no circumstances would he have 

 possessed a chance of beating Gladiateur, and he 

 did pretty well to finish fourth, three lengths behind 

 Archimedes, who ran a rattling good race with 

 Regalia for second place. The money that was lost 

 over him upon this occasion was doubtless re- 

 covered with substantial interest at the Newmarket 

 First October, as, after he had received 250 sov. 

 forfeit in a match with Lord Westmoreland's 

 Brahma, he met Archimedes at even weights over 

 the Rowley Mile for 1000 sov. Looking at the 

 running of the two in the St. Leger, it is not sur- 

 prising that 7 to 4 should have been laid on Lord 

 Stamford's colt, but he never had the remotest 

 chance with The Duke, who was " coming on " every 

 day, and found the course far more to his liking 

 than the mile and three-quarters of dead galloping 

 at Doncaster had been. He ran extremely well in 

 the Cambridgeshire, in which he carried 8 st. 2 lb., 

 a big weight for a three -year -old in those days, 

 and beat everything except Gardevisure, and the 

 other two feather-weights who filled the three 

 leading positions. It was not, however, until the 

 following season that the colt was really at his best, 



68 



