DANEBURY DAYS 



good pace, and Lecturer won with such ridiculous 

 ease that John Day could not believe that the 

 gallop was correct, and determined to try over 

 again on the Saturday. This he did, in spite of 

 Enoch's remonstrances, saying that an extra gallop 

 never hurt a horse that was really fit, and the result 

 was exactly the same, the little colt winning even 

 more easily than he had done before. Having thus 

 made assurance doubly sure, both Day and Enoch 

 were convinced that, so far from Lecturer having 

 no chance for the Cesarewitch, nothing but an 

 accident could lose him the race ; but the patrons 

 of the stable did not share this confidence, the 

 Duke of Beaufort being specially sceptical, and it 

 was only the earnest entreaties of Enoch that 

 prevented him from hedging all his money, and, 

 as it was, he laid off a considerable portion of 

 it. This, coupled with the fact that Mr. Fred. 

 Swindells had a very strongly fancied candidate 

 in Proserpine, a three -year -old filly who was 

 handicapped at 5 st. 7 lb., probably accounted for 

 Lecturer starting at 9 to 1, a very unusual price 

 to be obtainable about one of the Danebury " good 

 things," and his half-length victory in the hands of 

 Sam Hibberd landed such a stake for the Marquis 

 of Hastings as to make him forget the very bad 

 time that he had been experiencing for two or 

 three months prior to the race. Lecturer's only 

 other outing that season was in the Free Handicap 

 at the Houghton Meeting, and it seems probable 

 that the long work he had done during his Cesare- 

 witch preparation had taken the edge off his speed, 

 and that the mile and a quarter A.F. was not far 

 enough for him, as he was in receipt of 4 lb. from 

 Strathconan, and yet only won by a head. 



The winter of 1866 was an unusually severe one, 

 which made it exceptionally difficult to get horses 



75 



