DANEBURY DAYS 



ready for their spring engagements, and as John 

 Day had about a dozen that were required very 

 early — the Lincoln Meeting of that year began on 

 February 19 — he had their shoes taken off, and was 

 thus able to give them a fair amount of work whilst 

 the snow lay on the ground for several weeks to- 

 gether. Lecturer was one of these winter workers, 

 but the result was not happy in his case, as he was 

 very heavily supported for the Great Northampton- 

 shire Stakes, actually starting at 6 to 4 in a field of 

 fifteen, but had no chance of giving 31 lb. to Miss 

 Havelock, a four-year-old filly who had previously 

 shown fair form under the name of Quick March. 

 Possibly most of the money that was lost over him 

 in this race was recovered on the Queen's Plate on 

 the following day, in which he polished off Regalia 

 and four others in great style. Then he seemed to 

 temporarily lose his form. Possibly he could not 

 reasonably be expected to give 16 lb. to "that old 

 Beeswing " of " Squire " Heathcote's in the Chester 

 Cup, and a concession of 7 lb to the speedy Moul- 

 sey over a mile and a quarter was an unreasonable 

 one to ask him to make. His defeat in the Beau- 

 fort Cup at Bath cannot, however, be excused, for 

 the distance — two miles and a half — should have 

 suited him exactly, yet Moulsey actually gave him 

 10 lb. and beat him out of a place. A week later 

 came Hermit's ever-memorable Derby, which must 

 be regarded as the " beginning of the end " of the 

 Marquis of Hastings' brief Turf career. The 

 whole story is too well known to need re-telling, 

 and the exact sum that the neck victory of Mr. 

 Chaplin's colt cost the Marquis may never be 

 known, though I have reason to believe that 

 £75,000 is not very wide of the mark. Be this 

 more or less, however, it is quite certain that never 

 was a "retriever" more sorely needed, and little 



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