DANEBURY DAYS 



and went to Danebury the week preceding the 

 race, where he saw his champion do a real good 

 gallop, and took an opportunity of going into the 

 stable after breakfast to congratulate Enoch, saying 

 that he had never seen a horse look better in his 

 life. His indifferent show at Epsom — the Calendar 

 records that he was " a bad third " — is difficult to 

 explain. It must be remembered, however, that 

 the course was about the worst that could have 

 been picked for both horse and jockey, for Vauban's 

 stilty fore-legs were ill adapted for coming down- 

 hill, whilst Fordham, who was on the verge of the 

 severe illness which kept him out of the saddle for. 

 so long, had not much nerve at that time, and was 

 never very partial to the crushing and scurry round 

 Tattenham Corner, in which Archer fairly revelled 

 in later years. My own memory of the last half- 

 mile is that Vauban could not act at all on the 

 descent, but Enoch's view is that Fordham, for 

 once in a way, rode a bad race, and ought to have 

 won easily. The seven races that Vauban won off 

 the reel immediately after his Epsom defeat seem 

 to confirm this impression, yet it is easy to over- 

 estimate the value of his ten lengths victory in the 

 Prince of Wales's Stakes at Ascot, for the Oaks had 

 shown Achievement to be right out of form, and she 

 was going from bad to worse just then, whilst, as I 

 have explained in another chapter, Marksman ought 

 never to have been started, and was making his last 

 appearance on a racecourse. The most noticeable of 

 Vauban's remaining successes was that gained in the 

 Goodwood Cup, of which I have given a pretty full 

 account in the chapter dealing with Regalia, but, 

 after three races at Goodwood, all of which he won, 

 he not unnaturally became stale and trained off, and 

 never appeared again in public after his defeat by 

 the " Tardy Taraban " in the Doncaster Stakes. 



81 G 



