THE HOUSE OF ROTHSCHILD 



gained in a little sweepstakes over the Bretby 

 Stakes Course at the First October Meeting. 

 The lot behind him in that race were very 

 moderate, the majority of them taking an allow- 

 ance for being entered to be sold for £300, but 

 amongst those that were unplaced I notice Prince 

 SoltvkofF's Lucetta, who was destined to win the 

 Cambridgeshire two years later. A fortnight later 

 he was only beaten a head by Out of Bounds for 

 the Ditch JNlile Nursery, there being eleven others 

 behind the pair, and it was an encouraging sign 

 that he should have begun to run into form 

 towards the close of the season. There is no 

 doubt that he made more than ordinary im- 

 provement during the winter, and when he was 

 tried a mile and a half prior to the Derby with 

 Squirrel and a couple of Lord Westmoreland's, 

 did not acquit himself at all badly. Squirrel was 

 another three-year-old by Favonius belonging to 

 JMr. Acton, and, prior to the gallop in question, 

 had shown himself to be in form by winning a 

 welter handicap and a plate on consecutive days 

 at the Newmarket First Spring. The second of 

 these was decided over the last mile and a half of 

 the Cesarewitch Course, so the stamina of Squirrel 

 had been satisfactorily tested, and when Sir Bevy's 

 gave him 18 lb. and a beating it was felt that he 

 must possess an outside chance for the Derby. 

 There were twenty-three runners in that year, a 

 number that has not been nearly reached since, but 

 they were a curious lot, and possibly the terribly 

 deep and holding state of the ground had something 

 to do with the complete triumph of the outsiders. 

 Charibert, the winner of the Two Thousand, was 

 touched in his wind, and could not have got a 

 mile and a half even had the going been good. 

 Cadogan was also a non-stayer. Rayon d'Or did 



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