HERMIT AND ISINGLASS 



the Derby, and Custance, in his very interesting 

 book, Riding Recollections and Turf Stories, ex- 

 plains why this did not come off. I know he 

 will forgive me for quoting his graphic account of 

 one of the most memorable " Yorkshire gallops " 

 that ever took place : " I went to Ely by mail 

 train on Sunday night ten days before the Derby 

 of 1867, and drove straight to Bedford Cottage. 

 I had a talk with Captain Machell on my arrival 

 about what weight Hermit ought to beat his trial 

 nag Rama at, to be certain to win the Derby. I 

 said I thought if he could defeat Rama cleverly at 

 a stone it would be good enough, so we agreed to 

 give the horse what is called a ' Yorkshire gallop ' 

 on the Monday morning to know what weights 

 to try them at on the Wednesday. We wanted 

 Hermit to win the trial, as the stable had heavily 

 backed him, and in those days there was more 

 chance to hedge and cover their money. It was 

 left to me to arrange the weights, which I did. 

 I weighed myself and the lad who looked after 

 Rama, and then put a weighted saddle-cloth under 

 Rama's clothes. As both horses had sheets of 

 the same weight, no one could tell that they 

 were doing other than ordinary exercise. I did 

 not like to let the ' young 'un ' have too much 

 the worst of the weights, so I put them at 16 lb. 

 for the year, as Rama had proved himself as good 

 as Lord Lyon the autumn before. We started 

 at the old stables, went up by the side of the 

 Ditch to the Cambridge Road, and we were to 

 finish near the site of the old Duke's Stand, this 

 being altogether a distance of a mile and a half. 

 After we had gone a little over a mile. Hermit 

 was pulling me out of the saddle, and I thought 

 it ought to be nearer 7 lb. to try at, so called out 

 to the boy on Rama to ' Go on, and give him one 



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