HERMIT AND ISINGLASS 



by three-parts of a length. This form was shown 

 to be pretty good a few days later when Quickly 

 Wise, who had finished third, divided the Wood- 

 cote Stakes with Le Nicham. Isinglass's next 

 outing was in the New Stakes at Ascot, which 

 he won by a couple of lengths, and it is note- 

 worthy that upon this occasion he met his per- 

 sistent opponent, Ravensbury, for the first time, 

 the pair being split by Fealar. It seems curious 

 that this performance should not have opened 

 people's eyes to the excellence of Mr. M'Calmont's 

 colt, but followers of the Turf have proverbially 

 short memories — with the great majority of them 

 the last is always the best — and so, as Isinglass 

 did not run again until the Middle Park Plate, 

 he was almost forgotten, and nothing was backed 

 with much spirit for that race except Dame 

 President. She was a brown filly by Barcaldine 

 out of Geheimniss, the property of Sir J. Blundell 

 Maple, and had never run until the First October 

 Meeting, where she gained a somewhat spurious 

 reputation by easily defeating a large field for a 

 Maiden Plate. There seemed nothing in this 

 performance to warrant her being backed down 

 to 7 to 4 for the Middle Park Plate, but this 

 nevertheless occurred, and Queen's Pardon and 

 Raeburn were also better favourites than Isin- 

 glass, who easily brought off a 10 to 1 chance 

 from Ravensbury, twice those odds being obtain- 

 able about the latter. 



Although Isinglass was never a favourite with 

 the Newmarket people, for which his doing nearly 

 all his work on the tan was mainly accountable, 

 it was impossible any longer to ignore his great 

 racing abilities, and only upon one subsequent 

 occasion during his career were anything like long 

 odds obtainable about him. It was a case of laying 



250 



