Gentlemen Riders 



by Becher and the Marquis of Waterford, was decided over the 

 Harborough country. Vivian won, and so mortified was the 

 Marquis, that contrary to his usual good nature, he insisted on 

 ascribing his defeat to his horse. 



"Well, my lord," was Becher's characteristic remark, " I am 

 a poor man, but your lordship shall change horses, and I'll 

 have you back again to where we started, for the same money." 



Another of his great one thousand guineas a side matches 

 was that on General Charettie's Napoleon, against " The 

 Squire " on Grimaldi, which, however, was not brought to a 

 satisfactory conclusion. The river Lem lay right in their 

 course, and into it they went at full speed. Becher afterwards 

 declared he thought he would never get into daylight again, 

 but after a tolerably long swim, he managed to land the bay 

 on the right side of the stream. 



In 1835 he won the St. Albans Steeplechase on Norma for 

 Captain Fairlie, and was second on Caliph at Cheltenham. 

 The next year he won the St. Albans event again, now on 

 Grimaldi, whose last race it proved to be, for no sooner had 

 he passed the winning flags, than he reared up and fell down 

 dead, a catastrophe to which a sporting writer of the period 

 referred as follows : — 



" The death of Grimaldi also furnished a subject for the 

 artists of the day, and the leading man of the Adelphi and the 

 Surrey, might have imbibed a useful lesson from the attitude 

 which the Captain displayed when gazing on the dead favourite." 



As a souvenir of the gallant grey, Becher obtained and 

 religiously preserved one of the forelegs, which he was wont to 

 show with much affection on all occasions to his numerous 

 sporting friends. 



This season was one of his busiest, for he won the Waltham 

 Abbey Steeplechase on Grimaldi ; was second on Vivian for 



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