Gentlemen Riders 



he surveyed" — you had only to hie to Croydon, Kingbury, or 

 indeed any of the meetings in the Home Circuit, and your 

 object would have been attained, probably with profit to 

 yourself. 



Born on the 14th of April, 1841, the subject of our memoir 

 made his first appearance in the saddle in public at the Bishops 

 Sutton Steeplechases in i860, when he rode a horse of his 

 own called Remus, and another named Harrow Boy, winning 

 on each. 



At that time, young as he was, Mr. Yates hunted his 

 father's pack of harriers and afterwards his staghounds, than 

 which, a better education for a steeplechase rider can hardly 

 be imagined, and consequently had little time for race riding, 

 except at different Hunt meetings round about, on which occa- 

 sions he met with conspicuous success. 



It was not until his father had given up the staghounds 

 that Mr. Yates really went in for steeplechasing in earnest, and 

 not then until he had got together a really first-class lot of 

 thoroughbred horses, one and all recruits from the flat. 



Horses, such as Playman, Blackrock, Sapperton, Bristles, 

 Harold, etc., all winners in their turn, he educated entirely 

 himself, and it was when riding the last named in the race for 

 the Croydon Cup on the 27th November, 1866, that he gave 

 an exhibition of horsemanship which has since become histori- 

 cal. Harold, falling and rolling over his rider at what was 

 then known as the sensation water-jump, was going off on his 

 own account, when Mr. Yates, running after him, caught hold 

 of his tail and jumping nimbly up into the saddle, went on in 

 pursuit of the rest, and eventually won, amidst cheering which 

 might have been heard in the next parish. 



Needless to say, this " daring act of horsemanship," as the 

 circus people would describe it, was talked of far and wide, and 



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