Gentlemen Riders 



spring of 1867 when he rode Moorhen, the result of the race 

 being a dead-heat between Balham and Gelert, ridden respec- 

 tively by the late " Mr. Edwards " and Mr. Bidgood ; and two 

 more rides that day against professional jockeys also proved 

 unsuccessful, but he had the consolation of knowing he had 

 made his d^but in really good company. 



It was a long time before any "good mounts" in important 

 stakes came in his way; never, indeed, until he had "the leg-up" 

 on Leading Suit in the Grand Military Handicap in 1870 at 

 Aldershot. The race was won by Chaddington, who had 

 recently won the Erdington Plate at Birmingham, and v/as 

 ridden by his owner, Mr. E. W. Dunn, who also was a rifle- 

 man. Aurifera was second, and Leading Suit third. The 

 following day the latter horse, again ridden by Mr. Meysey- 

 Thompson, was returned the winner of the Light Division 

 Steeplechase, and should certainly have secured the Aider- 

 shot Cup also, later in the afternoon, but chancing the 

 last fence, when leading by several lengths, the pair rolled 

 over, though both escaped any serious hurt. On the same 

 day Mr. Meysey-Thompson also secured the Infantry Steeple- 

 chase on Tilbury Nogo, whose jockey of the previous day 

 objected to ride him again, in consequence of the horse having 

 refused a fence, the counterpart of the present-day "regula- 

 tion" jump, and then bolted out of the course and galloped 

 down a lane for some distance. The plan Mr. Meysey- 

 Thompson had mapped out for himself of riding in public 

 was beginning to bear good fruit, when two wins were credited 

 to him on one day. 



The way in which it so happened that the mounts on 

 Leading Suit — a horse that had run well in the Middle 

 Park Plate when the property of Sir Frederick John- 

 stone — were offered to Mr. Meysey-Thompson was quite 



270 



