Gentlemen Riders 



that period. That he had due appreciation of Mr. Meysey- 

 Thompson's capabilities the following anecdote well illustrates: — 



"What do you think Everitt said this morning?" Mr. Fenn 

 (who was then the handicapper in Portugal, and had come to 

 Spain in charge of Sr. da Cunha's horses) confided to Mr. 

 Meysey-Thompson on the morning of Cadiz races. "Alfred 

 Wood and Harry Adams were putting their things ready in 

 the jockey's room for this afternoon, and I could hear what 

 they were saying from where I was sitting. Adams remarked, 

 'What a lot they talk about Mr. Meysey-Thompson; I'd as 

 soon ride against him as anybody else.' Everitt was in another 

 part of the room by himself, but he caught the remark, and, 

 looking up, ejaculated, 'You ride against Mr. Meysey- 

 Thompson ! You'd better go to bed ! ' And you should have 

 heard the emphasis he put on ' you.' " 



It was at a Cadiz race meeting that the winning of a par- 

 ticular race by Mr. Meysey-Thompson caused such a heated 

 discussion between some excited signors that a duel the next 

 morning between two of them was the outcome of the dispute. 



The first race Mr. Meysey-Thompson rode in Spain was 

 the Rifle Brigade Steeplechase, which he won on his own horse, 

 King Cole. Having only Lackland when he arrived, he 

 needed a cheap horse to hunt and hack, and seeing a likely- 

 looking five-year-old country-bred animal which had just 

 brought in a load of straw, he bought it for ;^i8, and, having 

 taught it to jump, entered it in the race, and won. At the 

 subsequent spring meeting he entered it in a selling race, 

 though it had no pretensions to gallop on the flat, with a hope 

 of being able to claim something better. At that period the 

 conditions of selling races did not always provide the winner 

 should be sold by auction, often stating instead that it was 

 liable to be claimed within a quarter of an hour after passing 



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