Gentlemen Riders 



and not speed. Petit Verre was quickly outpaced, so it was 

 necessary to sit down and "drive" him almost from the very 

 start. Gradually one horse was reached and passed, and then 

 another, the jockey never ceasing his efforts, until at length the 

 neck of the leader was reached a short distance only from the 

 winning-post. Dropping his hands for a few strides, Mr. 

 Meysey-Thompson carefully balanced Petit Verre, and, coming 

 again when close home, won the race by half a length. George 

 Last hurried up to lead the horse in, and was profuse with his 

 congratulations. "Well done, sir!" he ejaculated, beaming 

 with satisfaction. "You rode that race better than I could 

 have done." 



This was the last of Mr. Meysey-Thompson's winning 

 mounts in Spain. The severe wasting he had to undergo to 

 keep to flat-racing weights gave his enemy a chance — malaria 

 contracted in the Ashanti War. By the advice of his doctor, 

 he returned home to England, there to wrestle with the illness 

 which haunted him for twelve more years, and which practically 

 closed his career as a jockey, for it was very seldom he was 

 able afterwards to get into a racing saddle between the intervals 

 of malarial attacks. It was a bitter blow to have to send in his 

 various jackets ; for at that time, besides his own stable, he was 

 first jockey to " Mr. Marland," Mr. Larios, Mr. W. Garvey, 

 and Don Thomas Heredia, who possessed some of the best 

 racehorses in Spain, and who reverted again to professional 

 jockeys after the departure of Mr. Meysey-Thompson. At 

 any rate, he could look back upon a satisfactory average of 

 wins, having ridden 122 races, and won 40, his record being — 



while in 1876 the only jockey who headed him in winning 



286 



