Gentlemen Riders 



transpired had been backed by the starter — when suddenly the 

 latter dropped his flag, and gave the word to " go," the leader 

 being then several lengths in front. Every one was taken by 

 surprise, and for a second it seemed useless to try to win the 

 race, but then Mr. Meysey-Thompson reflected that his mare 

 had won her trial, and knew she possessed a fine turn of speed. 

 Riding a patient race, for he noticed the jockey who had been 

 favoured, elated by his good fortune, was driving his mount 

 along at its utmost pace, Mr. Meysey-Thompson trusted to his 

 coming back, and felt confident he would overhaul him in due 

 time. Before long the other horse's stride began to shorten, 

 and gradually getting up, Mr. Meysey-Thompson proceeded to 

 force the running with La Marchesa, lest the other should get 

 a pull and come again. The tactics answered, and the mare 

 won with ease. So far so good, but now came the turn of the 

 other, for two miles over the Queen's Plate course. When 

 taking his place for the start, Mr. Meysey-Thompson saw 

 they were only a few lengths from a sharp turn to the right, so 

 in order to ease the angle he moved well away to the left of the 

 others, expecting them to follow his example. Instead, they 

 shouted to him to join them, whereupon they received a reply 

 he should stay where he was. ** Let the fool start where he 

 likes," was a courteous remark from one of the jockeys to the 

 starter, which fell upon his ears, and thereupon the flag was 

 dropped without more ado, and the race commenced. From 

 long practice on the circular courses in Spain, Mr. Meysey- 

 Thompson was familiar with every way of making the most of 

 a corner, and jumping quickly off raced Elmina at her utmost 

 speed to the easy angle that was now presented, whilst the 

 other jockeys had to hold their horses hard to get round with- 

 out slipping up. "I knew you were perfectly right," the late 

 Mr. W. B. Morris confided to him afterwards, "and would 



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