Captain Frank Barton 



Mr. Baird, who had, unfortunately for himself, long abandoned 

 race-riding, eventually died at New Orleans on March 20th, 

 1893, ^t the early age of thirty-two, as the result of a severe 

 chill caught whilst attending the fight between Hall and 

 Fitzsimmons. 



CAPTAIN FRANK BARTON 



I WAS born in i860 at Bordeaux, where my family have been 

 for many years engaged in the wine business, and must have 

 inherited an aptitude for riding from my father, who was a fine 

 horseman, and from my Irish ancestors, who were the first to 

 keep hounds at Grove in Tipperary. My school days were 

 spent at Eton, with " Roddy" Owen, Joe Burn-Murdoch, Harry 

 McCalmont, the Lawsons, etc., and at the age of eighteen I 

 joined the Queen's Bays at Ballincollig, and there was taught 

 to ride by my captain (Peter Aubertin), who had made a mark 

 as a soldier jockey on Scots Grey, at Punchestown, and was 

 a friend of Arthur Yates. I was a moderate beginner, but 

 three or four seasons in Ireland, during the last of which I 

 turned harriers at Dundalk, taught me a good bit. 



My first appearances in silk were also moderate and were 

 in regimental races. I first caught the judge's eye at Tarporley 

 on a horse I had bought for ^30 to finish the season. This 

 horse had run before, and I succeeded in winning several small 

 races with him in Cheshire. 



In 1883 I exchanged into the Scots Guards, and it was 

 through a mere chance that I ever became a jockey, for I had 

 no ambition in that direction ; and, indeed, so little did I think 



443 



