Gentlemen Riders 



I need not say was the "^ambition of my life, I retired from 

 riding between the flags and am now content to confine myself 

 to hunting, where the fences are smaller and the pace not 

 so fast." 



Mr. F. S. WITHINGTON 



Brief though his career was in the saddle as compared with 

 many whose deeds are recorded in this volume, there were few 

 superiors amongst the amateur horsemen at the period he was 

 riding, who could claim superiority to the gentleman named 

 above. 



Born in 1869 and educated at Eton, the subject of our 

 sketch rode his first winning race at Layboro in 1892 on Mr. 

 C. N. Prior's Diva, in which he won a 2^-mile steeplechase in 

 a canter. 



Encouraged by this success, Mr. Withington went rapidly 

 ahead, with the result that he soon took a prominent place 

 amongst the gentlemen riders of the period. 



In 1897, which was his best year as regards average, he 

 having won twenty-two out of the fifty-six races he rode in, he 

 made his first appearance in the Grand National on the late 

 Major Orr-E wing's Ford :of Fyne (6 years, 10 st. 7 lbs.), on 

 which, starting at 25 to i in a field of twenty-eight runners, 

 he finished third to Manifesto. The following year he again 

 rode the same horse, who this time started favourite, but could 

 only get fifth to Drogheda. Amongst his numerous winners, 

 nearly all of which emanated from the stable presided over by 

 Mr. John Cotterell Dormer at Cokethorpe Park, Oxon, may 

 be mentioned Gray Olway, on whom he won nine three-mile 

 races out of the twelve he started in, including the Champion 



474 



