" FAIK NELL." 123 



strength, and ability to cany weight. It is to this very supe- 

 riority of our thoroughbred, which is proved * wherever it has 



* It ■will be remembered, by many of my readers, that some years since the 

 Viceroy of Egypt challenged the English Jockey Club to run a certain number of 

 English horses against the pick of his stables. The bet was declined ; first, because 

 the EngUsh Jockey Club, in their corporate capacity, do not own racers ; and, sec- 

 ondly, because to run a distance race over broken desert ground was considered a 

 greater risk of destroying valuable animals than the circumstances would justify. 

 The match has since been made, on private account, with the usual result, as the 

 following extract shows : — 



" An interesting race was run recently at Cairo between an English mare and an 

 Arab horse belonging to Aaleen Pacha, when the former beat the latter. The length 

 of the race was eight miles, the time occupied by the mare 18^ minutes, over a 

 rough, gravelly, sandy road. The same race has been offered for the last two years 

 against all England, for 10,000 sovereigns, with the same horse, and not accepted. 

 The Egyptian princes are now convinced that their Arabs can be beaten by English 

 horses. The late Viceroy Abbas Pacha had offered to stake any amount up to 

 150,000f. on his own horse against any others that might be brought to run." 



A farther account of this mare has been more recently published, which is sub- 

 joined, showing it to be very doubtful whether the mare, which so easily beat the 

 Arab, was fully bred. 



" Fair Nell," the Irish mare that beat the Pacha's Arab. — A short time since 

 some sensation was created by a paragraph which went the rounds of the press, 

 stating that an English mare, in a race of eight miles, had beaten the best Arab in 

 Egypt by a full mile, doing the distance in 18^ minutes, and pulUng up fresh. On 

 inquiry, it was found that the Arab was the property of Aaleen Pacha, a son of 

 Abbas Pacha, who, it will be remembered, about three years ago, challenged the 

 Jockey Club to run any number of Enghsh horses against his Arabs, for any sum 

 not less than ten thousand pounds sterhng. The Jockey Club, which makes rules 

 for racing, and by its stewards fixes the weights of certain matches and handicaps, 

 does not own or run horses in its Club capacity, and dechned to take up the chal- 

 lenge. It was said that Abbas Pacha would not accept a challenge from any private 

 individual ; and the reputation of his stud — which had been collected at an unlimited 

 expense, with the power of despotism — was so high, that the owners of good horses 

 were afraid of risking their reputation in a foreign country over a long course of 

 sand and gravel. 



However, the other day a party of Cairo merchants made up the match above 

 referred to for about £400, and won it so easily that they now find it impossible to 

 make another. "We learn through private sources that El Hami Pacha, the youngest 

 son of Abbas Pacha, who inherited his stud, not less than 300 in number, still fan- 

 cies that he could find a horse that in a twenty-mile race would beat the European 

 mare ; but, although quite young, he is so indolent that he seldom leaves his 

 harem ; and it is doubtful if he will take the trouble to make the necessary pre- 

 liminaries for a race. About the result there can be no manner of doubt. No Arab 

 in the world can go through a day's racing with our best thoroughbred steeple- 

 chasers and hunters — not even the stock of Disraeli's Star of the Desert, jockeyed 

 by Sidonia. 



