CHAPTER III 



THE GREAT YEAR 



As the 1 9 1 9 season approached Lord Glanely's 

 prospects looked distinctly good, except that a great 

 consensus of opinion regarded Sir Alec Black's The 

 Panther as invincible for the Derby. The colt had 

 not done anything very remarkable as a two-year-old. 

 He had been beaten in his first race by Mr. Anthony 

 de Rothschild's Galloper Light, had then won a 

 Maiden Plate, from a large field, indeed, but of for 

 the most part bad horses, none of them beyond 

 the rank of plater. A third and final effort at a 

 Newmarket Extra Meeting had resulted in a success 

 which was certainly creditable. As a matter of course 

 the colt must have done something to account for the 

 prestige he was supposed to enjoy. In his third race 

 he beat Lady James Douglas's Bayuda by three 

 parts of a length, Galloper Light third, a length 

 and a half away, but giving the winner as much 

 as 10 lb. Bayuda had then won nothing. The 

 craze for The Panther always struck me as inexpli- 

 cable. He was not in what is called a " fashionable " 



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