A GREAT YEAR 



Champion Stakes by ten lengths, Robert ridden by 

 his Epsom jockey, Bend Or this time by George 

 Fordham. 



As a four-year-old Bend Or did well, leading off by 

 winning the City and Suburban by a length and a half 

 from the three-year-old Foxhall in receipt of 34 lb., 

 an extraordinary performance if Foxhall had been 

 anything like himself, which may be doubted. Bend 

 Or and Robert the Devil met again over the Derby 

 course for the Epsom Gold Cup, a race which, how- 

 ever, really proved little. Bend Or was here certainly 

 by no means at his best, having done very little work, 

 indeed I believe he was sent to Epsom with an idea that 

 if he appeared there he would be allowed to walk over. 

 Robert " had a leg." I remember Tom Cannon telling 

 me that he had gone with the colt's owner and trainer 

 to look at him in his box the evening before the race, 

 and had felt the doubtful joint, which Robert was 

 disposed to put up into the manger or anywhere else 

 where it could not be touched. Odds of 6 to 4 were 

 laid on Robert nevertheless, and Bend Or beat him a 

 neck. He won the Champion Stakes from Scobell 

 and Iroquois, the American colt who it need hardly be 

 remarked had won the Derby and Leger of that 

 season, and he started favourite for the Cambridge- 

 shire, ridden by Archer and carrying 9 st. 8 lb. 



But this was when Foxhall gave his great per- 

 formance, winning the race after a desperate finish by 



152 



