A GREAT YEAR 



idea with one difficulty about it. The idea was to 

 back nothing but certainties, the trouble being to make 

 sure that they were what they were supposed to be. 

 On the Turf the greatest certainty is sometimes proved 

 to be uncertain. The plunger in this case wired up to 

 a prominent book-maker to put him £i 0,000 on Anarch. 

 The telegram arrived before mid-day and the race was 

 fixed for 3 o'clock. What happened meantime is not 

 known, but Anarch did not land the long odds that 

 were laid on him. Perhaps he ought to have done so. 



" De mortuis " 



It has been the custom of many owners to bring out 

 their best two-year-olds for the New Stakes at Ascot, 

 and it was for this race that Friar's Balsam first carried 

 silk. The circumstance is impressed upon my mind 

 as I travelled down to Ascot with a friend, now General 

 Sir Cecil Bingham, who had heard of the wonderful 

 Kingsclere trial, information of which had also reached 

 me, and we agreed that we could not believe it. Our 

 incredulity, as it presently appeared, was ill-advised. 

 In the New Stakes that year there was a good colt and 

 a good filly, the Duke of Portland's Ayrshire and Lord 

 Calthorpe's Seabreeze. They had both won races and 

 each was expected to win this one. Ayrshire, it need 

 hardly be observed, won the Two Thousand and the 

 Derby, amongst other events which made him one of 

 the richest winners in Turf annals. Seabreeze beat 

 him in the Leger, indeed these two were in frequent 



162 



