SOME OF THE FIELD. 205 



table till the glasses rang as he dilated on the merits of 

 his favourite horse. He was by Brutendorf, and was bred 

 by the Rev. Pye-Cooper, Vicar of West Easen. He could 

 not get through the dirt like Peter Simple ; but what he 

 lost by being slow, even on good ground, he made up by 

 his power of going on in his stride after a fence, and 

 although he always seemed to gallop over them, he hardly 

 ever made a mistake. Gay Lad and Peter Simple won a 

 great many races in the Midlands, and it was when they 

 came out that Lottery's troubles began. 



Gay Lad's was somewhat of an up and down career. 

 He began in 1840 by running unplaced to Cigar at 

 Northampton, and ran third to Mr. Walker's Peter Simple 

 and Mr. Loft's Creeper the same year at Louth. At 

 Brocklesby in 1841 he finished second to Mr. Lionel 

 Holmes's Croxby ; but soon after he manao^ed to turn the 

 tables on him and eight others at Horneastle, winning a 

 four-mile steeplechase of five sovereigns each, with £50 

 added, in twelve and a half minutes, and this over a 

 natural country, be it remembered. A second to Peter 

 Simple at Boston was followed by a first at Northampton, 

 with Cigar behind him this time. He was unplaced at 

 Nottingham, but he won a ten-sovereigns' sweepstake with 

 £100 added at Chelmsford, beating such horses as Lottery, 

 Selim, Aggravator, Goblin, etc. But Lottery beat him at 

 Newport Pagnell in April, 1841, and Luck's-all at the 

 same place in November. Then came the winning of a 

 £200 match against Croxby at Finchley, Jem Mason in 

 the saddle, and he also won the Great Oxford Steeple- 

 chase, and, as a final triumpli, the Liverpool Grand 

 National. He was at first ridden in his races by Captain 

 "Jack" Skipworth, but Tom Oliver rode him in the 

 National, and his owner steered him to victory as well as 

 Mason. 



