i8o HORSE-RACING IN ENGLAND 



Hester, Bend Or (though in his case there was 

 nothing more than an accident or inadvertence), 

 and Orme, were all either ' got at ' or supposed to 

 have had nefarious plots laid against them ; and 

 the first two seem to have been undoubtedly 

 poisoned (as was also said of Mr. Harvey 

 Combe's Cobham in 1838), Lanercost ineffectually, 

 but Ralph fatally. 



The principal iniquity was, of course, that of 

 1844, when Lord George Bentinck exposed the 

 villainy which had been perpetrated with the 

 four-year-old, Running Rein (imported, by-the- 

 way, into Russia, where he was much esteemed 

 under the name of Zanoni, but is said to have 

 been very shy ever afterwards of having his 

 mouth examined), by whose righteous disquali- 

 fication Lord George's friend. Colonel Peel, be- 

 came winner of the Derby with Orlando. 



Two other horses (Leander and Ratan) that ran 

 for that same Derby gave rise to investigations 

 which revealed other enormities. Leander, be- 

 longing to our German patrons, Messrs. Licht- 

 wald, who did so much to improve the horses, if 

 not the morals, of the Teuton, had been objected to 

 before the race on the ground of being ' much more 



