NOTES ON MEMORABLE MATCHES. i6i 



Coming now to matches more suitable to 

 be recorded in this work, one affair of the kind 

 run at Newmarket between two horses deserves 

 notice. It was that of Mr. Blake's Firetail and 

 Mr. Foley's Pumpkin, " the hardest race almost 

 ever known," and remarkable for the wonderful 

 time in which it was run ; the horses, it is said, 

 did the Rowley mile (one mile and thirty yards) 

 in one minute and four seconds ! An interesting 

 match was run in the year 1773, the course being 

 from York to London ; the one horse was a 

 hackney gelding, the other a road mare. The 

 distance was done in forty hours and thirty-five 

 minutes, and the winning mare, it is related, drank 

 twelve bottles of wine during her journey, for 

 which she was nothing the worse ; the beaten 

 horse died the day after the contest was finished. 



The great struggle between Hambletonian 

 and Diamond, which took place at the Newmarket 

 Craven Meeting of 1799, is well worthy of notice ; 

 it was regarded by sportsmen of the time as 

 a race to determine which was the better sire, 

 Eclipse or Herod. The match is recorded in 

 Bailys Register in the following bald way : " Sir 

 H. T. Vane's b. h. Hambletonian, by King 

 Fergus, 8st. 3 lb., beat Mr. Cookson's br. h. 

 Diamond, 8st., B.C., 3,000 gs. h. ft." A more 

 detailed account has, however, been preserved 

 and is given in Whyte's " History of the Turf," 

 from which the following narrative has been 

 taken : Previous to the time fixed for the match, 

 which was run between one and two o'clock on 

 Monday, 25th March, 1799, a great crowd of 

 persons had assembled — " one of the greatest 

 crowds ever witnessed at Newmarket " — to see 



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