RACING ADVENTURERS. 249 



There can be no question but that Robert 

 Ridsdale had a finger in several of the dirty pies 

 that were cooked when he was active on the turf. 

 Many a well-planned victory (and even better- 

 managed loss) is said to have been due to his 

 busy brain. His machinations were far-reaching, 

 some of them taking^ a longf time to mature ; but 

 when such events came off they generally resulted 

 in the right way for Ridsdale, who was reputed at 

 the time (1824) to have planned a way of winning 

 a very large sum of money over the race for the 

 St. Leger of that year. 



The story of " Jerry's victory " has been often 

 told in turf circles and sporting journals. I shall, 

 however, give it here in few words, as an example 

 of racing fraud which unfortunately has, over and 

 over again, proved successful. Jerry, the winner 

 of the St. Leger of 1824, was the property of a 

 Mr. Gascoigne, a well-known sportsman of his 

 day ; and the horse, ridden by Benjamin Smith, a 

 famous jockey of his era, beat twenty-two com- 

 petitors in the great struggle for the Blue Ribbon 

 of the North. Jerry was to have been piloted in 

 the race by one Edwards, a horseman of that 

 time, but for good and sufficient reasons he was 

 at the eleventh hour superseded in the saddle by 

 Benjamin Smith, as will presently be shown. 

 Croft, the trainer of the horse, was exceedingly 

 confident of the ability of Jerry to win the St. 

 Leger, and did not keep his opinion a secret ; 

 but, whilst the animal was being wound up for 

 the occasion and was known to be doing all that 

 was required of him on his training ground, 

 pleasing both the owner and his friends by the 

 style in which he did his morning gallops, he was 



