84 PLENIPO. AND THE ST LEGER, 1834. 



After three false starts, they got away, when Bubastes 

 took the lead, and kept it until near the Red House, being 

 sometimes three or four lengths a-head of the field. By 

 the Red House, Tommy Nicholson, having done his work, 

 took a pull at Bubastes, and the horses all got together 

 again, and from the stand it appeared to be " any body's 

 race" at the turn, but Plenipo. was then either beaten, or all 

 but so, and though still in the cluster, he began to lag, and 

 the further he went, the further he was left behind, until 

 this great crack was absolutely last, or nearly so. Lord 

 Westminster's Touchstone, ridden by Calloway, running in 

 three or four lengths a-head of the fi.eld; Bran being se- 

 cond ; General Chasse, third ; Shilelagh, fourth ; Warlaby, 

 Bubastes, or Valparaiso, fifth. " The folks" were thunder- 

 struck ; some said the horse was far too fat; others that he 

 had a bad start ; whilst not a few roundly asserted that he 

 had been dosed with water, or a drug. 



Time however has now settled down the various conflict- 

 ing interests and opinions, which then waged violent war ; 

 some blamed one, some another; and fiction was brought in 

 to further fact. One thing however is now pretty generally 

 acknowledged, that unfair means made Plenipo. a safe horse 

 for that day, and ruined his constitution as a racer ever 

 afterwards. The facts which amply illustrate and sustain 

 this opinion, are few and shortly told. 



Plenipo. was a very difficult horse to saddle, and still 

 more diflicult to mount; kicking, plunging, biting, and 

 exerting every means to prevent it. On the morning of the 

 Leger he lay like a log in his stall, and was obliged to 

 be kicked several times before he would rise to be saddled. 

 When saddled, and brought out, he sufi'ered Conolly to 

 mount without resistance ; he tripped three times between 

 the stable and the starting-post ; Conolly was obliged to 

 spur him to get him to canter, and turning round to John 



