THli R-ACING 8KAS()N, 18:^8. 179 



THE RACING SEASON, 1838. 



The Racing Season, 1838, opened with dull prospects, but 

 the intense coldness of the winter, and the extreme back- 

 wardness of the spring, easily accounted for so many young 

 horses being amiss; or, what is quite as bad, was the cause 

 of so many being ^* hammered off their legs" in preparing 

 them for their different engagements at the Newmarket 

 Craven Meeting. So much difficulty, indeed, did some of 

 the trainers experience to bring their horses to the post in 

 anything like running form, that much additional prepara- 

 tion was resorted to, and, as was the case with Phoenix, 

 several gave way under their severe discipline. 



The Riddlesworth went, as a matter of course, into the 

 pocket of Lord Jersey, his colt by Buzzard, out of Cobweb, 

 proving an easy winner, held, or ridden, by James Robin- 

 son ; and Phoenix, although he won as his jockey liked, was 

 found to have *' touched upon an old sore ;" therefore, to 

 give him time to get round for the Derby, his noble owner 

 resigned all contention for the other rich stakes usually 

 swept away by his lordship. The scratching of Phoenix 

 gave an interest to the Derby betting. One class (his pre- 

 vious backers) insisted that he was the most superior race- 

 horse that ever " looked through a bridle ;" that he was too 

 good to be " hacked about," and that Lord Jersey *' knew 

 what he was about," and would win the Derby by a hun- 

 dred yards ! The other party (the knowing ones) laughed 

 in their sleeves at these preposterous observations, and stood 

 a little more against Phoenix, well knowing that it is his 

 lordship's custom always to run for such stakes as the 2000 



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