REMARKABLE RACING DREAMS 379 



tried the horse last week against a hurdle-jumper, and he 

 was beaten at a distance.' I thanked my informer, and 

 discontinued backing Aldrich. General Taylor, who had 

 heard what had passed, asked me, if I did not intend 

 backing the horse again for myself, to win him i^iooo 

 by him. This I did by taking for him looo to 30, and 

 Aldrich won. 



Sir George Chetwynd, by the way, had an almost equally 

 remarkable dream with respect to Curate in the same race 

 (the City and Suburban of 1874). He dreamt that Curate 

 came in first, but ran up a bank just beyond the winning- 

 post, and, disappearing, never returned to weigh in ; conse- 

 quently the race was awarded to Mr Lefevre's Minister, 

 who came in second, ridden by a jockey in deep mourning, 

 crape on jacket and cap, as well as on boots and breeches. 

 Now Curate was a horse that had been heavily backed for 

 the City and Suburban, but was scratched just before the 

 race, and Minister did come in second. The dream, 

 grotesque as it was, left so vivid an impression on Sir 

 George's mind that he backed Minister for a place, and 

 had reason to be well satisfied that he had not scorned 

 his queer dream-tip. 



Colonel Starkey, the owner of Sulphur, was another 

 sportsman who was indebted to a dream for enabling 

 him to hedge at the last moment. When the Colonel 

 ran Sulphur for the Lincolnshire Handicap he was very 

 sanguine up to a certain time that the horse would win ; 

 but on the Monday prior to the race he was out with the 

 Burton Hounds, and rode nearly all day side by side with 

 Mr Lawrence Thornton, mine host of the Saracen's Head 

 Hotel, Lincoln, when, just as the hounds were running 

 into their fox, and each man was putting on his best 

 " spurt " to be in at the death, Mr Thornton rushed his 

 old hunter past the horse the Colonel was riding, and, 

 turning round, said : " Ah, that's how I want to see 

 Sulphur rush past 'em in the Handicap for you." Well, 

 on the way back the Colonel seemed gloomy. He said : 

 " Thornton, you beat me to-day, and I shall be beaten 

 to-morrow. I dreamt," he went on to say, "last night 

 that Sulphur's number was put up third, and that's 



