ATTEMPT TO DEFEAT CRUCIFIX. 309 



the signal had never been given, and it was de- 

 clared " no start." To run another heat with 9 lb. 

 extra was undoubtedly a severe tax upon an over- 

 grown, light-framed, leggy, and half-furnished filly 

 of a most irritable and impetuous temperament — 

 a defect which she inherited from her dam ; but 

 such was her superiority that she was equal to the 

 task, and won the actual race in a canter by two 

 lengths, Iris second. It was 7 to 4 on her before 

 the first heat and 2 to 1 against her for the second. 

 When she ran for the Criterion in the Houghton 

 Meeting, it was 3 to 1 on her, although she again 

 had 9 lb. extra to carry. The usual false starts 

 were resorted to, maddening Crucifix so much that 

 she ran a dead heat with General Yates's Gibraltar. 

 The stakes were then divided, which was to the 

 advantage of both ; as Crucifix, although pretty 

 certain to have won the second heat, might have 

 been overtasked, to her own permanent injury. 

 In the following year (1840), when Crucifix, after 

 winning the Two Thousand and One Thousand 

 Guineas, ran for the Oaks, the betting was 3 to 1 

 on her. There were fifteen runners, and more 

 than an hour was cut to waste before the horses 

 got off. Although Crucifix won by half a length, 

 it was her ruin, as she had become so fretful that 

 in one of the innumerable false starts she hit her 

 leg and never ran again. She was beyond all 

 question a victim to the rascally policy pursued 



