450 DEATH OF LORD GEORGE BENTINCK. 



of the Turf." It had always been Lord George's 

 custom to back any good horse that called him 

 master for a very large sum, and it is difficult to 

 say what he would not have won in 1848 upon 

 Surplice, who in his hands would have carried off 

 the Two Thousand, the Derby, and the St Leger. 

 In those days it was easy to back horses for treble 

 events, and the odds laid against Surplice winning 

 the three great classic races would doubtless have 

 been enormous. The feat of winning the Two 

 Thousand, Derby, and St Leger had, in 1848, 

 never been accomplished by the same horse. The 

 only winner of the Derby and St Leger down to 

 that year was Mr Christopher Wilson's Champion, 

 who, in 1800, won the Derby in a field of thirteen 

 starters, and the St Leger in a field of ten. But, 

 in 1800, the Two Thousand Guineas did not exist, 

 as the race M^'as not established until 1809, and 

 was won, oddly enough, by Mr Wilson's Wizard. 



That, in 1848, it was deemed to be in the highest 

 degree improbable that the same horse would win 

 the Derby and St Leger, is shown by the facility 

 with which Mr Francis Villiers and his friends 

 succeeded in getting large bets at 100 to 1 against 

 Surplice landing the double event, after he had 

 been tried to be a great horse a few days before 

 the Derby. I remember that the present Earl of 

 Bradford, who was not in the habit either then or 

 now of making heavy bets, was tempted to lay the 

 late Earl of Winchilsea (then Lord Maidstone) 



