OLD JOHN DAY. 59 



and at the opening' of Iiis liistoiy tlie public records did 

 not deign to do as miicli for him. However, as far back 

 as the autumn of '22, more than forty years since, we 

 find him at Newmarket, in the First October Meeting, 

 winning' the Trial Stakes on Guerilla for his grace of 

 Grafton, beating- amongst others Gustavus, the Derby 

 winner of the year previous. Sam Chifney finishes first 

 for the next thing on; and then, in the Houghton, 

 *' J. Day" again claims a Match on Mystic for Mr. 

 Batson. He gradually got at home here after this, and 

 carried the scarlet livery across the Flat in many a close 

 encounter. With the riding* of such a stable he was 

 naturally up in most of the great races, and after a taste 

 of the Two Thousand, and the Thousand Guineas, which 

 he won in the same year, 1826, on Dervise and Problem, 

 he fairly matriculated at Epsom in 1828, where he carried 

 oif the Oaks for the Duke on Turquoise, with 25 to 1 

 against her. Only three years later he arrived at what 

 must still be considered the acme of his career as a jockey. 

 He again won the Oaks for the Duke on Oxygen, after 

 what was generally admitted to be a most brilliant dis- 

 play of horsemanship. In the same season he landed his 

 first Leger for the then Lord Cleveland, on the outsider 

 Chorister; while he was anything* but idle in his own 

 district. One of his favourite nags, Mr. Bigg-s' Little 

 Red Rover, was just then in full sail, and John was 

 w^inning a Plate at Blandford on him this week, the 

 Guineas and a Purse somewhere handy the next, the Cup 

 at Cheltenham, a handicap at Bath, and so on. He was 

 a terrible teaser to the Day, Dilly, Sadler School, and in 

 his last season, when six years old, John flew the Little 

 Rover at even higher game. He accepted for the Good- 

 wood Stakes with him, and won it on him. By the turn 



