9o LORD GEORGE BENT IN CK. 



won easily, [t was said that Lord George won £20,000 

 on this race. He also won a large stake over Bay 

 Middleton for the Derby, entirely from his beating 

 Elis in the Two Thousand. In the latter, although 

 Bay Middleton won only by a neck, my father, who 

 rode Elis, always declared he won in a common 

 canter, and attributed the closeness of the finish to 

 his * slipping ' James Eobinson, and nearly snatching 

 the race out of the fire. Nor was he singular in this 

 opinion, for others thought so too, and subsequent 

 running proved the truth of his belief. 



When Lord George knew the form of Crucifix as a 

 yearling at Danebury, he entered her in every race 

 worth running for that he could find unclosed ; and 

 not only her, but with her all the rest of his 

 horses of the same age, so that no one should know 

 which he thought the best. She was cried with ISeth, 

 an old horse, at two stone, with several other year- 

 lings that were beat a long way, myself up, my father 

 riding the old one. Just as we started, we saw three 

 or four chimney-sweeps standing in the way ; and as 

 they would not move till we got close to them, 

 Crucifix, who was leading — for I could not keep her 

 back — took fright, and ran out of the course, and we 

 finished at the back instead of the front of the stand 

 as we had intended — she winning easily. Lord 

 George's notion of engaging all his yearlings, good 

 and bad together, for such a purpose as keeping the 

 public in the dark as to his plans, might have been a 



