172 MR. PARKER. 



that there was no horse like him. So enthusiastic 

 were his supporters that the world would have come 

 to think there must be some truth in this wild report, 

 if it had not been for the irony of facts. In 1857, at 

 Wolverhampton, Fisherman gave him 20 lb. and a 

 o-ood beating. In I860 Petra beat him for the Chester 

 Cup and the Steward's Cup, for which latter he {Tame 

 Pee?') was favourite at 5 to 2. Besides, I beat him 

 myself with St. Giles, for the Northamptonshire 

 Stakes. But no one could then or can now get over 

 the fact that, when I had him, he beat Fisherman at 

 3 lb. ; and afterwards, when said to be so much better, 

 Fisherman gave him 20 lb., and beat him — a thing 

 which One Act could always do, and Fisherman, no 

 doubt, was 7 lb. or 10 lb. better than she was, which 

 would make public running and private trials tally. 



I may here refer to Bird on the Wing, because, 

 though never Mr. Parker's property, she was run in 

 his name. She belonged to a good -hearted and very 

 nice fellow, a Mr. Dalton, steward of Arthur's Club. 

 How he became possessed of her I don't know ; but, 

 as she was his as a two-year-old, I should think most 

 likely he bought her as a yearling of the breeder, 

 Mr. R. Wright, of Richmond, Yorkshire. In her 

 first race as a two-year- old Bird on the Wing was 

 evidently thought much of, as she was favourite at 

 2 to 1, but was unplaced. This was in the Prince of 

 Wales's Stakes, at York, won by Mr. Merry's Filly by 

 Ithnriel, afterwards called Sally, who started at 6 to 1. 



