< BROCKET " i?LW ^S' 'RUBY.' 261 



and carried the right weight, what motive could have 

 suggested this unnecessary haste? The solution of 

 this intricate problem was, according to Mr. B. Way's 

 account of it, which I had from himself, the following : 

 Jones, then his trainer, took Brocket — a horse that in 

 the following year won the Royal Hunt Cup with 

 8 st. 5 lb. on him — without his knowledge, order, or 

 consent, to Northampton, where he was not entered 

 for a single race, and placed him in a box by the side 

 of Ruby. The man that had to take the horse out 

 was no doubt aware of what was being done ; and 

 instead of taking Ruby out to run, he took Brocket, 

 and, on account of the alleged fractiousness of the 

 real horse, had him saddled at the post. Consequently, 

 before the race was run, the horse had not been seen 

 by anyone ; and by very few after it, through the 

 hurry in which he was taken away, to say nothing of 

 the difficulty attending his recognition swathed in 

 clothing, as I have described. The horse was then 

 taken back to his box proper, which no one knew he 

 had left beyond those concerned in the fraud. Mr. 

 B. Way said he did not know even that Brocket had 

 left Prestbury until he returned to it ; and although 

 convinced of the robbery, was not in a position to 

 prove the facts. 



Another clever thins; was done with this same 

 horse Ruby for the Derby. For that race he was an 

 immense winter favourite. He had no chance for it, 

 being amicted in his respiratory organs. Yet that 



