2 8o TRAINERS WITHOUT TRAINING. 



increased fourfold, and they had some thirty horses, 

 or more, in training — as they called it. At this time 

 they had, amongst other good animals, Assault, Flat- 

 catcher, and Beverlac, as two-year-olds, to do battle 

 for their respective engagements in that and the 

 following years. In this the adage ' that it never 

 rains but it pours ' was singularly confirmed ; for all 

 three were good horses, and carried off triumphantly 

 most every engagement in the first year, winning 

 large stakes for the stable. In the following year 

 they were equally lucky in another way ; for all the 

 three horses, after being favourite in turn for the 

 Derby throughout the winter, added more to their 

 coffers by not winning that race — which everyone but 

 themselves thought they were secure of — than by all 

 their previous victories. At all events, this was the 

 popular version of the matter at the time, and most 

 likely the correct one. No doubt the defeat of 

 Shylock in the Derby was a severe blow to them, 

 though they did not lose on the race. The next year 

 things did not improve with them. They relied on 

 Lady Superior to win back their lost laurels ; but 

 fortune brought but disappointment, from the effects 

 of which they never fairly recovered. 



Such a string of horses as they had might, if 

 properly managed, have been a fortune to any but 

 themselves. But, if they had the luck to get the 

 horses together, they did not understand how to 

 make the best of them ; and. from a variety of cir- 



