316 A TRIAL FOR MR. MERRY. 



the Duke of Bedford). And on this occasion he 

 entirely lost his head and rode his horse to a stand- 

 still. There are plenty of men living who remember 

 the circumstances connected with the race ; how it 

 rained incessantly for days before, which made the 

 ground very heavy going ; the distance the horse 

 led everything till near the winning-post, when 

 he was beat by the Knight of the Shire carrying 

 6 st. 2 lb., stopping from sheer exhaustion, and 

 blowing like a porpoise on his return to the scales. 

 Yet in common fairness to Mr. Saunders, it should 

 be stated, even as he was, the horse would have won 

 in the hands of any competent jockey ; and probably 

 would have won with poor Petitt up, had the ground 

 been in a state fit for racing, and not the mud-pond 

 to which it had been converted by the late deluge. 

 Therefore I would not too severely criticize the 

 method of his training, or rather, in my humble 

 opinion, the lack of it. Such is a fair account of 

 Bobbie Nobles trial, and the disappointment which 

 followed it in the race itself. The simple fact is that 

 the horse could not stay over a mile. At and 

 about that distance, he won a few races ; but, like 

 a good many others, was never so good after he 

 was a three-year-old, as he was at or before that 

 age. 



Perhaps, naturally, the mention of this one trial 

 brings to mind another in which a difference of 

 opinion occurred. Joe Miller was sent to Mr. Parr's 



