Royal Ascot ^ 



Dales (i), Reeves (i), Chillman (i), J. Mann (6). 

 J. Osborne was successful in twenty races, winning the 

 Ascot Plate and Stakes, the Gold Vase, Jubilee Cup, and 

 Wokingham Stakes in various years. The Gold Cup and 

 the Ascot Derby and Stakes are amongst Aldcroft's sixteen 

 victories. A. French won in 1861 the Queen's Plate of 

 100 gns. ; this rider secured in all eight Ascot wins. 



George Fordham was born at Cambridge on September 

 24th, 1837. At the age of ten, he was apprenticed to 

 Mr. Drewitt, of Mickleham. His debut was made in 1850, 

 when he rode Isabella, in the feather plate at the Brighton 

 Autumn Meeting. Although he came in last in this 

 race, the same meeting brought him better fortune in the 

 following year, when his mount, a two-year-old named 

 Hampton, proved the winner. In 1853, at the Newmarket 

 Houghton Meeting, he secured the Cambridgeshire on 

 Little David. Owners, however, were slow to recognise 

 his talents. Captain Douglas Lane gave him a promising 

 opportunity early in the following year, and Fordham 

 brilliantly served his employer, by winning the Chester 

 Cup on Epaminondas, against such competitors as Acrobat 

 and Indian Warrior. In 1855, among many other successes, 

 he won the Hunt Cup, at Ascot, for Lord Clifden, on 

 Chalice. In 1858, he was victorious in the race for the Gold 

 Vase on Sedbury. His reputation was now at its zenith, 

 and he was without a rival in the astonishing record of 

 winning mounts, with which he was yearly credited. It 

 was generally allowed, that Fordham had no superior in 

 judgment of pace, dexterity in winning by no more than 

 was necessary, and in the perfect integrity of his character. 

 During his forty years' connection with the Turf, he rode 



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