Royal Ascot 



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cesses are the Royal Hunt Cup, the Ascot Derby, the 

 Ascot, Coronation, and St. James's Palace Stakes. Besides 

 the Gold Vase (1872), the Alexandra Plate, Ascot Derby, 

 Coronation, Wokingham, and St. James's Palace Stakes, 

 fell to the lot of T. Ciialoner ; Lemaire won the Corona- 

 tion Stakes twice, as well as five other races. 



Frederick Archer was born January nth, 1857, at 

 Cheltenham. His father, William Archer, was well known 

 as a successful cross-country rider, and won the Grand 

 National on Little Charlie in 1858. Fred Archer's 

 consummate horsemanship was innate, for we learn that 

 at ten years of age he won a pony race at Bangor, and 

 in February, 1868, he was apprenticed to Mr. Mat 

 Dawson, of Heath House, for five years. From this 

 association arose the future remarkable combination of 

 Lord Falmouth, Mr. INLit Dawson, and Archer. The 

 young jockey had to wait before a favourable occasion 

 enabled him to make his first public appearance, which 

 was contrived by Mat Dawson mounting Archer on his 

 own 3-year-old mare, Honorio, for a ^100 Plate. How- 

 ever, it was not until 1872 that he accomplished any 

 valuable success, when he won, by four lengths, the 

 Cesarewitch on Salvanos. This victory afforded an 

 instance of his mastery over an intractable horse, a talent 

 which he afterwards displayed so conspicuously in the 

 cases of Muley Edris, Tristan, and on Peter in the Hunt 

 Cup victory of 1881. Among his earlier influential sup- 

 porters were Prince Batthyany and Lord Rosebery. The 

 death of Tom French, in 1873, gave an opportunity for 

 Archer's advancement at Heath House, and soon after- 

 wards his engagement with Lord Falmouth provided him 



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