14 JOHN PORTER OF KINGSCLERE 



Though a bad " selling plater '* according to the 

 book, the market pointed to her being " some- 

 thing out of the ordinary." 



Mr. Topham took the hint and allotted Virago 

 21 lb. more than Day and Mr. Padwick had 

 expected her to get. The latter was furious 

 when he saw the weights and immediately 

 scratched his filly. That was in January. If 

 Mr. Padwick had been less hasty he would not 

 have sacrificed the fortune he did, for it is practi- 

 cally certain that, with ordinary luck in the race, 

 Virago, despite her weight, would have won the 

 Chester Cup very easily. Hodgman declares 

 that Mr. Padwick never knew how good Virago 

 was, for, while Day gave him a general idea, 

 details were withheld. This statement may be 

 justified, but I have my doubts. 



In addition to the Chester Cup, Virago had 

 also been entered for the two big handicaps at 

 the Epsom Spring Meeting — the City and Sub- 

 urban and the Great Metropolitan — which in 

 those days were run the same day, the former 

 being the first to be decided. It was resolved that 

 Virago should compete in both. Then, as now, 

 the City and Suburban was a ten-fiirlong race, 

 and the Great Metropolitan one of two and a 

 quarter miles. Virago's weight in the " City *' 

 was 6 St. 4 lb. ; in the longer race it was 5 st. 

 9 lb. These were not lenient weights, because 

 in those days the scale went down to 4 st. Mr. 



