PERO GOMEZ 135 



Six Furlongs 

 Pero Gomez, 2 yrs., 9 st. 7 lb. . . .1 



Moma, 2 yrs., 9 st 2 



The Palmer, 4 yrs., 10 st. 7 lb. . . . 3 

 Won by a neck ; the same between second and 

 third. 



According to the official weight-for-age scale 

 a four-year-old should, at that time of the year, 

 give a two-year-old 26 lb. Pero Gomez was, 

 therefore, opposing The Palmer at a disadvantage 

 of 1 2 lb. Moreover, the proof we now had that 

 he was 8 lb. better than Morna was, to say the 

 least, encouraging, and we looked forward to his 

 winning the Middle Park Plate with every confi- 

 dence. The favourite, at 45 to 20, was the Duke 

 of Hamilton's colt. Wild Oats, who was also 

 making his first appearance, and reported to have 

 been tried 12 lb. better than the four-year-old 

 Silenus, a winner of four races that season. 

 Pero Gomez was backed at 3 to i, and King 

 Cophetua (by Asteroid-Mendicant) was third 

 favourite at 6 to i . King Cophetua also belonged 

 to Sir Joseph. His only previous outing was at 

 Ascot, where he was backed to win the New 

 Stakes, but ran unplaced. It seems strange to 

 read now that Sir Joseph actually declared to win 

 the Middle Park Plate with King Cophetua in 

 preference to Pero Gomez. His reason for so 

 doing was to save Pero from a penalty if his two 

 colts approached the winning-post with the race 



