192 JOHN PORTER OF KINGSCLERE 



very much upset. I at once decided it was time 

 Mr. Frederick Gretton and I parted company, 

 and I asked him to be good enough to remove 

 his horses from Kingsclere. Shortly afterwards 

 I saw a string of the best-looking horses I had 

 ever had in my stable march out of my yard. 

 They went to old Alec Taylor. The yearlings 

 which thus left me proved to be not so good as 

 they looked, for I believe only one or two of them 

 won races. It grieved me to have to lose the 

 patronage of Mr. Gretton in this unceremonious 

 fashion, but I could not afford to risk a repetition 

 of that affair at Liverpool. I must add that I 

 did not believe Mr. Gretton was, except indirectly, 

 responsible for the manoeuvring that so incensed 

 the public. He was a victim of the people who 

 were pulling strings mainly to serve their own 

 ends. 



Fernandez remained in training two more 

 seasons. As a four-year-old he started favourite 

 for the Manchester Cup, but was unplaced, 

 and then finished a poor third for the Goodwood 

 Cup. At Goodwood he was quartered in the 

 Duke of Richmond*s stables. The Princess of 

 Wales (Queen Alexandra) went round the stables 

 one evening and expressed a desire to be shown 

 " the fat horse." Everybody that week had 

 been speaking of Fernandez as " the fattest 

 horse they had ever seen." Rightly or wrongly, 

 the idea prevailed that he was being reserved for 



