198 JOHN PORTER OF KINGSCLERE 



buyer for her. I approached Lord Stamford 

 and he agreed to purchase the filly for ;^2ooo. 

 Directly afterwards she won for him two races 

 at Stockbridge — the Biennial and the Hurst- 

 bourne Stakes. In the latter St. Marguerite, 

 winner of the One Thousand Guineas the 

 following year, finished third, beaten three 

 lengths and a head. Later in the year Geheim- 

 niss won the Astley Stakes at Lewes (beat- 

 ing Marden a length), the Convivial at York, 

 and the Cheveley Stakes at Newmarket. She 

 went through the season unbeaten, and that 

 year won for Lord Stamford four races worth 



Her first race as a three-year-old was the 

 Oaks, and we had every reason to believe she 

 was almost certain to win. The best of her 

 opponents was St. Marguerite. Inasmuch as 

 Geheimniss had easily beaten St. Marguerite 

 as a two-year-old, and had in the meantime 

 developed to our satisfaction, we did not doubt 

 her ability to again defeat Mr. Crawfurd*s filly. 

 That impression was considerably strengthened 

 when the Duke of Westminster's Shotover won 

 the Derby. Though we never formally tried 

 Geheimniss and Shotover together as three- 

 year-olds, we could see every day on the Kings- 

 clere Downs that the former was the better of 

 the two. In the One Thousand, Shotover had 

 run St. Marguerite to a neck, with Nellie third, 



