202 JOHN PORTER OF KINGSCLERE 



The former was bought by Mr. Abington Baird 

 for 1900 guineas, and the latter by Sir Blundell 

 Maple for 2100 guineas. From first to last, 

 therefore. Lord and Lady Stamford did extremely 

 well with Geheimniss, who died in 1907. 



Lord Alington and Sir Frederick Johnstone, 

 who came to be known on the Turf as ** The Old 

 Firm,** because of the long duration of their 

 racing partnership, joined the Kingsclere Stable 

 some little time after the commencement of the 

 racing season of 1881. Sir Frederick had, of 

 course, been slightly associated with it previously, 

 because he owned Xi jointly with Sir Joseph 

 Hawley. Before coming to me the ** confeder- 

 ates* ** horses had been trained by Percy at 

 Pimperne, Dorsetshire, near Lord Alington *s 

 place, Crichel. The first batch sent to Kingsclere 

 was a very small one, and included no animal of 

 any consequence. None of them managed to 

 win the " whole '* of a race that season, but the 

 two-year-old filly Wedlock, who became the dam 

 of Best Man, ran a dead-heat in a match at Ascot. 

 This was the only contest in which Wedlock ever 

 took part. In the autumn of that year St. Blaise 

 was one of the yearlings that reached Kingsclere 

 from Crichel ; but I must defer the relation of his 

 story until I have disposed of Shotover, who, in 

 1882, won the Two Thousand Guineas and the 

 Derby for the Duke of Westminster. 



It was the retirement of Robert Peck of Russley 



