246 JOHN PORTER OF KINGSCLERE 



for fourteen sovereigns, a mare called Annette, 

 by Priam. She had at foot a filly foal, who 

 received the name Agnes. In due course this 

 daughter was mated with Birdcatcher, and the 

 result of the alliance was the filly Miss Agnes. 

 When the late Sir Tatton Sykes was re-forming 

 the Sledmere Stud after the death of his father 

 in 1863, he bought Miss Agnes from John 

 Osborne, and mated her with The Cure. She 

 produced a weedy-looking filly foal. Sir Tatton 

 took an intense dislike to the youngster, and 

 gave her to his old stud-groom, Snarry, stipu- 

 lating, however, that she must leave Sledmere. 

 Snarry accordingly sent the despised foal to his 

 son, who had a farm at Malton, a few miles 

 away. The name Polly Agnes was bestowed 

 on the youngster, who was reared with a single 

 eye to her possibilities as a brood mare. When 

 old enough she was put to Macaroni, and the 

 produce was Lily Agnes, who, when in training, 

 was contemptuously described as ** a light-fleshed, 

 ragged -hipped, lop-eared filly." But despite 

 these defects she was endowed with great racing 

 ability, and won no fewer than twenty-one races, 

 including the Northumberland Plate, the Don- 

 caster Cup, and the Great Ebor Handicap. 



Lily Agnes, when still the property of Mr. 

 Snarry, was sent to Eaton to be mated with 

 Doncaster. Richard Chapman, the stud-groom, 

 liked her so much that he urged the Duke of 



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