LUCKLESS FRIAR'S BALSAM 305 



won, your Grace, with Orbit." " Really! " he 

 exclaimed, evidently very surprised. " What 

 was second ?'' " Yours was second ; you got 

 all the money.'* More than ever astonished, 

 and at the same time very pleased, he said, on 

 the spur of the moment, that he would make me 

 a present of ;^500. The public had not held 

 Orbit in such small esteem as his owner, for they 

 made him favourite for the Eclipse. He won 

 by a length from Ossory, with Martley a good 

 third. But the Eclipse field that year was 

 composed of moderate horses, and the Duke's 

 estimate of his two was quite correct. 



That success at Sandown Park brought me a 

 letter from my friend Hawley Smart, the novelist, 

 which I reproduce because it shows the interest he 

 took in racing: 



Garkick Club, Covent Garden, W.C, 

 yuly 29. 



Dear Porter — No end of congratulations on the 

 Eclipse Stakes. If your team was a little backward, they 

 came with a rattle when they did come, and about £1 2,000 

 in two " pops " must make the Duke think keeping 

 racehorses about the most economical sport out. 



I couldn't go down to see it, but what a good race it 

 was between your pair. ... I got a message from you 

 by Mathews (for which many thanks) and had a " tenner " 

 on Orbit in consequence. They may not be first-class 

 horses but they are an uncommonly useful pair, they 

 stay so well. . . . Ossory was about last all the way to 

 the Swinley turn at Ascot, but the further he went the 

 better he liked it. 



