TOD SLOAN 



about him. I told him frankly that I thought I had 

 won but I never uttered one word against his honest 

 conviction that he had seen the race in the way he had 

 placed them. My opinion, as I told him, was that the 

 width of the course and the fact that the judge's box 

 was set so low between them made it almost im- 

 possible to judge a finish correctly. He listened very 

 pleasantly to me and said he was quite certain that I 

 had not been outspoken about him personally. Of 

 course it's a long time ago and makes very little differ- 

 ence now, but that race has always stuck in my 

 gizzard and I shall always wish that someone had 

 taken a photograph of the finish. 



I was very upset, but Lord William Beresford 

 came up to me afterwards and said, " Don't worry 

 yourself ; we think you won, and perhaps you shall 

 ride for me on Friday." I should explain that 

 Cuthbert, who was book-keeper or secretary to Lord 

 William's stable, had already told me that there might 

 be a mount for me on Met a on Friday for Wood didn't 

 want to ride her, as he had had the offer of the mount 

 on a semi-certainty in the same race. But it was clear 

 that he did want to ride Sandia, in the same stable, 

 on the same afternoon. I dare say Cuthbert thought 

 that when I found I couldn't ride Sandia in the bigger 

 race I would refuse the mount on Meta. I had more 

 sense. " I'll ride her all right," I said. I did, and 

 I beat Wood a head on his hot favourite ! 



Lord William was so pleased with me that Friday 

 afternoon that he announced : " You shall ride 

 Sandia too. Let Wood hunt up another mount." 

 And I won the Old Cambridgeshire on him. Those 

 were the days when that race used to finish at the top 

 of the town. 



Mr Martin, above whose bar I used, as I have said, 



50 



