RUINED THROUGH WINNING 



Mr Edwardes laughed : " Oh, you want them ail, 

 Pat ! You take him, Tod ; you can have him with 

 pleasure." He practically gave him to me. 



I had heard that the old 'un had let Mr Edwardes 

 down once or twice, and perhaps for this reason he 

 wasn't so sorry to see the back of him, so that he should 

 not lose any more money. At all events I was very 

 proud of our new property and he was duly sent over 

 to Belgium. 



It must be mentioned that at this time I had been 

 promised a trainer's licence in Belgium and there was 

 every reason to think it would be handed to me in a 

 few days. At last it seemed that my luck was chang- 

 ing and that I was to start off with a real good chance 

 of making good. Several of my friends congratulated 

 me in advance on my good fortune and some of them 

 went as far as to say that they would support me. I 

 had made my plans and was counting the hours to the 

 time when it should be announced to those I respected 

 in England and America that at last I had a " ticket " 

 to do something at my legitimate game. 



But destiny again interfered. There arrived 

 another minor tragedy of a life in which there had 

 been so many ups and downs. Abelard II. was put 

 in a hurdle race. I had no idea that he could stay 

 and this race was lost entirely through carelessness. 

 Abelard wouldn't go with Jimmy Hare waiting behind 

 on him and the race was lost. A few days later he was 

 engaged in the Grand Steeplechase and in this from 

 flag fall Abelard raced away on his own, Jimmy Hare 

 being quite unable to stop him. At one time he was 

 quite two hundred and fifty yards in front and at no 

 part of the race less than two hundred yards to the 

 good. He won in a trot, and no one was more surprised 

 than myself. 



237 



