3S^ 



jockey is seldom seen. In book form a lengthened and authentic 

 history never appears. This to some people doubtless seems strange, 

 but to me it is especially so, holding as I do that the credit for a horse 

 turning out well should be accorded to the trainer and jockey rather 

 than the owner, as already alluded to in another chapter. 



As is seen by the heading, I am about to make mention of two 

 trainers and two jockeys. In selecting the late John vScott and the 

 present Mat Dawson with the late George Fordham and Fred Archer, 

 I cannot by any possibility find representatives of their callings more 

 able or more honourable, nor any who by mighty deeds have gained 

 such celebrity on the Turf. Their records stand not alone unparalleled, 

 but unapproached. Moreover, by selecting these men I am enabled 

 to allude to most of the great racehorses which have run in England 

 for the past seventy years, and I hope some of my readers will enjoy 

 as much as I do the "glorious reuiiniscences " which are called up by 

 the names of the celebrities I am about to enumerate, and which in 

 their day were the Bendigos, the Mintings, and the Ormondes of our 

 own. With limited space only at my disposal I cannot give a 

 lengthened history. of either the men or the horses; all I can now 

 attempt is to furnish for my readers memoranda of each, but they 

 will be found correct. 



I have in my possession cuttings from newspapers and magazines 

 dealing with their histories, bat finding so many inaccuracies 

 when I consulted them for the purpose of my own sketch I gave them 

 up, therefore what I now produce is almost entirely original, the 

 particulars being put together by myself from authentic sources, 

 official Calendars, or on the authority of parties well conversant 

 with the subjects and who vouched to me their accuracy. 



xls is usually the case with great men and public favourites, the 

 subjects of my following allusions are universally referred to without 

 prefixing to their names the conventional title of Mister. To do so 

 would obscure the individuality. Fancy alluding to the great York 

 shire trainer as " Mr. John Scctt '' ! Unless you began by explaining 

 who was meant, the hearers or the readers might take him for a 

 dignitary of the Church or some commercial potentate, whereas by 

 eliminating the title any dunce of the day w^ould recognise who it 

 was. 



Thus far for preface ; so I now proceed with my subject, and shall 

 commence with the same 



John Scott. 



He was born at Chippenham, a village near Xewmarket, on 

 November 8, 1794, where his father was a well-known trainer for 

 many years but moved afterwards to Oxford. 



As a merg child little John evinced extraordinary sagacity, and was 

 so precocious at the age of thirteen that he was entrusted by his father 

 with the charge of horses sent from home, having before that become a 

 good horseman. 



