403 



To particularise the great races which Archer won would be a task 

 beyond the powers of anyone. I shall therefore from ordinary Racing 

 Calendars dissect some of the most important, and subjoin the list : — 



The foregoing comprise nearly all our great events, but besides them 

 Archer won all over the country races of importance, including the 

 Clearwell Stakes a great many times. 



He rode in public for sixteen years, and for thirteen in succession 

 headed the list of winning jockeys. In 1878 out of 606 mounts he scored 

 223 wins and got placed in nearly all the remainder, while 246 was the 

 number of races he won in 1885. 



To make a long story short, he won during his career no less than two 

 thousand seven hundred and forty-seven races, which is an average of 

 nearly one hundred and seventy-two a year. To accomplish which he 

 must have ridden at least nine thousand races, or about five hundred 

 and sixty a year. 



By this marvellous performance has Archer established a record 

 which stands not alone unparalleled, but quite unapproached by any 

 other rider who ever sat on the back of a horse, and probably it will for 

 ever remain so. 



By reference to any Racing Calendar my readers can see that, for some 

 race or another, he not a'one rode, but won on nearly every remarkable 

 horse that was on our Turf within the years 1874 and 1886. In the face of 

 such a phalanx of figures as I have just given, which represent his wins, 

 needless to say to give a list of the horses he rode in a chapter like this 

 is a simple impossibility. 



He never won the Chester Cup, nor yet the Cambridgeshire, but 

 was second for the latter on Bendigo in 1884, and lost it by a head on 

 St. Mirin in 1886, just a fortnight before he died. 



As a fox well found is considered to be half killed, so Archer thought 

 a good start lessened by half the odds against winning a race. Con- 

 sequently in his desire to get away in front he, in the early days of his 

 riding, at times gave trouble to the starter, but upon Lord Marcus 

 Beresford delivering to him a homily on the subject, and intimating 

 clearly that he expected the elder jockeys to set the younger a good 

 example, Archer ever after behaved himself at the post. 



During the race he showed himself possessed at all times of iron 



