The Derby 295 



fame as a racehorse, when one comes to think of it, 

 depends on that one victory, which he ought never to have 

 gained, which, indeed, it should rather be said Archer 

 gained for him ! Few Avho saw that race will forget it. 

 Kossiter on Eobert the Devil had won, if he had only 

 been aware of the fact ; but Archer, hampered as he was 

 with the lame arm which Muley Edris had savaged, pulled 

 his horse together for one mighty rush, and Eossiter, 

 turning his head instead of riding home, gazed at his great 

 adversary with a species of fascination. Bend Or won by 

 only a short head ; but it was the Derby. Next time the 

 horses met, in the St. Leger, Bend Or was far behind — 

 sixth ; and though a fortnight later, in the Great Foal 

 Stakes, Across the Flat, the Derby running was only just 

 reversed, the head by which Tom Cannon on Kobert beat 

 Archer could, I fancy, have been greatly extended ; but 

 that the consummate horseman could make certain of 

 his head even against Archer. In the Champion Stakes, 

 a fortnight later still, and this time with Eossiter 

 against Fordham— Archer having to ride Charibert for 

 Lord Falmouth — Eobert the Devil beat Bend Or ten 

 lengths. Next year this was again reversed, and the 

 Derby running seemed to be confirmed, for Bend Or 

 beat Eobert the Devil a neck. In truth, however, that 

 meant nothing. The bay was quite unfit ; he had 

 suffered from what is technically called a ' leg,' and when, 

 the evening before the race, Tom Cannon felt the injured 

 limb to see what he thought about the prospect of its 

 standing the strain of the race, the colt put the leg up 

 into his manger to escape the pain of the pressure. 



Next season the house of Grosvenor, as represented 

 by the present Lord Ebury, was just to miss the mark, 

 and America was to triumph with Iroquois. Peregrine 



