The Derby 303 



could beat The Baron, who, moreover, was trained by 

 Matthew Dawson, and so gained a host of adherents who 

 regarded this master of his art as a magician. A great 

 many people try to find merit in a Derby favourite and 

 The Baron was esteemed by them as one of the ' good 

 old-fashioned sort ' — certainly there was nothing that 

 could be called ' flash ' about this stolid brown. Merry 

 Hampton, who had never run in public, was not much 

 ' fancied.' ' I think he is sure to run into the first 

 three,' his owner remarked to me on the morning of the 

 race ; ' but I suppose The Baron will win, though it 

 would not take a good one to beat him.' Tom Cannon, 

 who always disliked to hit a horse, rode The Baron, and 

 to the surprise of lookers-on had his whip up before 

 Tattenham Corner w^as reached. 



' I was just marking the place where I should have to 

 begin when we were round the bend,' Cannon quaintly 

 replied, when I observed to him, after the race, that he had 

 set to work early. How bad The Baron was racegoers 

 saw afterwards, and Merry Hampton, whose career was 

 short, was very far indeed from good. 



That Ayrshire was lucky in having the way cleared 

 for him in 1888 there can be no doubt. The year 

 before, w^hen the Ascot meeting was approaching, rumour 

 began to be busy about a wonderful dark chesnut colt at 

 Kingsclere. He was a son of Hermit, whose stock were 

 doing wonderful things at the time, and was said to have 

 been tried a ' w^onder.' There was a good deal of 

 foundation, moreover, for the report. Ayrshire and 

 Seabreeze were both out of the common ; but in the New 

 Stakes Friar's Balsam, as the Hermit colt was called, 

 cantered away from the pair with the most consummate 

 ease, a fact which gave ample proof of his merit. He 



