The Derby 307 



Jarcline, who owned him between them, had sold to Sh- 

 James Miller in the spring. That Porter, who knew so 

 well what winning the Derby meant, would have parted 

 with a horse that really possessed a chance of success 

 had been deemed absurd; but the result showed what 

 mistakes the shrewdest and most experienced men could 

 make. With regard to Surefoot, the fact was that he 

 could not stay ; but his speed was astonishing, and few^ 

 animals ever travelled quicker on a racecourse than he 

 did in the Eclipse Stakes next year, when, after being 

 absolutely last and apparently quite out of the race — 20 

 to 1 was offered against him in running — he took it into 

 his head to gallop, dashed up the hill, and won decisivel3\ 



No two-year-old stood out in 1890, and during the 

 winter, when so many elaborate speculations — which 

 experience so very frequently proves to be altogether in- 

 correct — are formed about the Derby horses, five animals 

 were marked as possessing a chance : The Deemster, 

 Orvieto, Orion, Peter Flower, and the French-bred 

 Gouverneur. 



Mr. Leo^Dold de Pvothschild's Bumptious had done 

 sufficiently well to make it a subject of regret that he had 

 not been entered. Such regrets are annually expressed, 

 and enlightenment comes later when it is shown, as it 

 was in this case, that the animal omitted has no sort of 

 pretension to stay a mile and a half. Eumour had spoken 

 of a colt at Kingsclere — Common, a son of Isonomy and 

 Thistle, belonging to those old allies. Lord Alington 

 and Sir Frederick Johnstone — that was likely to win 

 races ; but when the day of the Two Thousand came 

 round, the event was supposed to rest between 

 Gouverneur and Peter Flower, unless Orvieto beat them. 

 The plain-looking brown Common, however, won by 



X 2 



