Yorkshire Celehdties 7 



and distance to have included almost the whole of the 

 crack jockeys of that day. Mr. Thompson's greatest 

 feat, perhaps, was getting Lord Zetland's " Hardrada " 

 home, and beating F. Archer, on Mr. Cragg's " Oxlip," 

 by a head, in the Garbutt Pedestrian Handicap at 

 Stockton, after a desperate finish from beyond the 

 distance. 



In a characteristic letter he writes : " I think I should 

 hardly like to crow over poor F. Archer, unless I also 

 mentioned that I had had three close finishes with Johnny 

 Osborne, and that he had beaten me by a head in each of 

 them. Very disgusting ! I spoke to his mother, a dear 

 old woman, of his heartless conduct to me, and begged she 

 would give a good talking to him ! 



" I should think my race-riding career was chiefly 

 remarkable for carrying more dead weight than, I imagine, 

 any other jockey ever did. 5 st. 10 lb. of lead I often 

 carried ; and once 6 st. 6 lb., to ride ' Fairyland '13 st. 

 1 lb., and it did not stop her winning ! " 



For the first winning race he ever rode — indeed the 

 first time he ever rode a race — he carried a very different 

 weight. His father had made a match with a friend, to be 

 run at a meeting held on Eawcliffe Ings, half a mile at catch 

 weights. There was no actual condition as to the riders, 

 though the meeting being an amateur one, Mr. Thompson 

 naturally supposed that only " gentlemen-riders " could 

 ride in the match. At the last moment, however, his 

 opponent produced as his jockey a lad from John Scott's 

 stable, who had ridden several winners in public, weighing 

 under 7 st., and as Mr. Thompson weighed 11 st. himself, 

 he very naturally objected. Having found, on referring to 

 the articles, that there was no clause about the jockeys, 



