178 The Course, the Camp, the Chase 



on to a large ant-hill, which caused my horse to blunder, and 

 gave the other a length lead again. There were scarcely 

 thirty yards further to go, and though we made up some 

 of the ground lost, " Ganado for un 'pescuezo " (won by a 

 neck), is the fiat recorded against " Jerezano " in the Spanish 

 Guide to the Turf. 



Another instance of the truth of the saying that 

 " knowledge is power " occurred at an autumn meeting 

 at Jerez-de-la Frontera — the Newmarket of Spain. S*"- F. 

 E. da Cunha, a Portuguese gentleman, had been running 

 some horses with great success until a short time previously, 

 when they seemed to have somewhat lost their " form," 

 His trainer and I were both staying for the meeting at the 

 house of Mr. H. Davies, who possessed the most powerful 

 racing stable in Spain, and who, with his brother, was 

 mainly instrumental in making racing such a flourishing 

 institution as it then was. Having nothing particular to do 

 we strolled down in the afternoon to their Bodega, and it 

 was suggested that we should go and look at the horses from 

 Portugal, who were close by. Their trainer was having 

 some of them clipped, for they had grown shaggy winter 

 coats, and he fancied, which was very probably true, that 

 the loss of form was partly due to their heavy covering of 

 hair. We idly watched a horse, " Gigante," being clipped, 

 and then I sauntered into the stable to look at the others. 

 In the far corner stood a box with a wooden partition 

 about four feet high, and iron railings above. In this box 

 was a very speedy horse, " Perchance," who had already 

 had his coat removed. Whilst gazing at him he made a 

 little run at me across the box, laying back his ears and 

 drawing back his lips as he made a bite in the air. With- 

 out thinking of anything particular I put the palm of my 



