SOME CURIOUS HORSES 247 



as to the quantity of whisky and port wine that 

 had been administered to the horse, but the facts 

 were as I have stated. He won in the same way 

 and with the same ease in July behind the Ditch. 

 After this we tried him without the horn, and he 

 went fairly, so I put him into a selling race, which 

 he won, and I sold him for a very fair price. I did 

 not hear much of him afterwards, but believe he 

 got back to his old tricks. 



Another horse that I bought I knew to be a 

 reprobate when I purchased him. He was a very 

 fine racehorse, and had run well in the Derby — 

 fourth or fifth, I think — and afterwards won several 

 very valuable stakes ; but in some of his last races 

 he was severely punished, and this quite upset his 

 temper. He became savage ; then he was operated 

 on and turned sulky, and at last developed a 

 curious trick (no one seemed to know exactly how 

 he managed it) of getting rid of his jockeys, nearly 

 causing the death of his rider on two or three 

 occasions. He was sent to Tattersall's to be sold, 

 with various other " weed-outs " from his owner's 

 stable. 



I bought him thinking that he might make a 

 steeplechaser, as rogues on the flat often develop 

 into good " 'chasers." 



Being anxious to find out how he got rid of his 



