REMINISCENCES OF BERT DRAGE 



I heard was " Davey Jones," which was one of 

 the very few horses of the Grand National entry 

 to come into the market, a horse with a quite 

 beautiful fore-head and shoulders : and so, to cut 

 a long story short, I bought him from the trainer, 

 Grayson, at no great price, as he was tubed. He 

 had won some selling races of small value on the 

 flat, and had never run over a country before last 

 October. Grayson stipulated, after the bargain 

 was struck, that, before handing Davey Jones 

 over to me, he should run in his (Grayson's) name 

 in a steeplechase at Manchester, in which he had 

 entered him. Grayson put up his own jockey, 

 and a proper mess the horse made of the race, 

 coming in nowhere — the jockey must have ridden 

 him badly, I thought that I had been thoroughly 

 " had." I never imagined that he would eventually 

 run so well. You know the sequel. 



Anthony dashed him off quicker than any other 

 horse, and he led over the first fence, a considerable 

 advantage in such a crowd of horses, five of which 

 fell at the obstacle. I asked him what had 

 emboldened him to make the running from start 

 to finish for 4i miles, which had never been done 

 before in this race. He answered that, after 

 jjmping off first and striding along in the lead, 

 he found himself galloping at no greater pace 

 than the horse (he knew) could go with ease to 

 himself — at that very pace, indeed, no faster and 

 no slower, which would enable Davey Jones to 



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