MEN WHO HAVE IVON THE DERHV. 53 



Lcgcr with Surplice, which was sold with his other 

 horses, and won these two races in 1S48. It was the 

 day after the victory of Surplice on Epsom Downs 

 that he uttered that 'sort of superb groan' which has 

 become familiar from its relation by his biographer, 

 Lord Beaconsfield. 



'You do not know what the Derby is,' he moaned 

 out in the library of the House of Commons. 



'Yes 1 do ; it's the '' Blue Ribbon of the Turf,"' was 

 Mr. ]3israeli's repl}". 



His lordship sold the whole of his horses in one 

 lot to Mr. Mostyn ' for £10,000,' having previously 

 offered them to Mr. George Payne, who gave £300 to 

 be allowed to consider the matter for a day, and then 

 declined. Seven days after Surplice won the St Leger, 

 Lord George was found lying dead on his father's 

 estate of Welbeck. The name of Lord George Bentinck 

 will assuredly be long honoured on the turf. As may 

 be gathered from what has been said, Lord George 

 was the sworn foe to turf evil-doers; he had a keen 

 scent for all sorts of abuses, and was quick to have 

 them exposed and reformed. 



Side by side with Lord George Bentinck must be 

 placed Admiral Rous, the law-giver of the turf, whose 

 name was for years a terror to racing evil-doers, and 

 who may be said to have been, from the year 1840 to 

 the day of his death, in June, 1877, dictator on all 

 things pertaining to horse-racing, in which capacity 

 ho has had no successor. It is said — for the Jockey 

 Club docs not make its proceedings public — that he 

 was the means of dragging that institution out of the 

 quagmire into which it had fallen in a financial a.spcct. 



