144 THE BLUE RIBBON OF THE TURF. 



allowed fur the necessary preliminaries, which, on the 

 present occasion, included a new feature, by special 

 order of the stewards, so as to guard against any foul 

 play or chicanery respecting short weights, which — it 

 is a common talk in sporting circ^.^es — more than one 

 winner of the Derby was supposed to have carried 

 within the previous thirty years ! The weighing was 

 conducted with scrupulous minuteness, the saddle, 

 bridle, and all the other riding paraphernalia being 

 privately marked, and weighed separately from the 

 jockey, whose bodily vveight was also registered, after 

 which he was weighed with his ' gear ' in the aggregate ; 

 and to guard against the slightest deception, a body of 

 mounted police had orders to escort the winner back 

 to the Stand, where a detective would superintend the 

 unsaddling, and conduct the jockey to the scale — a 

 very proper precaution, it will be admitted on all hands, 

 but affording sad cause for reflection that the whole 

 system of racing has become so foul as to necessi- 

 tate it.' 



No sooner had the race been run than stories of 

 many kinds were set afloat as to the money that had 

 been won and lost. In the winnings the stake netted 

 must, of course, claim a place ; the purse taken by 

 Gladiateur contained the handsome total of £6,875, 

 whilst the Count was enabled to claim from the ring 

 the sum of about £40,000, his trainer also winning a 

 o-ood amount — £13,000, it was stated; Count de La- 

 o-rauf^es commissioner won about as much, whilst a 

 considerable number oC persons were known to ' land ' 

 from £2,000 to £10,000 over the victory of Gladiateur, 

 who, as may be surmised from the short price at 



