292 THE BLUE RIBBON OF THE TURF. 



Leing laid on the favourite, Riddlesworth, who had 

 won the Two Thousand Guineas. The race, which 

 was considered ' a slow run one,' Avas won very easily 

 by nearly three-quarters of a length, and Spaniel, the 

 winner, bred by Lord Egremont, was bought as ' a 

 weed' for a very small sum, as is elsewhere related. 

 The horse, as far as pedigree is an indication, was bred 

 to win, but he made no great show — in fact, was a 

 faihu-e so far as his two-year-old career was concerned. 

 As a three-year-old he was destined to cut a greater 

 figure, the Whalebone blood being better able at that 

 age to assert itself, and so before the Derby Day he had 

 placed two races to his credit. His race was run when 

 he won the Derby, and he did very little good after- 

 wards, winning, however, a plate or two. In all, he ran 

 in nineteen races, of which he won eight, of the collec- 

 tive value of £3,G75, to which the Derby contributed 

 £3,000. The value of the stakes that year was 

 £3,200, of which sum £100 was given to the second 

 horse, and £100 was deducted for police expenses ! 

 Of Spaniel, what was said by a critic of the period 

 may be here quoted : ' He was honest, stout, and true, 

 and possessed a hide of silk and a heart of oak.' 



Oxygen, the property of the Duke of Grafton, and 

 the winner of the Oaks, was the best mare of her 

 year ; she was ridden in the race by J. Day, beating 

 Lord Exeter's Marmora by a neck ; Lord Lowther's 

 Guitar being third, and ]\[r. Houldsworth's Circassian 

 fourth. The Duke of Grafton also ran Blassis (after- 

 wards Mistletoe) ; the King's representative was 

 Minetta. Eighty- six fillies were nominated, from 

 which a field of twenty-one faced the starter. 



