A CHRONICLE OF THE DERBY. 303 



liorses, and the value of the stakes would be 3,700 

 sovereigns. 



Ninety-two fillies were nominated for the Oaks of 

 1837, of which thirteen faced the starter. The winner 

 was found in Miss Letty, by Priam out of Miss Fanny's 

 dam, ridden by John Holms, and nominated by Mr. 

 Powlett, the winner of the One Thousand, Chateau 

 d'E«pague, mounted by John Da}'', being second ; 

 Lord Exeter, who ran two of his fillies in the race, 

 being awarded third honours. Chateau d'Espagne 

 was made favourite in the betting, with odds of 2 to 1 

 offered against her ; the odds against the winner at the 

 start were 7 to 1, and she won easi^.y by a length, 

 which, had her rider pleased, might have easily been 

 increased. The filly was not named till she had been 

 placed on the roll of Oaks winners. 



The grave of Amato, the * coughing pony,' who 



won the Derby of 1838, is still to be seen by those 



1838. who pass through the Durdans on their 



Amato. ^^,^^, J.Q ^i^g Yi\\\, It was a victory of local 



importance ; the horse was the property of Sir Gilbert 

 Heathcote, and had been trained at Epsom by 

 Ralph Sherrard, who died at the patriarchal age of 

 eighty-nine years. Amato was, in turf parlance, a 

 'dark horse' that, previous to winning the Derby, 

 had never appeared in public, and only ran one 

 race — that being the Derby— so that Amato may 

 be described as a 'single speech Hamilton' among 

 race-horses ! Sir Gilbert, who was not a bettinsf man, 

 running his horses for honour and stakes only, was 

 much complimented on his rather unexpected victory. 



