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DEATH OF ONE OF ENGLANDS GREAT RIDERS Harry distance died at his home in Leicester England Sunday April 10 In his young manhood he was one of a band of brilliant jockeys which included George Kordham Tom Cannon Clialoner the OslKmies Goater French Wells and Maidment distance was sixtyseven years old when he died It is a matter of record that he rode in every Epsom Derby from 1SCO to 1S70 inclusive and won with Thonuanby Lord Lyon and George Frederick Itesides being second with Dundee and Albert Victor and third with Rob Roy He also won the One Thousand with Achievement and the St Leger with Lord Lyon distance was very popular and muck respected for his manly character Of some parts of his early career London Sporting Life says saysIt It was Mr Edward Smith so long associated witli Bells Life and George Fordham who really first took Custance in hand Indeed Mr Smith brought the deceased as a little boy to Epsom where lie lived and had charge of a long string of horses of which Adauias won the City and Subur ¬ ban and was beaten a head for the Metropolitan the same afternoon Later in the year 1S57 Ada mas was very nearly preventing Blink Bonny from scoring in the Derby indeed Wells who rode him always declared that he had won Custance at Epsom soon got plenty of riding and the fast friendship that liere sprang up between the de ¬ ceased Wells and Fordham was a lasting one At the end of the fifties the trjo were Inseparable The small but now nonexisting meetings in Kent Suffolk and Norfolk were the rounds taken and the syndicate perhaps never eclipsed the 1S5G visit to Beccles Mr Mellisb in whose name Mr Smith used to run his horses there won seven of the eight races on the two days The course was a cir ¬ cular one and distance used to relate that when Fordham won the two miles and a half handicap on Tame Deer he was not certain of the number of laps so went an extra round to make sure of vic ¬ tory toryIt It was through Mr Smith and Adamas that Custance came to have his first important winning mount he Cesarewltch of 1S5S In which he rode Mr Lamberts Rocket at Csi 41b and In one of the most desperate struggles ever known beat his old friend Fordham a head on Prioress and D Hughes also of Epsom on The Brewer which the judge was unable to separate from Mr Ten Broecks previous years winner That Cesarewltch saw much closer fighting than the one he rode for Mr Bevill father of the present inspector of steeplechase courses in 1801 on Audrey but between Rockets exciting event and 1800 there was nothing very much worthy of note In distances career hut In the spring of the season just mentioned he did 7st and won the City and Suburban on Comforter after a dead beat with Lord Nelson which was ridden by Wells At that time Custance had left the employ of Mr Smith and the good luck which lie had ht EpsQm at the spring meeting stood by him at the summer reunion An association then bad sprung up between the deceased and the late Matthew Dawsoii and as first jockey for Russley Custance began welt by taking the Woodcote Stakes ion Ddmlee and the next afternoon secured the first iOf his three Derbys ou Thormanby actually the first mount he ever had in Epsoms classic race
