view raw text
MONOPOLIZED AN OLD TIME ST LEGER In Sporting Life of last Thursday you say that the previous day provided the first occasion upon which any trainer had trained the first three in tlie St Ikger I however think I have read a good many times of a tablet let into the wall of an old stableyard at Middleham Yorkshire which says that out of that yard Mr Croft one of the celebrated old trainers took four liorses to run in the St Leger of 1822 and they filled the first four places Tlie winner Theodore ridden by Jackson had 100 pounds to a walking stick laid against him himJackson Jackson was annoyed at having to ride such an outsider as he had been asked to ride one of the favorites arid so when the flag fell he just jumped the horse off as hard as lie could go and let him do as he liked but the farther he went the better he went and eventually won Jackson always said it was tiie sound of the big field of liorses beliind him that frightened him and made him win winIt It was a iiiuch bigger bunch thaii Gainsborough beat and of course a mudi greater performance Tlie old tradition is that the four horses walked out of the yard at Middleham in the order they finished in the St Leger but I wont swear to that Edward Roper in London Sporting Life
