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HERMITS EPSOM DERBY Lord Chaplin lells lale of thej Sensational 1887 Race Eow the English Classic and andEnormous Enormous Wagers Were Won I by a Bleeder Lord Chaplin an extremely old man whose colt Hermit won the sensational Epsom Derby of 1SG7 in snow and after many wonderful rumors which cost plungers mil ¬ lions of money is still alive At a recent dinner given him by his constituents at Wimbledon a London suburb which Lord Chaplin represents in parliament he told the story of Hermits Derby for the first time timeLord Lord then Mr Chaplin said that he bought the horse as a yearling picking him out from some seventy others It appeared that he made no mistake in his choice and the late Lord Chesterfield perhaps one of the best judges of a horse in his day after looking curcfully over Hermit said I think that horse might likely win the Derby for you youUpon Upon trial he turned out to be an excep ¬ tionally good animal and after winning a number of twoyearold races he was first favorite for the Derby for the whole of the winter and his price reached 5 to 1 and no more during the whole of the winter months Then a fortnight before the race he had the misfortune to break a blood vessel and in the opinion of a great many people all his chances were over from that time timeHOW HOW HERMIT RECOVERED TO WIN WINBut But that was not the opinion of his train ¬ er He tied the horse up for four days with his head in the air so that he could scarcely move and before the day of the race the horse had recovered in an extraordinary degree degreeTwo Two nights before the Derby Lord Chaplin said in his speech I was laid up on crutches with a bad leg and I got a telegraph message from the trainer saying If you cant come down today I must come up to London to see you tomorrow I re ¬ plied I will be there before the races be ¬ gin My man told me that the horse had done no regular work of any kind since his accident but had had plenty of slow exercise and had been given two short can ¬ ters just before he left Newmarket Yes ¬ terday said the trainer I gave him a gal ¬ lop over the whole of the Derby course and he never went better in his life and what is more I think he is certain to win after all allThe The price of the horse had gone to 100 to 1 but the following morning I told my commissioner Take all the long odds you can get for me but dont bring him down lower than 40 to 1 After the start my com ¬ missioner came back and said I had a bad time to get on to win 35000 more but that had brought the horse up to 66 to 1 1The The horse of course won Lord Chap ¬ lin continued but not by more than a neck for he ncer liked leaving the other horses when he was running The trainer had been confident but his lordship was afraid of the tremendous hill at the start and thought Hermit might break another blood vessel No said the trainer because I took the opportunity of starting them last Monday at the very bottom of the hill There had been a cabal at that time against certain favorites for the Derby and it was only after the race that he found that for three months the trainer had slept every night in the horses box It was this fidelity alone that enabled him to win the race and immediately on his return to London he sent his trainer a check for 25000
