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s e . Memoirs of the British Turf : ! 1 " 1 1 1 1 1 1 I 1 I ! r 1 1 t r J ? 3 a a h S r n r 0 or J ? o r, e t! P fi L a at S tl C ai as ft for L f al 01 pi fv " hi w "J "I cc b ber in ing in ful u BY THE HON. GEORGE LAMBTON. Fifteenth Article. Owners in those days had the time and " the leisure to manage their, own horses. They Y had their own handicap books and made a a- study of racing. This took a great responsibility off the shoulders of their trainers. Nowadays most of the big owners are 0 so busy with one tiling and another that they Y not only have no time for this but often a they are not even able to see their horses s run. I think John Porter was on the whole c the most successful trainer of Ascot horses. Year after year he carried off many of these rich stakes. In later years Alec Taylor has s followed in his footsteps. Sooner or later 1 I shall have to say whom I consider the e best trainer of the last twenty years, so I will do so now. Alec Taylor, being the most t modest of men, will shake his head, but in the gradual, steady training that makes a good horse into a great one I should say he a has no equal. Moreover, he is fortunate in having the finest training grounds in the 3 world. He is by no means a sanguine man and seldom bets. Th.ere are many people who seem to think that trainers always know when their horses 3 are going to win. This little story, if they read it, may disabuse their minds of the fallacy. Last Ascot, I, in company with i many backers, had been losing my money. had heard that Alec Taylor had a good i thing in the Hardwicke Stakes, and happening . to come across him I asked him if it was good enough to "get out" on. He thought for a moment and then said: , "I really think it is." So I went to "get ; " out" The horse was last. In fact I am not quite sure if it has passed the post yet! , I wonder why it is that everyone bets ; much higher at Ascot than anywhere else. The fact remains that they do, and the bookmakers profit thereby. I have seen many "Black Fridays" at Ascot when people i have been madly scrambling to get home, but I have also had many good meetings and won my money on good horses. ASCOT CUP SPLENDID TEST. I think I would rather train the winner of the Ascot Cup than of any race in the 1 world, even perhaps the Derby, for it is in my opinion the finest test of the good horse and of the trainers skill. When he was quite a boy he was riding in match for Lord Durham, the other horse being ridden by Tom Cannon, who was a great match rider. My brother asked him. "Arent you afraid of Tom Cannon?" and he replied, "No, my lord, but he always beats me a head." One morning on the Heath Mr. Coventry was talking to him when a batch horses came thundering along. "I suppose thats what they call a half-speed," said Mr. Coventry. "Yes," said "Rick," "but it would take them a long time to find the other half." He had a quaint way of saying rather clever things. Rickaby was a most determined jockey, especially good on a round course. He would ; take any risks, and was always as fit as a prize fighter. I saw him ride a tremendous finish on Douglas Bairds Mazagam for the Lowther Stakes, one and three-quarters miles, . Newmarket, against Tommy Loates, on Skopos, the latter a 7 to 4 chance. Mazagam, which was at 7 to 1, was the idlest horse in the world and would do nothing save under compulsion. At the Bushes it looked any odds on Loates, Rickaby had been riding his horse hard a long time. But again and again he 1 squeezed a bit more out of him. At last j Loates and Skopos began to get uncomfort- able, and when Rickaby and his horse put in one more tremendous effort they both fell to j pieces and Mazagam won by a short head. When Rickaby came in he was speechless and white as a sheet from exhaustion, al- i though, as I have said, he was as fit and j hard as a prize fighter. Sloan, who had been watching the race, said to me afterward, I guess that Rick is a real demon when it i comes to a long bout." LORD FAIIQUIIARS GOOD PLATER. c I remember at the Newmarket first Octo- I meeting of 1896 running a horse belong- I to Lord Farquhar called East Sheen i the Trial Selling Stakes. He was a use- a plater and anything that beat him was " Y a a- 0 Y a s c s e 1 I t a a 3 3 i i . , ; " , ; i 1 ; . 1 j j i j I i c I I i a 1 always worth buying. In this race he was beaten a neck by a chestnut mare, Damsel II. When she was Put up to auction I bought her for ?2,250. She was pouring with sweat, looked bad, and I thought that I could probably im-- prove her. That evening when I went to my stables my head man remarked that the mare I had bought was a wild brute and had been running round her box like a mad thing ever since she came home. I looked at her and she certainly was a miserable object, with eyes starting out of her head and flanks heaving. This was the first doped horse I ever saw, although at the time I was quite unaware of what was the matter. I gave the mare a long est and got her quiet and looking well, but she was no good at all. uEvtUtal,y the late C" J- Cunningham bought her for jumping, but he could do no good with her. He afterward put her to the stud, where she produced a" dead Joal, and beyond that I know no more of In 1896 doping was in its infancy and it was not until about 1900 that it really began to be a serious menace to horse racing. Even then, although there were hints of its wonderful effects, few people knew much about it or really believed in it. INCREASE OF A BAD PRACTICE. A."er 1900 this horrible practice increased rapidly, and by 1903 it had become a scan-k dal. I myself was still skeptical about any dope making a bad horse into a good one Strange things occurred, however, and one constantly saw horses which were notorious rogues running as if they were possessed of the devil, with eyes starting out of their heads and the sweat pouring off them. Their tails would sometimes go round like wind-; mills. As these horses were mostly platers and ran in low-class races they did not attract a great deal of attention, but three vetcri-: nary surgeons told me that the practice was increasing greatly, that if would be the ruin of horse breeding, and that it ought to be stopped. Then there occurred a case when a horse after winning a race, dashed madly into a stone wall and killed itself. I thought it was about time that something was done, so I told one of the stewards of the Jockey Club what the veterinary surgeon had said Pie was as skeptical as I had been and declared he did not believe there was anything in it. At that time I had in my stable some of the biggest rogues in training, and I told the stewards that I intended to dope these horses. They could then see for themselves what the result was. The first horse I doped was a chestnut gelding called Folkestone. This horse had refused to do anything in a trial or race. He was always last and would come in neighing. I first of all doped him in a trial. He fairly astonished me, for he jumped off in front and Avon in a canter. I sent him to Pontefract, where he beat a field of fourteen easily and nearly went round the course a second time before his jockey could pull him up. He won another race the next day, was sold and never won again. LORD DURHAMS OBJECTIONS. I had told my brother, Lord Durham, who was not a steward of the Jockey Club at that time, what I was doing. So much did he dislike this doping that he was inclined to object to my having anything to do with it When I explained that my object was chiefly to open the eyes of the stewards he withdrew his objection, but begged me not to have a shilling on any horse with the dope in him. To this I agreed. I obtained six dopes from a well-known veterinary surgeon. They were not injected with a needle, but were just given as a dose from a bottle. The effect on the horses was astounding. used five of them and had four winners and a second. Not one of these horses had shown any form throughout the year. One of them, Ruy Lopez, which had previously entirely defeated the efforts of some of the best jockeys in England, ran away with the Lincoln Autumn Handicap, with a stable boy up, racing like the most honest horse in the world. To Be Continued.
