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OSBORNES HORSEMANSHIP When The Pusher Turned the Tables on Fred Archer Two Memorable Struggles of July Meeting Meetingat at Liverpool In 18S4 Showed Hovr Evenly EvenlyMatched Matched AVcre These Jlidcrs JlidcrsTouching Touching upon some of the great riders of the period J B Radcliffe in his book Ash gill or The Life and Times of John Os borne writes writesFew Few who witnessed two memorable strug ¬ gles between Archer and Osborne at the Liv ¬ erpool July meeting of 1884 will ever forget the excitement that prevailed Which was the greatest horseman of John Osbornes time was a difficult problem to solve Archer perhaps and one speaks with bated breath when the deeds of Fordham of Aldcroft Wells T Cannon and Webb troop before the camera obscura of memory was the most brilliant and unquestionably the most suc ¬ cessful But whether lie was absolutely the greatest of his craft is a question as diffi ¬ cult to determine as the problem o which was centuryYet the greatest horse of the century Yet there was the luster of Archers re ¬ nown We now come to a race between him and John Osborne which clearly demon ¬ strates that The Tinman could not give The Pusher an ounce on equal horses In making a comparison between the twain it must always be borne in mind that Osborne although many years longer a professional than Archer by reason for his love for Mid dleham and the old home never enjoyed the choice of mounts which fell to the lot of the younger man nor indeed was he associated with so many wealthy owners and powerful stables stablesLiverpool Liverpool Wednesday July 9 1SS4 1SS4Allase ftirloneaGeneral Allase plate of 100 suiiiPns five ftirlonea General O Williams ISlack Diamond o yrs 129 F Archer 1 1Mr Mr Wadloivs Frolic 4 yrs 13S J Ostiorne 2 Mr Andrews Ianton 2 yrs 105 White S S151ick 151ick Diamond jumped off in front and holding the lead throughout won by i length Panton was a had thiid Winner was sold to Mr Martin for 103 guineas guineasLiverpool Liverpool Thursday July 10 IS1 IS1Thursday Thursday plate of 100 Kuinuas five fnrlnii cs Mr csMr Martins lUack Diauioud 3 yrs 1 9 J Os Oshornt hornt 1 Mr Wadlows Frolie t yrs 138 F Archfr Ulatk Diiimond came on with the lead and with ¬ standing the clialknRC of the favorite won an exciting race by a short neck The winner was sold to Mr Wadlow for 123 xuiucas xuiucasOn On the first days running it was thought by the Wadlow party that Osborne had thrown the race away by inferior jockeyship on the favorite Frolic The pair met the next afternoon on exactly the same terms over the same distance in single combat with the jockeys and the verdict reversed Clearly on this showing in a match Archer and Osborne were identically the same class horsemen A practical illustration of this kind is worth more than thousands of ar ¬ guments gumentsWhen When Osborne rode back a winner on Black Diamond the second day his face was illumined with pardonable smiles and as he made his way to the weighing room lie was received with as much enthusiasm as if he had won a Derby instead of a selling plate This achievement of defeating Archer he accomplished in the fiftyfirst year of his age after he had been riding in public for thirtyeight years and when he was old enough to be Archers father fatherIt It was the finest trial between two great horsemen probably ever seen on a public race course dispelling as it did without the shadow of a doubht the erroneous assumption that Archer could have won on the second horse the first day and proving at the same time that John Osborne was a jockey to whom Archer could not give weight Surely those who thought so at the time had closed their eyes to public form at nod wood in the two races under like c iroumtta ces when John beat Archer on both occaitiis by a head and proved quite his equal
