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FRED ARCHER GREAT RIDER Ulness Brought About by Reduc ¬ ing Had Tragic Termination Famous English Jockey Was Unsurpassed as si Judge of Pace and Possessed Match ¬ less Courage and Resolution J B Radcliffe pays high tribute to jockey Fred Archer in his book entitled Ashgill or The Life and Times of John Osborne OsborneHe He was a man take him for all in all I shall riot look upon his like again againFred Fred Archer committed suicide on Novem ¬ ber 3 1886 and the news of the tragedy came as a great shock to the racing world In the preceding month Archer visited Ireland on the eighteenth for the purpose of riding Cambusmore for Lrfjrd Londonderry in the LordLieutenants Plate at the Curragh He attained the object of his visit as Cambus ¬ more won the race easily After a couple of mounts the same afternoon he returned home three days later in order to ride St Mirin for the Cambridgeshire at something like the horses handicap weight weightHe He underwent great privation going for three days without food not a bite of any sort passing his lips while on the other hand ho saturated himself with trying medicines and spent part of the time in a Turkish bath attached to his private house By these means he was able to ride St Mirin at 119 pounds or one pound overweight in the Cam ¬ bridgeshire but the effort cost him his life as he fell into such a weak state of health that after riding at Brighton and on the first day of the Lewes meeting he had his last mount on Nov 4 18SG on Tommy Tit tlemouse at the last named place in the Castle Plate in which he was unplaced to Indian Star StarWhen When Archer returned from Lewes feeling ill he retired to his bed His friends were scarcely prepared for the serious turn hisi illness took Unmistakable symptoms of typhoid fever asserted themselves and while his once robust constitution was affected a still more serious symptom was seen in its effect upon his mind In an unguarded mo ¬ ment Archer jumped out of bed and seizing a revolver he put the barrel in his mouth and fired dying almost Instantly InstantlySON SON OF STEEPLECHASE JOCKEY JOCKEYArcher Archer vas horn at Cheltenham on Janu ¬ ary 11 1S57 His father was a steeplechase jockey of some repute and he had two brothers William his senior who was killed at Cheltenham Steeplechase in 1S78 and Charles a Newmarket trainer who in his day was a jockey of considerable talent The love of horse riding was instinct in him from childhood and his introduction to Matthew Dawsons stable formed the link which connected his fortunes with those of Lord Falmouth and Dawson DawsonIn In the latter part of his career it was quite usual for Archer to receive retainers of 10000 for the first call on his service while for the second J5000 had been paid and for the third J2500 Rumor enlarged these amounts and it was well known that the Duchess of Montrose would have granted him almost his own sum for the priority of claim claimAs As a judge of pace he was unsurpassed by any jockey of his day He had the finest hands with marvelous resolution which he had the mysterious power of communicating to the horse he rode This was shown in his efforts over and over again on moderate animals which failed in the hands of inferior jockeys and which were successful when under his pilotage During his career Archer rode no fewer than 2147 winners winnersNever Never was there a more popular man or a more painstaking jockey Hardly was he ever known to throw a chance away and though his seat was not perfect he was matchless for courage and resolution and particularly over the Epsom course did these attributes bring him into prominence Epsom was often the scene of his most bril ¬ liant efforts his dash round Tattenham cor ¬ ner which tries the nerve of the strongest jockey frequently winning him many a nice niceOne One of his best finishes in the Derby was when he rode Bend Or and beat Robert the Devil in 1SSO In attempting to take his place at Tattenham corner on Bend Or Archer was driven into the rails and for fifty yards had to ride with his left leg on the horses neck I would not have given five shillings for my chance then he was heard to observe afterward and at the Bell it seemed poundage on Robert the Devil winning easily but we can well re ¬ member the tremendous resolution with which Archer rode the Duke of Westmin ¬ sters bronze chestnut to win on the post by a short head headEVIL EVIL OP LIGHTWEIGHT RACING RACINGNo No doubt Archers death was largely due to the lightweight racing system and it would have been far better writes Mr Cor lett had the bill introduced into the house of lords by Lord Redesdale in ISfiO been carried The lowest weight carried by p race horse should be 91 pounds and were this the case our best horsemen would be enabled to follow their profession untram meled with the compulsion of dragging the llesh from off their bones by means of starvation and wasting We had already seen in the case of Giles that an artificial reduction of bodily weight is calculated to unhinge the mind and had Archer not re ¬ duced himself in order to ride St Mirin for the Cambridgeshire he might not have come to such an untimely end endIn In all probability Archer was never more confident of winning a race and it is cer ¬ tain that he never tried harder The Cam ¬ bridgeshire was the only important nice he had never won and his words were singu ¬ larly prophetic when he observed to Mr Corlett the evening before If I cannot win tomorrow I will never try again Poor fellow A fortnight later he was si corpse corpseThe The worldly wealth of which he died pos ¬ sessed was unduly magnified After paying legacies of which there were a few some ¬ thing like 5250000 was left in n per cents to accumulate for Little Nell who was placed under tho guardianship of her aunt Mrs Colrnan The scene at Archers grave was a touching one and so many wreaths had been sent by friends and acquaintances to the house that it is no exaggeration to say that they would have covered an acre of ground groundOne One of Archers bosom friends and a frej quent guest at his table was a prominent member of the metropolitan sporting press A few weeks before his death Archer con ¬ fessed to this friend that he would have been a happier richer and better man if he had never bet a shilling in his life The fact is well known even in the face of the Jockey Club ban that many leading jockeys bet heavily Archer often plunged on his mounts arid the idea became crystallized as an illu ¬ sory fact that being so fine a judge of a horse apart from his phenomenal skill as a horseman added to the fact that by force of circumstances he was in the know of many turf secrets of importance the bulk of his fortune was amassed by his success as a gambler gamblerThat That idea was completely exploded by Archers confession abovementioned to his journalistic friend nor was there ever a more persuasive sermon preached against the madness of people especially those out ¬ side of the inner circle trying to gain a competency by backing horses If Archer failed in his betting transactions who could succeed Yet the fact remains that few of the coterie who clung to the great jockey amassed wealth by following his mounts 1iut these were the men who never lost their judgment or cool calculation in the heat of their gambling passion passionReturning Returning from Kempton Park champion coursing meeting the year that Mr Hydes deaf greyhound Ballangeich won the prize Archer was traveling to town along with three notable brothers of the pigskin One of his companions who shall be nameless was wearing a stickpin of peculiar shape shapeI I have often wondered inquired The Tinman addressing the jockey what that pin is you always wear in your scarf scarfOil Oil dont you know thats a tooth of old naming a horse when 1 rode him second in the Derby DerbyIs Is that so queried Archer By heav ¬ ens you must have been holding him bloom ing hard then when you pulled a tooth out of his head
