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LORD JOHN BKNTINCK AND
CUUC1FIX.
(From the Sunday Time* of September 18.)
The bubble has bunt : the winner of the Oak*
li not to itart for the Lejer— and the heavy
betters p. p. against the filly may par or levant
as their consciences or pockets dictate. It ii
agreeable to notice the cool way in which the
p'ublio were made cognisant of the fact of her
not starting* We quote from the official article
from Tatter»all's t —
' Thursday was the lait public betting day in
town, and it proved a very important one to
those whose speculations have comprehended
Crucifix ; she broke down in her gallop in the
morning, and was declared not to start before
business commenced. Few will be surprised st
this, as the betting for some time past has been
calculated to engender doubts as to her reaching
Doncaster ; the public are sufferers to a large
amount.'
The foregoing is from the pen of ? careful and
practised writer, yet mark his words—' Few are
to be surprised at this (i. e. at Crucifix break
ing- down), as tho betting for some time past bis
been calculated to engender doubts as to her
reaching Doncaster.' The betting might Indi
cate Hint she was not meant to reach Doncaster,
but could not show that she was likely to break
down, which nt the utmost must be a casualty
beyond any man's foresight to discover. Crucifix
was in training at John Day's, at D.ineberry,
near Stookbrldge ( was seen on Wednesday (9th
September, 1840) ' ready to start out of her
skin'— we quote our informant's words ; and
again on Thursday morning, before her
gallop, ' In the same form.' About noon on
that day It wits made known at the Grosvenor
Arms, Stockbridge, that ' the mare had broken
down in her morning's gallop,, with John Day
on her back, and that her chance was up.'
Lord George Bentinck, the proprietor of Cruci
fix, hid been at his trainer's house for some
days, ond depnrted by tho twelve o'clock train
from the Andover Road station, avowedly to
convey the sad intelligence to Tiittersall's.
Mrs Malaprop, speaking of a well ?contested
scheme, happily says, ' Nothing could be better
perpetrated.' So say we. How fortunate that
the Oaks filly, having fallen to 25 to 1 , should
break down the morning of the last meeting at
TattersnU's previous to the Leger. How doubly
fortunate that the noble proprietor should be on
the spot to witness the sccident, and carry the
news to London. Hud a break-down been made
to order it could not have been better done. In
fact, as the bootmakers have it, it is equal to
bespoke. The version we have heard from a
friend of the stable is ai follows : — ?- Crucifix
was injured at the Oaks, which she won, being
In difficulty all the way | she has shown a ten
dency to train oft* ever aince, and day by day the
effect of excessive early work has told upon her ;
she could not be brought to a state fit to endure
a Leger, and that has been evident for some
weeks ' To this we reply that the Oaks was
won in a slovenly manner, and we thought the
fault lay in the rider. If Crucifix has shown
this propensity to train oflT, why was it not made
public before. A rumour wns rife in Stock,
bridge a little while since, thnt she was with
foal. ' Could she,' like Peter Simpson, ' have
gone aitray without knowing it?' — despite all
the vigilance of watchers, helpers, grooms, and
John Day, Argus-eyed John, to boot. We
think not.
Every thing has tended to increase the amount
of the bets against Crucifix. A retpected con
temporary announced as the rumour (which was
current In the vicinity of the stable), that young
John Day was sweating- to ride her, and that a
two pound saddle was made for him. In the
same Journal we read that if ahe ' be found fit
to go to the post and carriea off the Great St
Leger Stakes, the consequences will be most
awful,' and that Lord George backed the mare
on Friday at 14 to 1, to the extent of two 'Aim.
ilrcd pounds/ (Enormous 1) ' A pretty strong
Indication (says the writer) that his lordship,
while he feels the odds ought to be great, yet
considers the case is far from hopeless.' We
don't think this sopto takers any indication at
all j it might be given merely « to keep the game
alive,' If we may use that homely expression |
and as it appears to us, every thing has been
done in that spirit, and that spirit only. When
there were no takers st 8 to 1 offerers were found
to increase at larger sums. What matters it
whether a man bets 10 or 100 to 1, If he is sure
he hns in his own hand* the certainty of winning
his bets by the withdrawal of hit home?
Ere we make any observations upon this t/«.
toward event, let us quote a letter received by
us on Saturday from a friend who passed through
Stookbridge on Friday morning, and left that
place ignorant of the fate of Crucifix, tie ssys,
11 I went by Daneberry. The flocks on the
downs are perfection, Between ten and eleven
saw old Day (steady as old Time) with a string
of fourteen, all tooking well, and he himself, ss
cheerful as ever. As I got nesr Stockbridge I
ssw John junior, who is to ride the mare, bang
ing away at the partridges in fine style.' We
are happy to hear this news from an old and
respected friend, although he be one who never
ssw Tattersall's in bis life ; the letter serves to
convince us that the Messrs Day bear their mis
fortunes perfectly like Christians, and tends to
make us doubt whether they (or at least the elder
of them) can have betted the ruinous amount
stated upon Crucifix's winning. Statements (pro
or con) In circumstances like the present should
be received with cautton, but we feel bound to
say that we have beard from Stockbridge, on
Friday, that the filly was as well as ever she was
in her life.
We now come back to the old question— Is a
horse publicly in the betting, and publicly betted
upon by her owner, so exclusively his property
that he may do what he likes with his own?
We maintain not; it cannot be reconciled to
reason that any man thoutd make a bet with the
power of winning it when snd how he pleases.
A possesses a mare, bscks it for the sake of op*
pesranoei, but employs B to bet 5000 to 500
sgntnst her with C | that and similar bets being
msdo, A drsws her and reduces the thing to a
certainty. Is this sporting? And yet If the
right of withdrswsl without cause be admitted,
this may perpetually occur. Supposing another
oisn i That A had betted on a mare heavily—
say to the amount of.£20,000— Is |t not mon.
strous that he slone should have the power of
getting out, by counts r-bets nude on the cer.
tslnty of the mare's not going at all ?
It is far from nn exaggeration to say that one
hundred thousand pounds ksve been laid out one
way and the other about Cruolfix, and as the
miter of the Tsttert»l)'# prtlote quietly ssyi,
' the public are sufferers to a large amount.'
No doubt of it ; but there never was victim with,
out persecutor— debtor without creditor—or
loser laoklng winner. Now, who are the win
ners ? — who are the lucky people that foresaw
this break down and changed Crucifix's station
from 8 to 1 to 25 to 1 ? Racing propliets are at
present plentiful, but this comes under the hesd
of rscing profits with a vengeance I
Our readers will recollect that Crucifix was
drawn for the Drawing-room stakes at Goodwood,
being amiss. We then wrote as follows : —
' Would it be too much to ask', where so much
money depends, thata confident committee should
be appointed to examine ' dead amiss' nags, and
ought any honourable man to object to such an
exsminatlon ?' We repeat now what we said
then — ' Crucifix should be seen ; ' the ipsi
dixit of Jshn Day, or, if he pleases, that of
Lord George Bentinck, will probably not satisfy
the sporting world. For his own sake the noble
owner is bound to show, that Crucifix is really
unfit to go, and to show also that the instant this
fact became apparent to him, he communicated
it to the public. The enormous fluctuation in
the betting makes the whole uffalr pregnant with
suspicion. We are old enough to remember the
heir apparent to the throne being driven from
the turf; it was a wholesome and necessary ex
ample in tcrrorem to extensive speculators*
We never do bet, we never have betted one
? guinea upon any race, ond speak merely for tbu
sake of the public — ' the sufferers to a large
amount.'* We think this a case to mtike a stand
upou. Lord George Bentinck declined aettling
at Tattersnll's when doubtful as to the pedigree
of Btoomsbury — he need not be surprlied if ho
find persons unwilling to pay until satisfied as to
the state of Crucifix. This is not a paltry
Hampton affair, but a thing that may — In some
cases must— provo ruinous in its result Through
out Stockbridge we hear but one opinion (and
we state this on the authoiity of a well known
correspondent), and that opinion is, that the
mare is not ' amlas.'
The betting men histed poor Ephraim Bond
out of the Duncaster rooms about Ludlow. We
are no advocates for hissing, but wo are for
speaking, and speaking out too. Let losers
pause and demand an inquiry. The certificate
of two first-rate veterinary surgeons should be
obtained, specifying the nature of the injury and
whether it is of an utterly disqualifying charac
ter. This doctrine may be unpopular, but we
know it is honest; if this be done now, a death
blow will be dealt to the ever-recurring principle
of withdrawals at the eleventh hour.
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