Great Efforts Would be Made to Poison the Horse.

Otago Witness, Issue 1915, 3 August 1888, Page 25

Great Efforts Would be Made to Poison the Horse.

Throughout the winter Mr Francis Villiers, who had the management of Lord Clifden's horses, was a firm believer in the superiority , of Loadstone over Surplice, and gave repeated commissions to back the former for large sums of money. His commissioners were consequently tempted to take great liberties with Surplice, to whom the British public stuck with inflexible tenacity. When at last the Derby trial took place, in which Surplice gave Loadstone a very easy beating, there was " such a getting upstairs as never was seen." The scene on Bath racecourse that year will never be forgotten by those who witnessed it, and the entreaties addressed by William Stebbing to all who had books on the race, praying them to lay him the odds against Surplice at any price, 1 were moving in the extreme. The only bookmaker who had the courage to bet anything against the favourite was William Davis, then comparatively unknown, who commenced a new Derby book on the first day of Bath races, and was soon exhausted after laying 1000 to 600 and 1000 to 700 several times on the field. Meantime the anxiety and responsibility of John Kent's position would have driven many men mad. Not a day passed without bringing letters to warn Kent that attempts would be made to poison Surplice, or to break his leg as he walked on to the course, oi to bribe the jockey who rode him. Mr Villiers entrusted Surplice to Templeman, who very nearly lost the race by stopping or easing his horse when he was winning in a canter. So lazy and phlegmatic was Surplice's disposition that, on the slightest hint imparted to him by his jockey, he would stop dead shorb. This happened in the last hundred yards of the Derby, and with the greatest difficulty Templeman set his horse going again in time enough to win. For months before the race John Kent never allowed Surplice to eat a feed of corn or drink a bucket of water unless they were given to him by his trainer's own hand. On arriving at. Headley, Kent had recourse to the beautiful spring of water on Oyster Hill, from which all the villagers filled their cans, buckets, and kettles. From some, of the adjoining cottages he obtained as much boiling' water as lie needed, which he allowed to cool, and gave to Surplice. " I had made up my mind," he wrote to an old friend, " that if ' •