Matchem stood high both as a racer and as the sire of many of our most favourite horses. As a stallion he realized for his master more than L12,000. He died in 1781, at the advanced age of thirty-three.
Shark won a cup value 120 guineas, eleven hogsheads of claret, and above L16,000 in plates, matches, and forfeits.(73)
(73) Lord William Lennox, Merrie England.
Among recent celebrities must be mentioned Lord Stamford, who is said
to have engaged Jemmy Grimshaw, a light-weighted jockey, at a salary of
L1000 a year.
The most astounding 'event' of late years was that of 1867, when
the horse Hermit—previously represented as being in an unfit condition
even to run, won the race—to the unspeakable ruin of very many, and
inflicting on the late Marquis of Hastings the enormous loss of about
L100,000, which, however, in spite of unseemly rumours and, it is said,
hopes of that nobleman's ruin, was honourably paid, to the day and hour.
But if ruin did not immediately come upon the young marquis, still the wound was deadly, inflicted as though with the ferocity of a demon. In his broken health and rapid decay sympathy was not withheld from him; and when a premature death put an end to his sufferings, and was speedily followed by the breaking up of his establishment and the dispersion of his ancestral effects, most men felt that he had, perhaps, atoned for his errors and indiscretions, whilst all united in considering him another unfortunate victim added to the long list of those who have sacrificed their fortune, health, and honour to the Gambling Moloch presiding over the Turf of England.(74)
(74) The 'Odds' or probabilities of horse racing are explained in chapter VIII., in which the entire 'Doctrine of Chances' is discussed.
Such are the leading facts of horse-racing in England. One cannot help observing that the sturdy strength and muscular exertions of an Olympic charioteer of old exhibit a striking contrast to the spider-like form and emaciated figure of a Newmarket jockey.
Qui studet optatam cursu contingere metam,
Multa tulit, fecitque puer, SUDAVAT et alsit.
'Who in a race would reach the long'd-for goal,
Must suffer much, do much, in youth, indeed,
Must SWEAT and fag.'
This is literally true respecting the English jockey, whose attenuated form is accounted for in the following dialogue in an old work entitled 'Newmarket, or an Essay on the Turf,' 1771.
'Stop, stop, OLD GENTLEMAN! I desire to speak a word to you; pray which is the way to——.'