The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-22
MOST SENSATIONAL RACE
In Turf History was Derby Won by
 "Rlnper."

From Tit Bits.
 The history of the turf contains many stories of fraud. but none more audacious and impudent than that associated with the Derby of 1S44, which has been de- scribed as the most sensational race on record-at least in it's developments.
 The Derby in that year was won, as the records tell us, by MT. A. Woods Run ming Rein, by The Saddler, out Of Queen Nab, by Duncan Grey" ridden by Mann. The same horse had won two-year-oid race at Newmarket in the previous au- tumn, and it was then rumored that ne was year older than was claimed; ana when he romped in first In the Derpy' Coloney Peel, whose horse, Orlando ran second, promptly lodged an objection against the winner and obtained an ln- function against paying the stakes to MT Wood until the dispute had been settled in the law courts. Messrs. Weath- erby accordingly paid the stakes into court. and left MT. Wood and Colonel Peel to fight the matter out.
 Colonel Feels contention was that the winner of the Derby was none other than Maccabeus a four-year-old horse bred by Sir Charles 1bbetson, and thus disauan- fled by age for the Derby: and so zealous- ly and successfully did he and Lord George Bentinck collect evidence that when the great action Wood vs. Peel came on for hearing before Baron Alderson at Westminster they were in a position to prove their case up to the nit.
 Scarcely ever has case celebre cre- ated so much excitement The court was crowded to suffoeation; hundreds were unable to gain admittance, and feeling ran dangerously high. After counsel had opened the case for the plaintiff the Judge very sensbly suggested: Produce your horse and let him be examined by eX- perts That Is the best answer to the whole question" and the case was ad- ,ourned for the production of Running Rein on the following day.
 When the next day came, however. plaintiffs counsel had to confess that the horse was nowhere to be found-it had been spirited away Whereupon Baron Alderson was furious This Is horse stealing" he exclaimed "a case for the central criminal court; and if try the parties and they are convicted I'll trans l hort them for life to dead certainty. | finder the circumstances, MT. Wood with drew his action, stating that a gross fraud | had been practiced on him by his ras- callv trainer, verdict was given for | Colonel Peel and Orlando was declared winner of the 1s44 Derby, In place of the fraudulent Running Rein, exposed and deposed
 But this was not the only sensational feature of this remarkable race Rattan, | the second favorite, was poisoned and effectually put out of the running, a das- tardly act which killed his owner "Old | Crockford:" and Leander, another four
 year-old who had been smuggled into the race, had his fetlock broken by a | kick. and had to be killed. When he was 1 dug up next morning by party of sports men who suspected his age 1t was found l that I.eander's head which would have revealed the fraud. had disappeared dur 1 ing the night.
 | Rattan, by the way was by no means l the only Derby horse who has been made safe by poison administered on the eve of the race. Every horse In the | 1892 Derby, with the solitary exception of Perion. was drugged, though St. Giles was the winner; and 1t will be remembered that shortly before the Derby of 1892 Orme was found prostrate in his box at l Kingsclere and experts declared that he had been poisoned, although, In spite Of the reward of a100O offered by the Duke | of Westminster for the conviction or the culprit, the rascal was never discovered. | The Derby chronicles, tco. record sever | al cases of unfair running. Glenartney | was, by common consent. the best horse of his time, and could not have failed to win the 1927 Derby if he had been allowed | to run free. His jockey however, had | his money on Mameluke, another crack, | though an inferior horse to Glenartney, and there is little doubt that he deliber- ately pulled his own mount in order to let Mameluke win. And, to give but one more example of this species of fraud, | in the Derby of 1S47 Van Tromp only ran third to Cossack and War Eagle, ai- though he had Nroved that he could snow 1 his heels to both horses. Lord Eglinton, Lord George Bentinck and other experts swore that Marson had willfully pulled Van Tromp, and. although the jockey de- clared that he had ridden the horse in strict conformity to orders, he was promptly dismissed from Lord Eglintons | service.
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