Footnotes

• PROVENANCE:
  A Sporting Garland: Works by Cecil Aldin, Christie's, London, 12 November 2008, Lot 41;
  The Racing Sale, Sotheby's, London, 13 November 1996, Lot 139;
  
  With The Hampton Hill Gallery, Middlesex.
  
  see lot 2

Saleroom notices

• The 'Chasers Cup' comprises two laps of the 'Compton Course' (about four and a half miles) over twenty-nine jumps. It was over this course that in Masefield poem Right Royal rode. Aldin illustrated an edition for Masefield however it did not include these views of Right Royal in his stable and racing hard. The following lines from the poem depict him in his stable: 'In a race-course box behind the Stand Right Royal shone from a strapper's hand. A big dark bay with a restless tread, Fetlock deep in a wheat-straw bed;' Despite being relatively green the odds on 'Right Royal' to win shift from 20-1 to 7-1 overnight and he starts as favourite. However, the race is not easy for the horse and his jockey, Charles Cothill, and after taking a tumble early on it looks like the pair will finish last. But neither horse nor rider are willing to give up and miraculously they fight their way back from behind to find themselves amongst the leaders in the final stages. 'Then the White Post shot backwards, Right Royal had won.'