g little
interest in the proceedings, Lord George, about 1844, suddenly attracted
attention by his attacks on Sir Robert Peel and the Free Traders. He
showed an aptitude for Parliamentary business that he had not been
credited with in racing circles in which he had held such a leading
position. His absorption in politics, which had newly aroused his
interest, led him to dispose of his race-horses.

"In the autumn of this year (1846) at Goodwood races," says Disraeli,
"the sporting world was astonished by hearing that Lord George Bentinck
had parted with his racing stud at an almost nominal price. Lord George
was present, as was his custom, at this meeting held in the demesne of
one who was among his dearest friends. Lord George was not only present,
but apparently absorbed in the sport, and his horses were very
successful. The world has hardly done justice to the great sacrifice
which he made on this occasion to a high sense of duty. He not only
parted with the finest racing stud in England, but he parted with it at
a moment when its prospects were never so brilliant; and he knew this
well.

"He could scarcely have quitted the turf that day without a pang. He had
become the Lord Paramount of that strange world, so difficult to sway,
and which requires, for its government, both a stern resolve and a
courtly breeding. He had them both; and though the black-leg might quail
before the awful scrutiny of his piercing eye, there never was a man so
scrupulously polite to his inferiors as Lord George Bentinck. The turf,
too, was not merely the scene of the triumphs of his stud and his
betting-book. He had purified its practice and had elevated its
character, and he was prouder of this achievement than of any other
connected with his sporting life. Notwithstanding his mighty stakes,
and the keenness with which he backed his opinion, no one perhaps ever
cared less for money. His habits were severely simple, and he was the
most generous of men. He valued the acquisition of money on the turf,
because there it was the test of success. He counted his thousands after
a great race, as a victorious general counts his cannon and his
prisoners."

Up to the time that he developed a new interest in politics, his great
ambition in life had been for one of his horses to win the Derby. And
one of the horses that he had owned did win it; but to his chagrin it
was no longer his property. That horse was Surplice, the winner in the
year 1848; b