The whole empire seemed agreed that Cromwell was the best horse. But on the eve last week of Britain's famed Grand National, the odds on Cromwell fluttered nervously. What worried horse-minded Britons was not Cromwell but his lordly jockey, 39-year-old Anthony Bingham ("Nitty") Mildmay, 2nd Baron Mildmay of Flete.
His Lordship, a gaunt, stoop-shouldered six-footer, hovered over all calculations like a specter. Said a Liverpool stevedore, wiping ale from his mustaches: "The worst rider in the world . . . just like a sack of potatoes jouncing up & down." Not everybody agreed; his Lordship had ridden no less than 32 winners...
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