Riding at Kempton in 1898 a horse reared over with Sloan, hurting his pelvis bone. Seeing what pain the man was in and knowing from experience something about it, Lord William said, “Your racing is done for to-day, my little man.” “But,” said Sloan, “who then is going to ride your Democrat?” Lord William replied, “I shall put Cannon up.” This was anguish to Sloan, who was somewhat jealous of Cannon, but he may have found consolation in the result, as the horse did not win. His owner thought it was due to the change of jockey, horses are very susceptible to any change of hands. Sloan always considered the greatest achievement of his life was beating Flying Fox on Caiman in the Middle Park Plate, when Cannon, as referred to earlier, waited just a little too long before letting Flying Fox out, not leaving time to pick up and win. In 1899 Lord William won his first and only classic race with his Sibola at Newmarket in the One Thousand, Sloan riding. There were great rejoicings in the Beresford camp. Sibola ought to have won the Oaks that year, but got a bad start. Some people thought it was due to a fit of temper on Sloan’s part, others attributed the defeat to Sloan, but giving other reasons; be that as it may, it was a great disappointment to the horse’s owner. Sloan was altogether getting out of favour about now. At Ascot he got himself mixed up with a waiter and a champagne bottle, resulting in Lord William very kindly trying to pacify the piqued waiter. This took some doing, but was eventually managed to the tune of several hundreds, to save scandal and trouble. The Stewards enquired into the matter and exonerated Sloan. In honesty to the jockey, I am pleased to be able to state, when he found out what Lord William had done for him, he insisted on the amount being deducted from his retaining fees. Lord William was undoubtedly Sloan’s best friend, being exceedingly generous and kind to him, but latterly he gave his mounts to Weldon, the two Reiffs, and others, being disappointed with Sloan and fearing he had got into the hands of those not likely to improve him, and certainly about that time a number of desperate American gamblers graced this country with their presence and heavy ready money investments which put temptation into a jockey’s way. If a jockey only bets on his own mount all may be well, but unfortunately they get tempted sometimes to bet on others, while such a thing has been heard of as a jockey squaring or thinking he has squared the rest of his confrères in the race; and then failed. The final blow came to Sloan over the Cambridgeshire of 1900, over which there were many unpleasant stories afloat in connection with his betting. It was a thousand pities, for he did so well when first he came over to this country. Lord William was very pleased with his riding, and many people had been most kind to him.