Now the word here was "MERRY", which appears in a truly enormous amount of songs and carols - starting with""God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen", "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", and "Merry Christmas, Everyone" - but we will talk about that later! And that`s to name but the ones that I could think of off the top of my head. The word also appears on countless decorations and on Christmas cards. And in fact it is probably safe to say that the only word you will hear more this season is the word "Christmas" itself.
Our horse, Merry Hampton, was born in 1884, but had a very short career, plagued by injuries, running just four times. However one of those is recorded here, his winning of the Epsom Derby, his first ever race, at the odds of 11/1. His only other race of note was coming second in the St. Leger.
However his owner was quite a character; one George Alexander Baird, who was also known as the pseudonym of Mr. Abington. You can see him, and another view of Merry Hampton, on F. & J. Smith`s "Derby Winners" which oddly combines both names and calls his owner Mr. Abington Baird. The back also tells us that he was "The Late Mr. Abington Baird", because he died on the 18th of March 1893. However as the cards were issued way after that, in 1913, one detects that perhaps the writer of the back was still a little enamoured. George Alexander Baird was born into money, being the grandson of Vice-Admiral Villiers Francis Hatton MP - but he liked to play it rough, he was always getting into trouble with those that mattered in the racing establishment, whether he was being warned for rough riding or unsportsmanlike behaviour to his fellow jockeys, or deliberately flouting the rules of training or ownership. Despite this is was the most successful of all the amateur jockeys of the time. He was also involved in the sport of boxing, at the prize fighting end, and was again brought up on charges of fixing the bouts. However this almost certainly thrilled the ladies, and he was involved in several divorce cases, some of which were settled out of court, with one of his most notorious relationships being none other than Lillie Langtry.
Then at the age of just thirty-three, he was dead, of pneumonia, in New Orleans, where he had travelled to take part in a series of prize fights, one of which was supposed to be against the famous Gentleman Jim Corbett. However other rumours, of illegal fights, persist.
In our original, and our updated World Tobacco Issues Indexes, this set forms part of a group, described as :
RACEHORSES (A) Sm. 69 x 35. Unnd.
American Horses (25). Ref. USA/229. See ABC/229.
A. Back with series title, “Famous Running Horses” and list of 50 subjects in (1) and (2)
B. Back “Return 25 of these small cards . . .” with 11 lines of text.English Horses (25). Ref. USA/230. Back “Return 25 of these cards . . .”, with 6 lines of text.
Great American Trotters (25). Ref. USA/231. See ABC/231. Back “Return 25 of these small cards . . .” with 11 lines of text.
Jefferson Burdick, in his catalogues, has this as three sets, namely:
229. Famous Running Horses (25 American)
230. Famous Running Horses (25 English)
231. Great American Trotters (25)
He values the first two sets at ten cents a card, and the third at twenty-five cents a card.
However he also lists another group, in the section below, for “large cards”, namely
239. Racehorse –
Type 1 – Famous Running Horses (75) 8 x 10
As No. 229-230, plus 25 additional American horsesType 2 – Famous American Trotters (25) 10 x 12, as No.231 (also used on large displays).
He values type 1 at a dollar each, with type 2 at five dollars each.
These are almost certainly the “heavy plate-paper” pictures which are mentioned, on the reverses of the cards, as being sent in exchange for those smaller cards.
Once I read this I returned to the original World Tobacco Issues Index, and tracked them down to right at the end of the Kinney listing, under K32-32 (or K524-680 in the updated version), as “Section 2. Non-Insert Issues in U.S.A. Premium issues, exchanged for cards or coupons.”
They are catalogued therein as :
RACEHORSES. (A) Ex. Lg. Unnd.
1. Size 253 x 203. (75). Designs of Set K32-22.1 and K32-22.2 with 25 added. Ref. USA/239.1
2. Size 315 x 253. (25). Designs of Set K32-22.3. Ref. USA/239.2