1874: three-year-old season
On 8 May, Apology ran in the 1,000 Guineas Stakes against a field of nine horses. The race favourites were Apology, La Coureuse, and Lady Bothwell. At the start of the race, the runners broke evenly and continued in a line for the first 200 yards, when La Coureuse took the lead at the Bushes-hill. Apology took the lead on the ascent up the Abingdon Mile Bottom, overtaking the leaders halfway up the hill and winning the race by a margin of three quarters of a length. The second-place finisher La Coureuse and third place horse Blanchefleur were separated by the same distance.
On 17 June, Apology won the Coronation Stakes, beating Blanchefleur. In July at Epsom, Apology won The Oaks against a field of 11 horses. The race was deemed "over" after Apology took the lead at the mile-post, beating Miss Toto and Lady Patricia while running at a canter. In August at the York meeting, Apology finished second by a head to the colt Trent in the Great Yorkshire Handicap after maintaining the lead throughout the race and carrying five extra pounds.
In the weeks before the St. Leger, the race had been built up as a match between the "north country mare" Apology and the south country contender George Frederick. On the morning of the running, George Frederick was withdrawn from competition due to injury. Rumours had also begun to circulate the day before the race that Apology had gone lame after a practice gallop and that her leg had been soaked the entire night in a bucket of cold water. Allegedly, John Osborne had sent John King a telegram about potentially withdrawing the mare from competition with King wiring back, "She must start, if it's only on three legs" due to the large sums of money the public had wagered on the mare. Another version of the tale holds that Osborne did not receive King's reply in time for the race and acted on his own judgement, deciding to run Apology after noting the filly's lameness had greatly improved overnight. After a false start, the 13 horses broke well from the starting line, with Boulet taking the lead until crossing the road that ran across the course. Leolinus and Atlantic closely followed Boulet until Atlantic broke a blood vessel at the mile post. Boulet ceded the lead to Apology (ridden by her trainer John Osborne) at the Red House, with Apology moving to the centre of the course flanked on the rail by Leolinus and on the outside by Trent. Apology won the St. Leger by a length and a half "amidst the greatest excitement ever witnessed on the Town Moor" in a time of three minutes and 16 seconds, setting a new race record.
After Apology's highly publicised win in the St. Leger, Christopher Wordsworth, the Bishop of Lincoln, learnt that "Mr. Launde" was actually a vicar within his authoritative oversight. Greatly displeased with a clergyman being actively involved in a profession that facilitated gambling, the Bishop wrote to Reverend King in October 1874 demanding that King either give up racing Thoroughbreds or resign his position with the Church. In his letter, the Bishop stated he would use all the powers at his disposal, including legal if necessary, to compel King to relinquish the trade:
Whether the law in its present state, which needs amendment, may enable a Bishop to correct such offenses as these I cannot say with certainty, but I had rather appeal to your own conscience without resorting to legal proceedings, and I now entreat you once more, solemnly and affectionately, in the name of our Blessed Lord ... either to resign your pastoral cures or else to relinquish a course which seems to me to be altogether at variance with the sacred obligations by which you are bound as a clergyman of the Church of England.
At the time, the 82-year-old Reverend King was seriously ill due to a thigh bone fracture he had sustained some months previously and a condition described as "gout in the stomach". While King did tend to his racehorses personally, he had only been seen three times in his life on a racecourse, never wagered, and had largely retired from his clerical duties, instead employing a curate to do most of his parochial work. One of King's friends defended his actions by stating that the breeding of Thoroughbreds was all but expected of a man of property and the "Squire of Ashby". Reverend King agreed to relinquish his clerical position and wrote to the Bishop of Lincoln:
My Lord, with reference to your present letter, it is true that now for more than fifty years I have bred and sometimes had in training horses for the turf. They are horses of a breed highly prized, which I inherited with my estate, and have been in my family for generations. It may be difficult, perhaps, to decide what constitutes a scandal in the Church; but I cannot think that in my endeavours to perpetuate this breed and thus improve the horses in this country, an object of general interest at the present moment—I have done anything to incur your lordship's censure ... if, therefore, I resign the livings which I hold within your lordship's diocese, it will be not from any consciousness of wrong, or from fear of any consequences which might ensue in the ecclesiastical courts, but simply because I desire to live the remainder of my days in peace and charity with all men ...
