of shot ballast before the race, and had it handed up to him in a pocket handkerchief as he returned to scale; and the other was, that the horse was not the same which ran as Hotspur at two years old. After the Running Rein alias Maccabeus exposure, it was not likely that his owner (let alone all higher considerations) would have run such a risk; and besides this, Marlow, who had won a two years old race on him at Bath, very quickly affirmed his identity when the question was put to him. Many still assert that The Dutchman never won the Derby at all, and ground their assertion on the fact that Nat, who was only half a length behind, felt so sure that Whitehouse (who did not know his own number on the telegraph) had won, that he rode up to him and congratulated him; and there is a story that Marlow when appealed to by them jointly for his opinion, said, with a melancholy air—“ I really don't know, but I think it's a dead heat."

66

The Era gives the following graphic description of Grecian, the crack Derby candidate of next year-" He is a bright chesnut, standing fifteen hands two inches in height, strongly resembling Cossack in appearance, but rather more lengthy; he has a fine head, well set on, his shoulders and arms are unexceptionable, and his thighs and hocks are good, although the latter, at first glance, would seem disposed to throw a curb, and there is an appearance of weakness at about the pasterns.' We trust he may be more fortunate than Cossack has been, seeing that since the Derby a paltry £75 walk over, and £300 as Leger second money," is all that has been credited to that hero in the " Racing Calendar." It is thought that he has never got over his dead heat with Canezou at Ascot. His feet are about the smallest we ever saw; and, while on the subject of legs, we may remark that we seldom remember seeing any animal endowed with such long pasterns as Ghillie Callum, from which he no doubt derived his great speed and extreme tendency to break down. There is no doubt that owing to an accident, and subsequent apprehension on this head, he had a thick internal lining of fat when he was stripped for the Derby, which thus made his position of sixth out of twenty-four an exceedingly creditable one. It is a sad pity that they pulled him out for the Ascot Derby, as the Heath was in some parts very like "hot bricks ;" but the Duke has been unlucky this season, and was evidently loath to throw any chance away. Ghillie's legs are said to be the flattest boned ones ever seen, and a sporting captain (so the story goes) got permission to measure them to decide a bet.

There are a great many nice two-years-olds out this year; Payment decidedly the fastest of them. Neasham, a Catterick winner, we are told by a rare Yorkshire judge, is a very fine colt, and we never saw a sweeter goer than the Venus filly. Her stable companion The Ban, is a low lengthy animal, very different in make to the dumpy Teddington. Hernandez is about the finest looking animal among them, and he has already cleared off £525 purchase money, with something to spare. Bonnie Dundee, who is rather a heavy style of animal, ought to have won at Goodwood, but he was sadly in want of another pipe-opener or two to get him up to concert pitch. Hippolytus is said to be one of the best tried young horses Lord Eglinton ever had, and with such an eminent pace-tutor in the stable, Fobert is not likely to make a very great mistake. The Black Sea sadly disappointed us; he is pretty in front, but weak in his hinder regions. Newmarket has hardly turned

Mr.

out a fortunate animal (bar Rhedycina), young or old, this year. Ford's lot we look upon as a Derbyshire importation; would that their winnings could have been effected under the guidance of Nat, in the once highly favoured "red and blue sleeves!"

Turning from race-horses to race-meetings, it may be remarked that like all other things going, they have their especial seasons of depression and prosperity, and seem to sway about incessantly from one state to the other. Coventry is now completely below zero, and Northampton, thanks to Lord Spencer, is at its culminating point. Out of a miserable little steeple-chase meeting the Doncaster Spring is fast creeping into one of considerable importance, and as the northern trainers have made it the condition of their hearty support that it should come off in the middle of March, the week before Warwick, it will, with a steeplechase each day by way of seasoner, form a worthy pioneer to the racing. season. The bad race course at Warwick militates slightly against its success; to this Mr. Merry's unwearied exertions are a considerable counterpoise, though they are somewhat marred by the non-appointment of a professional starter like Mr. Hibburd, who has a thoroughly practised eye, and will stand no nonsense from jockeys. The dissatisfaction about the last Metropolitan Handicap, although it proved baseless, renders it doubtful whether the "licensed victuallers" will shell out again. If they do, it seems more than probable that they will choose their own handicapper, or stipulate that a committee of three or more of the most sporting of their fraternity should have the privilege of revising the weights before publication. This latter compliment was paid to the Sheffield and Rotherham licensed victuallers at the last Doncaster Spring Meeting, and gave much satisfaction. Catterick Bridge is going down the hill in spite of its Revival Stakes, and the " Wallace" affair, which the Duke of Leeds and Mr. Hudson have taken up in the most temperate spirit, will infallibly give it another decided shove. Malton is a very rising meeting, while that at Burton Constable seems to have gone to "kingdom come." Derby and Sutton Park rear a very fair front in spite of their legal difficulties; while Beverley seems to have a surplus sufficient to raise the "green-eyed monster in the bosom of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Since Mr. Merry's horses have been withdrawn from their quarters at "Gullane N.B.," and Mr. Ramsay virtually retired from the turf, the Scotch meetings have sadly fallen off in interest. The death of the "rough and ready," but kind-hearted Mr. H. Johnston, has also left another gap in the racing commmunity of the "land o'cakes," and hence the once famed Kelso meeting consisted last year of one "walk over. The Newton Meeting is hardly what it used to be, either in the quality of its racing or the number of its attendant "Lancashire witches ;" and Newcastle has mostly plenty of entries, which are wonderfully reduced when the saddling bell rings. Stockbridge earns much of its popularity from the certainty of seeing John Day's full string out on parade, and Nottingham and Stamford seem to have taken a new lease. Guildford races are a great mystery, and there is a sad "twist" in the Grantley management which has led to the burning of the wooden Grand Stand, and the limiting of the sports to a solitary Queen's Plate. Thanks to Mr. Topham's handicapping and tact, Chester must always continue "great and glorious," though it is a pitiful race-course.

There is no doubt that the English turf is fast becoming divided into

two halves. The one consisting of the Jockey Club and its adherents, who advocate the handicapping abilities of the Messrs. Weatherby, and other influential turfites who are supposed to review their handicapping labours, and the north countrymen, who believe in Topham and other northern handicappers. The secret prejudice entertained by each party against officials not of their own country, is very strong, and we think unjust. We remember at Manchester last year, that two racing men, one a great authority in turf matters, declared that they would not support the races, nor act as stewards, if Mr. Topham was the handicapper; sagaciously assigning as a reason against him, that the Chester Cup handicap was "made for Joc o'Sot," and would not be convinced by the matter of fact answer of Mr. Bake-" But then

Joc o' Sot did not win." The north countrymen, on the other hand, declare that Doncaster must go to rack and ruin as long as the Messrs. Weatherby conduct the handicaps, and will have little to do with it accordingly. A reflection and a reference to Ruff should convince any dispassionate man that this cross feeling (excuse the pun) is very unjust and baseless. Looking at the last two handicaps for both the Chester and Liverpool cups, which were made by Mr. Topham, we find that the two first horses for the Liverpool cup last year, and the three first this, all belonged to the "southern division ;" and the same may be said for the two first in the last Chester cup. Turning to the other side of the question, any one who chooses to look at the results of the Goodwood and Ascot Stakes, Ebor Handicap, Great Yorkshire Handicap, and the two Cambridgeshire and Cæsarewitch Stakes for a few years past, will find that the "northern division" have had quite their full share of luck.

Thanks to the exertions of Lord Henry Lennox, Goodwood still continues the "prima donna" of race-meetings; but we fancy that its growing celebrity and proximity in point of time, have acted rather as a check upon Liverpool, which, in spite of Mr. Topham's exertions, shows a slight cow-tail tendency. The only drawback to York is its course, which if there has been much rain, becomes transmuted about the Bishopthorpe Turn, into a complete morass. Radcliffe, Reading, and Lincoln, are decidedly improving meetings, but the same can hardly be said of Richmond, Wolverhampton, Northallerton, and sundry others on the eastern side of our "tight little island."

We are convinced that many meetings damage themselves by fixing the stakes for their leading handicap too high. Not long ago we heard a bevy of trainers very good-naturedly intimate to a racing committee of a spring meeting, that if they made this race a " ten sovs., five sovs. h. ft.; and three sovs. if declared," they would do their utmost to bring horses; but would not consent to one the slightest higher in its terins.

Ascot is not progressing in the number of its entries, though the stand receipts at the last meeting were the largest ever known, in spite of the absence of Royalty, which casts a sad blight over a Vase and Cup day. Like all other meetings it was dull this year.

Doncaster seems at last, after the most vigorous efforts on the part of her sporting burgesses, to have put her racing affairs into the way in which they should go, and there is no doubt that the restoration of the 25 sovs. p. p. system in the Leger, by a steady adherence to which for 55 years that race attained a world-wide celebrity, will very much enlarge the field. Once fairly set on a sound footing, no races would surpass Doncaster in popularity; as the morning sales of blood stock in

front of the Salutation, and the animated concentration of nearly all the sporting characters extant, from the titled "owner" to the seediest and most mysterious of touts in the Betting Rooms, and the High Street, or the theatre at night (a thing which cannot happen at Goodwood and Ascot, where race-lovers have to separate and bivouack here, there, and everywhere), lend the meeting a peculiar interest, which even inferior bills of fare have faled to quench. Since the last meeting, George Nelson, who lived (as Bendigo has determined to do) "like a little gentleman," at Tickhill, only some seven miles from the Moor, on his £200 "royal jockey annuity," has gone like Scott, Conolly, and Pavis to his last account, and the members of his noted "Fleet," (who must one and all have drunk nearly enough to float a gun-brig in their time), have been dispersed by the magistrate-vicar of the place-like Wycliffe's bones, unto all lands.

Experience seems to prove that "wasting" is nowise inimical to health, as jockeys, unless they take very great liberties with themselves, generally live to a green old age, and sometimes continue in the pig-. skin till nearly the last; Frank Buckle for one, was three score and five before he rested from this description of labour. Owing, however, to the non-existence of handicaps in those "brave days of old," men had not the temptation to play tricks with themselves, by trying to ride at too low a weight. George Francis, as a lad, was one of the most energetic of sweaters, and we remember his fairly tearing himself to pieces to try and ride 5st. 8lbs., on a deceitful three-years-old rip (The Ruler, we believe) belonging to Mr. Eddison, and obliged to carry 24 lbs. of overweight after all. How Hesseltine and Holmes, with their comparative length of limb, could contrive, once or twice at least-within the last ten years, to ride "La Sage Femme, 7st. 71b.," and "John Harris, 7st. 9lb." respectively, is to us a physical philosophy problem, which has no solution. Young Stephenson, Lord Clifden's present trainer, who is no chicken in size, was an extraordinary spectacle with his loose coat hanging about him, before he stripped to ride 8st. 4lbs., in his jockey days. W. Boyce, too, who used to make such merry work on Flame, when he was a youngster, always appears very much punished to ride 8st. As a general thing, jockeys seem at a pinch to be able to scale 3lbs. below their professed" lowest riding weight;" and even that prince of north country jocks, Job Marson (whose lucky star is now, we are glad to see, in the ascendant, as he has won every third race or so he has ridden this year), although registered in this respect at 7st. 121b., rode three and won two races at the '49 Goodwood meeting, at 7st. 9lbs.

Somehow or other we cannot help thinking that the standard of racing age weights are generally fixed about 3lbs. too low. The simple scale of the Goodwood cup weights seems much better than the Ascot ones, as the three years old at the former place carry 7st. 4lbs., or 8lbs. more; thus giving the honourable association of Lye, S. Mann, Chapple, Wakefield, and other venerable little "fathers of families" a chance of a mount, instead of throwing so much good work into the hands of mere youngsters, who know no rent and tax sorrows. The same remark would apply to "two and three years old" races, the weights for which would be much better fixed at 7st. 7lbs., and 9st.; than beginning at 6st. 7lbs., as they generally do; as it especially requires an experienced man to keep a two years old well together, and teach their sprawling legs the way wherein they should go. Authorities differ on the subject,

but we always think that 21lbs. is as much as a three years old should give to his juniors in a race of this description, especially towards the close of the season.

We never saw the conception of "as weak as a cat," so completely embodied as it was in old John Day, when from some mistaken notion of duty, he reduced himself, five years ago, to ride 8st. 1lb. on Wilderness, for the Ham Stakes.

Templeman has been wonderfully lucky for Sir Joseph Hawley, and his other masters, in every kind of race, but his forte is the two years old course, and we seldom, if ever, saw any one bring home a two years old in such a vigorous style as he did Cranberry in the Chesterfield Stakes, or nurse a beaten horse so successfully for a rush on the post, as he did the British Yeoman in the Doncaster Two Years Old.

Robinson's handling of Rathmines last year was a perfect masterpiece, but his seat now gives us an idea of weakness.

If Yorkshiremen are to be believed, Butler, artiste as he usually is, made a sad mistake on Nunnykirk at York, in not trying to go up to the leading horses till the pace was first-rate, and thus pumping all the wind out of his sable piece of horseflesh in the attempt. Since that little contretemps "the ring" has been sadly prone to pick holes in his jacket.

Bartholomew, who is fast working his way into the first rank, has had much better luck since his Burleigh jacket was sent in. It struck us, however, that he rode rather wild at the Derby, when he found Mildew was beginning to fail.

Chapple looks as if he had been melted down and cast afresh this season; and "The Vicar," now that "heats" are so nearly obsolete at all good meetings, must be expecting the end of the world, or some other great shock to the British constitution.

Crouch is the "man-boy" of the modern turf; but his exhaustion from riding 6st. 10lbs. on Cockermouth, at Chester, showed that the principle of Oh, that this my solid flesh would melt," can be carried to an excess by no man.

The turf was never better off for light weights, none of them riding above six stone seven, who finish with all the coolness of veterans. Young J. Mann riding a dead heat with, and then extinguishing his parent Samuel, at Hampton, was quite a unique sight.

Contrary to expectation, the Leger seems likely to become a good betting race. The field will, we fancy, be selected from the following eighteen, the last five very doubtful: Voltigeur, Cantab, Clincher, Mickleton, Pitsford, The Nigger, Beehunter, Damask, Windischgratz, one of Green's, Marchioness d'Eu, another Irisher, Bolingbroke, Wallace, The Italian, Mildew, Knight of Avenel, and one of Lord Exeter's. Under the able coaching of Rhadulphus, the Derby winner is said to be doing capital work, and his noble owner has acted very wisely not to damage his chance for the Leger by facing a field for a tempting £1,550 stake at York, with an unpleasant 71b. extra. Voltigeur is by no means a nice horse to look at, he is too stallion-like about his head and neck, and too high on the leg, and whether it is from the peculiar set on of his tail or not, his hind quarters give us an idea of undue lightness. In spite of these foibles, he has a beautiful "packed up " way of going, and a delicious temper. We cannot fancy that the horse was in first-rate trim at the Derby, as he is fully believed to have had an accident some three