798 



HORSERACING 



order to keep pace with the times it has been 

 arranged that the Derby shall never be worth less 

 than 5000 ; the race of 1890 being the first to come 

 under the new order. 



During the flat-racing season of 1889 the value 

 of the stakes competed for reached the unprece- 

 dented sum of 480,889, 18s., of which no less than 

 73,858, 10s. was won by the Duke of Portland, 

 a sum very far in excess of the winnings of any 

 other owner. Donovan alone won 38,666, 15s. ; 

 Ayrshire, 20,660; and Semolina, 9285, 8s. Mr 

 H. Milner was credited with 21,545, 6s., and 

 Chevalier Ginistrelli with 11,867, 11s. For year- 

 lings of fashionable pedigree large prices are always 

 forthcoming ; but the record was reached when, in 

 1876, 4100 guineas were paid for Maximilian. That 

 high figure, however, was very nearly approached 

 in 1889, when, during the St Leger week at Don- 

 caster, Colonel North gave 4000 guineas for a colt 

 by St Simon Garonne ; and, to illustrate the 

 value set upon good blood for breeding purposes, 

 it may be mentioned that Mr D. Baird paid 4000 

 guineas for the brood-mare Allegra. when she was 

 put up during the July week at Newmarket. 



Flat- racing is altogether under the direction of 

 the Jockey Club, and, by rule 65, any horse running 

 at a meeting not under Jockey Club rules is thence- 

 forward disqualified for ever from running at meet- 

 ings at which the rules are in force. The Jockey 

 Club appears to have come into existence during 

 the reign of George II. ; and the first mention of 

 it occurs in Heber's Racing Calendar for 1758, in 

 connection with a regulation passed in the March of 

 that year directing all riders to pass the scales when 

 they came in, under pain of dismissal. In the 

 volume on Racing in the ' Badminton ' series, the 

 writer on the ' History of the Jockey Club ' says that 

 tradition assigns to the year 1750 the origin of the 

 Jockey Club. At anyrate a room on the site of 

 the present Jockey Club buildings was erected in 

 1752 on ground leased by William Erratt, a horse- 

 dealer, to the Duke of Ancaster and the Marquis 

 of Hastings, in trust for fifty years. The rules of 

 racing are promulgated by this body, and are 

 altered from time to time as circumstances may 

 suggest. In 1889 the rules were entirely recast, 

 and came into force with the commencement of the 

 season of 1890. The new code confers increased 

 responsibilities and power upon the officials, and 

 makes several changes in the rules which had pre- 

 viously been in force. The ' apprentice allowance ' 

 has been done away with, and the restriction which 

 formerly precluded foreign horses from being handi- 

 capped in England unless they had been six months 

 in the country has been abolished. The object of 

 the rule, which to some persons was very obnoxious, 

 was to enable the handicapper to have some know- 

 ledge of the previous performances of the horses 

 to which he had to assign weight. The Jockey 

 Club is a self-constituted body, and many of its 

 acts are neither recognised nor governed by the 

 law of England ; yet with respect to racing it 

 discharges many important functions. No duty, 

 however, has been more disagreeable than the one 

 it was called upon to perform in 1889, when the 

 stewards, Mr James Lowther, Lord March, and 

 Prince Soltykoff, sat as arbitrators in the case of 

 Sir George Chetwynd v. Lord Durham, which was 

 an action originally brought in a court of law, but 

 afterwards referred, with the assent of both parties, 

 to the Jockey Club. The proceedings arose out of 

 a speech made by Lord Durham at the Gimcrack 

 dinner at York in 1887, in which sundry charges 

 were made against certain persons on the turf. 



According to Riiff's Guide, 2100 horses ran in the 

 year 1889. Of this number 988 were two-year-olds ; 

 523 were three-year-olds ; four-year-olds numbered 

 277 ; and there were 312 horses of the age of five 



years and upwards. In the same publication the 

 names of 108 trainers appear ; and there are 33 

 officials who have received licenses to act in various, 

 capacities at race-meetings. During the season of 

 1890, 105 meetings were fixed to take place between 

 the 24th March and the 22d November ; and the 

 names of 195 jockeys appear in the table of win- 

 ning mounts for the year 1889. The earnings of 

 a jockey in good practice are very great. The 

 regulation fee is 5 for a winning mount and 3 

 for, a losing one ; but it is comparatively seldom 

 that a jockey's remuneration is confined to the 

 minimum scale. Bets are often made for him ;. 

 retaining fees run to 1000 or more ; presents are 

 almost invariably given for successful riding ; and 

 in some cases the stakes of great races have been 

 promised to jockeys if they win. It is not in Eng- 

 land alone that horseracing flourishes. Many 

 meetings are held in France, the chief races run, 

 there being the Derby, first run in 1836; the Oaks, 

 in 1843; and the Grand Prix. Important meetings 

 are held in Germany and at Vienna ; while racing 

 is becoming popular in Italy. Some of the great 

 English races have been won by French horses. 

 Thus, the Goodwood Cup was won in 1853, 

 1855, 1857, and 1873 by Jounence, Baron cino, 

 Monarque, and Flageolet respectively. Mortemer 

 won the Ascot Gold Cup in 1871, and Henry 

 in the succeeding year ; while Boiard in 1874 

 and Verneuil in 1878 must be added to the 

 list. In 1876 Chamant and Jongleur between 

 them carried oft' the Middle Park Plate, Dew- 

 hurst Plate, and Criterion Stakes ; Camellia won 

 the One Thousand in 1876, and Chamant the Two> 

 Thousand in 1877 ; Enguerrande and Camellia 

 ran a dead-heat for the Oaks in 1876, and the St 

 Leger fell to Rayon d'Or in 1879 ; and, in addition 

 to these victories of French horses, Fille de 1'Air 

 carried oft' the Oaks in 1864, and Gladiateur, as 

 already mentioned, won the Two Thousand, Derby, 

 and St Leger in 1865. The long list of successes 

 gained by the French horses in 1876, coupled with 

 the fact that so few French races were open to- 

 English horses, caused the late Lord Falmouth to 

 give notice to the Jockey Club in that year that he 

 would bring forward a motion to the effect that no 

 foreign horses should be allowed to compete in 

 England until the bar to the admission of Eng- 

 lish abroad was removed. The idea, however, 

 did not find favour, and the motion was allowed to- 

 drop. The successes of American horses date back 

 to 1857, in which year Prioress won the Cesare- 

 witch for Mr Ten Broeck, that gentleman's Starke 

 being the winner of the Goodwood Stakes in 1859 

 and of the Goodwood Cup in 1861 ; Iroquois was 

 the Derby winner of 1881, and of the Prince of 

 Wales's Stakes (Ascot) and of the St Leger as 

 well ; while Foxhall took the Cesarewitch and 

 Cambridgeshire in 1881, and the Ascot Cup in 

 1882. In more recent years Wallenstein and Passaic 

 achieved some successes. Hungary has been re- 

 presented on English racecourses by Kisber, the 

 Derby winner of 1876, and by Kincsem, who won 

 the Goodwood Cup in 1878. The entries for the 

 Derby of 1890 included two Australian colts sent 

 over by the Hon. James White. Although trotting 

 is the national sport in America, the galloping 

 thoroughbred is somewhat growing in favour. 

 Russia has its races ; the turf exists as an institu- 

 tion in the colonies, at the Cape, and in India ; 

 and racing, for a few years prior to 1889, advanced 

 so quickly into popular favour at Buenos Ayres 

 that the export trade to that place Avas a very 

 brisk one, and an English racing man or two and 

 a trainer were tempted to go over to the Argentine 

 Republic. The native trainers, however, were 

 successful over the Englishmen. 



The rules of racing in England provide that in 



