PRINCE PALATINE 



Is needless. "The Cup" suffices. It might be 

 likely to strike the novice in Turf affairs who looked 

 down the record of this trophy that the number of 

 runners had nearly always been singularly small. 

 The race was instituted in 1807. From 1845 to 

 1853 it was known as the Emperor's Plate, in con- 

 sequence of the Czar of Russia having bestowed an 

 endowment when he visited England, but in 1854 it 

 reverted to the original title, and has been continued 

 uninterruptedly till the abandonment of the Ascot 

 meeting in 191 5, owing to the war. Once, in 182 1, 

 a horse was allowed to walk over, on seven occasions 

 there has been a match, fourteen times only three 

 horses have run, twenty times no more than four, 

 and only seven times in the hundred and eight years 

 of the Cup's existence up to the time of writing has 

 the field extended to double figures. When Bayardo 

 won in 19 10 there were thirteen starters, twice a 

 dozen have gone to the post : when Alarm won in 

 1840, and in 1857 when the prize went to Skir- 

 misher. William the Third in 1902 was one of 

 eleven, Glaucus in 1835, Lecturer in 1867 and 

 Aleppo in 19 14 were each one of ten. The ex- 

 planation is that the owner of what would be rated 

 as merely a good horse does not venture to com- 

 pete. He is aware that the select few who are to 

 be trained for the Cup will be horses of altogether 

 exceptional capacity, and it can hardly be worth 



