SIXTY YEARS ON THE TURF 



understood the managers of the meeting were giving 

 nothing. 



" Stakes ? " said a certain Clerk of the Course on 

 an occasion. " Stakes, sir ? " in a tone of increasing 

 increduhty and surprise. " Why, we put yours in 

 to win ! Didn't you back it ? " 



Still, I must own that even for the smaller sums 

 that then existed sport of the highest class prevailed. 

 Thus in the year under notice (1848) I remember 

 being at Canterbury, on August 23, and seeing 

 Pyrrhus the First and Miami run in two-mile heats 

 for Her Majesty's Plate of 100 guineas. The one 

 had secured, by a neck, the Derby of 1846, and the 

 other had captured the Oaks in the succeeding 

 season. This, in view of modern occurrences, was an 

 extraordinary incident. No longer is there a course 

 at Canterbury ; and no longer are Derby heroes and 

 Oaks heroines run in two-mile heats for a hundred 

 guineas plate. 



19 



