SIXTY YEARS ON THE TURF 



"I suppose you'll make it for yourself," chaffed 

 " Tubby" Morris, who sat opposite me. 



" Oh no ! And just to show you, I'll take 4 lb. 

 ofi" The Don and 6 lb, off Zingari, leaving mine, 

 Wild Bird, as it is, 5 st. 7 lb. And now I shall 

 very nearly win it, though mine's bad." Curiously 

 Wild Bird beat The Don a head, and Zingari was 

 third. 



It may not be generally known that early in the 

 year of 1876 Mr. Dorling purposed diverting the 

 Derby track in order to avoid paying a rental of 

 £1000 a year to Mr. Carew, then lord of the manor 

 at Epsom. Nobody can say much against the 

 economical tastes of the then Clerk of the Course. 

 If he could have saved so substantial a sum, and not 

 made worse an already bad track, well and good. 

 But any one familiar with the course, and any one 

 who had seen the fresh staking-out, must have 

 immediately recognised that the safety of and 

 fairness to competitors were being sacrificed to 

 motives of economy. I, who by training near, knew 

 every inch of the ground, thought it incumbent on 

 me to direct the attention of Admiral Rous to the 

 matter before affairs had progressed too far, and one 

 day I called on him. 



" I wish," I said, " you would come with me to 

 Epsom, and see what Dorling purposes doing with 



49 



