WEIGHT-FOR-AGE RACES 45 



forfeit, and the two races are as a rule worth not very 

 far from the same amount. For the Two Thousand 

 and One Thousand Guineas, ^loo each, half forfeit, 

 is the condition. Entries for these close about six 

 weeks after the St. Leger, and in number they usually 

 fall short of a hundred. The stakes vary in total 

 between ^4,000 and ^5,000. The conditions for the 

 Oaks are the same as for the Derby, except that in 

 the fillies' race the nominator of the winner receives 

 ;/^400, the owners of second and third £200 and 

 ^100. Another important three-year-old race is the 

 Newmarket Stakes of at least ^3,500, by subscription 

 of £30 each. This is run at the Newmarket Second 

 Spring Meeting, and the tendency of it is not wholly 

 for good, as it affords a temptation to owners to run 

 horses which have probably taken part in the Two 

 Thousand a fortnight previously, are to go for the 

 Derby, a fortnight later, and are thus overtaxed. For 

 several years there was a three-year-old race at Epsom 

 called the Grand Prize, set for the day after the 

 Derby ; but this failed from obvious causes, and has 

 been discontinued. Horses that had run the day 

 before were likely to be feeling the effects of their 

 exertions, if, indeed, their owners sent them to the 

 post ; animals that seemed to have any chance for the 

 Derby were almost certain to have been run in it ; if any 

 were specially kept for the Grand Prize it was because 

 of their obvious inferiority, and the contest was felt to 

 be unsatisfactory. One thing to be specially desired 



