112 THE TURF 



except that they are popular races ; but the Cesare- 

 witch is one of the great contests of the year. Class 

 is better represented in this race than in any other of 

 the long distance handicaps, and the field is almost 

 invariably good. It is run over a severe course of 

 two miles and a quarter, and though a moderate animal 

 has occasionally got home with a light weight, it 

 usually takes a really good horse to win the Cesare- 

 witch. The race dates from 1839 and several inter- 

 esting chapters might be compiled about it. The 

 success of Prioress in 1857, after a dead-heat with two 

 other animals, El Hakim and Queen Bess, was one 

 of the first victories gained by American horses in 

 England. Prioress was brought to this country ^by the 

 late Mr. Ten Broeck, a keen sportsman who met with 

 varying fortune on the Turf. 1866 was a very sensa- 

 tional year. The race fell to the Marquis of Hastings' 

 Lecturer, and the owner won a large fortune at a time 

 when, there can now be no harm in saying, the money 

 was sorely needed. The horse was trained at Dane- 

 bury by the late John Day, and did so well in a trial 

 with Ackworth and others that Day could not believe 

 that the result was true. After a short interval the 

 gallop was repeated, with precisely the same result, 

 and it then became apparent that the colt, a three-year- 

 old, not by any means leniently weighted with 7 st. 

 3 lbs., could scarcely fail. John Day's brother, William, 

 who had taken the race in i860 with Dulcibella, and 

 knew well what was required to win the Cesarewitch, 



