ASCOT Al^B GOODWOOD 71 



a second time at a meeting, than were the owners of a 

 decade or two ago. No doubt there is often very hard 

 ground in the Ascot week, but taking one year with another, 

 it is no harder now than it was in the seventies, and most 

 certainly there was less of the " poHcy of funk " about then 

 than there is now. The course for the Alexandra Plate 

 commences at the beginning of the New Mile and embraces 

 a complete circuit of the old course in addition. The 

 old course is circular and sixty-six yards short of two miles, 

 i.e. from the winning-post round to the winning-post again. 

 To make the two miles the horses are started sixty-six 

 yards below the judge's box, immediately after passing 

 which there is a slight descent as far as the end of the 

 paddock, or for rather more than a furlong. Beyond the 

 paddock the ground rises slightly to the hotel turn, and 

 then for about three-quarters of a mile there is a gradual 

 descent to where the Old Mile joins the circular course 

 seven furlongs from home. Along the bottom (after joining 

 the Old Mile) there is a little up and down, near what is 

 known as the Brick-kilns, but the last five furlongs are 

 all on the rise, which is steepest from the junction of the 

 New Mile (nearly four furlongs from home) to about one 

 furlong from the winning-post. 



The last bit of all, alongside the Royal enclosure, is rather 

 easier than the three furlongs which immediately precede 

 it, and on the whole, in spite of the hill finish, I do not 

 consider the two miles anything like so severe as are, 

 for instance, the Two Middle Miles, or the " Ditch In " 

 at Newmarket. The turns are by no means sharp, and 

 in the Cup, or two-mile races, it is very seldom that any- 

 thing runs wide. With a large field on the Old Mile the 

 reverse is sometimes the case, but in such races horses have 

 only come half a mile when they reach the turn, and 

 naturally many of them are pulling hard. The Old Mile 

 starting-post is amongst the trees, about a furlong further 

 from the stands than its junction with the round course ; 

 this distance is a few yards beyond the mile, and though 

 the course is not so hard as a straight mile (on account of 

 the turn) it takes a fairly genuine stayer to " get " it, and 



