ASCOT AND GOODA¥OOD 73 



almost immediately afterwards, and since that event nothing 

 has been heard of the project. 



The stands at nearly all the modern enclosures are 

 placed at an angle to the course, and in consequence a 

 far better view of the racing is obtained than is the case 

 at the older meetings, such as Epsom, Ascot, and Good- 

 wood, where they are parallel to the course, and where, 

 when horses are scattered over the whole width, it is a 

 much more difficult matter to note what is going on 

 than when the stands are set at an angle. With regard 

 to races on round courses the case is somewhat different, 

 because the very fact of there being a turn drives all 

 the runners to the inside, so that they may not lose 

 ground, and in ninety-nine races out of a hundred all of 

 them finish on the far side, which must of necessity be 

 the inside of the turn. Carry the mind back to any Derby 

 or Ascot Cup of recent years, and it will be remembered 

 that the finish was always on the far side, both at Epsom 

 and Ascot. Think again of the races for the Hunt Cups, 

 and winners will be called to mind that have finished near 

 the stands, in the middle, or on the far side. Perhaps a 

 better example still of what a turn will do is the Caesare- 

 witch, or any other race at Newmarket which begins 

 beyond the Ditch and finishes at the Rowley Mile Stand. 

 In nearly every race run on such courses the horses all 

 finish right on the rails opposite the stand, and even when 

 passing the Bushes they are massed together on, say, 

 that third part of the course which is furthest away from 

 the stands. Exceptional cases there are now and then, but 

 it is generally a bad swerve which lands a horse under 

 the judge's box at the finish of a race with a turn in it, 

 as was the case with Rockdove when she won the Caesare- 

 witch in 1895. Yet the turn at the running Gap at 

 Newmarket is hardly a turn at all compared with the 

 turn into the straight at Ascot, or with Tattenham Corner, 

 but it as certainly drives the runners towards the far side 

 of the course from the stands, that being the shortest 

 way home. At Ascot, in races run on the New Mile and 

 parts of it, it is quite as common for the winner to finish on 



