124 THE ENGLISH TURF 



Yorkshire fixture, and have failed to pick up a race. 

 Another peculiarity of this interchange of civilities is that 

 when a Newmarket horse is sent to run in a little race, 

 say at Ripon or Thirsk, he is almost always made favourite. 

 His presence seems to establish a funk amongst Northern 

 owners, and when the numbers go up everyone is found to 

 be inquiring about the stranger. " What is this So-and-so ? " 

 asks one burly Tyke of another. " Don't know. Can't 

 find him in the book, but he has been sent from Newmarket, 



and I see they've brought to ride him. That's good 



enough, eh ? " That is quite sufficient for them to put 

 their money on the stranger. On one occasion, some ten 

 or twelve years ago, Lord Durham won two races on the 

 first day at Gosforth Park. On the following day he had 

 a plater in a selling race who was shockingly bad, and 

 had only been sent in order that he might be got rid of. 

 There was quite a big field, but as soon as the numbers 

 were up they laid odds on the bearer of the purple and 

 straw sleeves. Lord Durham was astounded. " What 

 does it mean ? " he said. " Mine was beaten a hundred 

 yards in his trial." What it really meant was that the 

 stable was known to be in form, and that the presence of 

 a Newmarket - trained horse in a ;^ioo selling plate at 

 Newcastle caused the public to imagine that they had 

 found a good thing. The horse finished "down the 

 course," in accordance with the expectations of his owner. 

 In contrast to the above the Northern trainer, when he 

 goes South, does not take a horse with him unless he 

 greatly fancies his chance. He has worked out the form 

 of everything in the race in which he intends to run one, 

 and has come to the conclusion that he can just about win. 

 Down South he will probably get three times the odds 

 that he would obtain nearer home, and so he travels a 

 couple of hundred miles, and as often as not reaps the 

 benefit of his enterprise. 



The best racecourses in Yorkshire are Doncaster Town 

 Moor and the Knavesmire at York, and for a hundred and 

 fifty years or more these two places have been the great 

 centres of racing in the North. York and Doncaster 



