THE YORKSHIRE MEETINGS 127 



May, immediately after the York Spring Meeting, and 

 generally in the week before the Derby. It is just an 

 ordinary second-class affair, with two or three good stakes 

 to relieve the monotony of plating. On the first day the 

 Doncaster Spring Handicap of ;^i,ooo, run on the Sandall 

 (New) Mile is the chief attraction, but the Hopeful Stakes 

 is often won by a good horse, and a similar remark applies 

 to the Fitzwilliam Stakes on the following day, when the 

 Chesterfield Handicap, over a mile and a half of ground, 

 is the most important race on the programme. The Autumn 

 Meeting in the early days of September is much more 

 ambitious, and is, in one respect, the most important 

 meeting of the year. It does not approach Ascot so far 

 as the value of the prizes is concerned, and though it is 

 the equal of, it is no better than Epsom from many points 

 of view. But the St. Leger is the final act of the three- 

 year-old drama, and during the week the best public 

 yearlings of the year are offered for sale. The sales, which 

 are chiefly confined to yearlings, are a most important 

 feature of the Doncaster week, and they serve to bring all 

 the breeders to the town, as well as the regular followers 

 of racing. This is the feature which gives the meeting 

 such prominence. 



Doncaster is one of three meetings. Ascot and Epsom 

 being the other two, which draw upon every section of 

 the racing world, hence the crowd at Doncaster in Sep- 

 tember is the largest of the year, Epsom on the Derby 

 day alone excepted. Everyone goes to Doncaster, even 

 the men and women who attend only two or three meetings 

 each year ; and the place is situated in a horse-loving 

 district, a majority of the inhabitants of which would sooner 

 lose a week's wages than miss t' Leger. Past writers have 

 told us how, before the railway was made, thousands of 

 hardy sons of toil would walk the eighteen miles between 

 Sheffield and the Town Moor, through the night, in order 

 that they might secure a good place on the rails, and 

 that they would stand quietly waiting all the morning 

 rather than lose the position they had been at so much 

 pains to secure. Now they come by train, and, as the 



