146 THE ENGLISH TURF 



course. Thirsk, being situated on the main line between 

 London and Edinburgh, always draws a large crowd, and 

 though the sport is merely plating, the races are popular all 

 over Yorkshire, and many good horses have been seen there 

 in the past. Not so long ago the Hunt Cup used to excite 

 a lot of local interest, but legislation on the part of the 

 National Hunt Committee caused this and many other 

 similar races to fade out of the programme, and it would 

 be all for the best if they were re-established under new 

 conditions. The Ripon Course is one for which I never 

 had much liking, and somehow or other Ripon seems to 

 be the least popular of all Yorkshire fixtures. The course 

 is remarkably cramped, and the bottom turn, if not exactly 

 dangerous, very difficult to negotiate on a pulling horse. 

 The round course is little over a mile in circuit, and in 

 a long race horses are obliged to be continually on the 

 turn. The T.Y.C. is five furlongs straight, and there is a 

 very slight rise to the winning-post. (Since the above was 

 written the Ripon executive have found a new course, which, 

 it is said, is a great improvement upon the old one.) 



The last meeting we come to on the Yorkshire list is 

 Catterick Bridge, where one two-day meeting is held in 

 early spring. Unfortunately the programme is not a par- 

 ticularly strong one ; indeed, a portion of it is under N.H. 

 Rules, some two or three steeplechases being on the card. 

 However, Catterick Bridge Races are a highly popular social 

 function, and so much support is forthcoming that I cannot 

 help thinking the place to be capable of better things. As 

 it is, the meeting takes place so early in the year that the 

 weather is invariably unsettled and the atmosphere almost 

 always cold. There is no great race to attract, and the 

 course is on a branch line of railway, more than a mile 

 from a station, in an agricultural and thinly populated neigh- 

 bourhood, and with no towns nearer than Richmond and 

 Darlington, four and twelve miles away respectively. 



The stand is absolutely the smallest and most primitive in 

 the kingdom. It is, in fact, nothing more than a roadside 

 cottage, with a sloping roof arranged as a grand stand, and 

 it need hardly be said that it affords accommodation for very 



