178 THE ENGLISH TURF 



to be despised is the healthy competition which they 

 engender. For instance, since their institution the Epsom 

 Derby, which showed an incHnation to decrease in value, 

 has been guaranteed a value of ;^5,ooo. There has also 

 been a material rise in the value of many important 

 handicaps, such as the Lincolnshire Handicap, Chester Cup, 

 City and Suburban, and Ascot Stakes, which can be traced 

 to the institution of the ten-thousand-pounders, although 

 they do not come directly into competition with these long- 

 established races. At first clerks of courses, in their eager- 

 ness to be early in the field, went the wrong way to work for 

 the good of our thoroughbreds by giving mammoth prizes 

 for two-year-olds, but timely legislation has put a stop 

 to this. 



As stated, the first winner of the Eclipse Stakes was that 

 good horse Bendigo, who also won such races as the Lincoln 

 Handicap, Cambridgeshire, Hardwicke Stakes at Ascot, and 

 Champion Stakes at Newmarket — a horse of the hardiest 

 description, who was kept in training until he was seven 

 years old, but who, strange to say, has not been a stud 

 success. Bendigo, who was a most popular horse with the 

 public, won in heavy rain, but it is questionable whether a 

 greater concourse of people has ever been gathered together 

 at Sandown since, and most certainly I never saw a longer 

 line of carriages there than on that day. Below the stands the 

 lines extended, on either side of the course, nearly down 

 to the palings at the bottom, and in spite of the miserable 

 weather, the demonstration which greeted the winner was an 

 extraordinary one, though it has since been surpassed, as I 

 shall presently tell. In 1887 the race did not fill, and in 

 1888 it was won by a moderate horse in Orbit, who was 

 followed home by a brace of more moderate ones, Ossory 

 and Hartley. This, by the way, was a year of very moderate 

 three-year-olds, the Two Thousand being won by Enterprise, 

 the Derby by Merry Hampton, and the St. Leger by Kil- 

 warlin. In 1889 Ayrshire was successful, and in 1890 the 

 race was again void. Since that time no more blanks have 

 to be recorded, and the winners have all been good or very 

 good horses. In 1891 the race produced a sensation, as 



