202 THE ENGLISH TURF 



the place, popular with owners, trainers, and the general 

 public, is on the high road to success, both financially and 

 from a racing point of view. 



The new Birmingham Course has been laid out on very 

 sensible lines, and as regards the placing of the stands 

 it is a perfect model of what a racecourse ought to be. 

 Those who were responsible for the job evidently took 

 note of the mistakes which had been made with regard to 

 several comparatively recently-built enclosures, and profited 

 by them. The result is that the racing, and particularly 

 the finishes, can be better seen at Birmingham than at many 

 other places, and it may be added that the course is a good 

 one. As a very modern enclosure it has had a great deal 

 to contend with. A new venture very often cannot procure 

 good dates, and this applies especially to those places which 

 are a hundred miles or more from town. Such places have 

 either to take Monday and Tuesday, or Friday and Saturday, 

 and even then they seldom obtain a clear, unopposed fixture. 

 In consequence they must depend upon the local population 

 for the greater part of their attendances, and very often 

 also — as when they clash with a more important fixture — 

 upon a local ring. The rank and file of the followers of 

 racing they cannot get unless they have the most important 

 meeting of that particular date, and as regards Birmingham 

 this is seldom possible, the fixtures often clashing with 

 others at Kempton, Hurst Park, or somewhere else in the 

 London district. So far as having to take Monday is con- 

 cerned, the fact that numbers of frequenters of "Tattersall's" 

 have to be sacrificed is compensated for in the Midlands by 

 the very general way holiday is kept on that day. 



There is an upper section of racing men of every branch. 

 There is an upper section of owners, of trainers, of jockeys, 

 of gentlemen backers, of bookmakers, and of votaries of 

 the sport of every description. Such go to Newmarket 

 eight times a year, Ascot, Epsom (twice), Goodwood, 

 Doncaster, York, Manchester, Liverpool, Lincoln, Derby, 

 and times without number to Sandown, Kempton, Gatwick, 

 and other Metropolitan fixtures. Many of them also take 

 on such places as Chester, Stockton, Redcar, Bath, and 



