238 THE ENGLISH TURF 



Ilsley (Compton) W. G. Stevens — a brother of the late 

 T, Stevens — presides over a very large establishment, and 

 wins a great number of races. In 1898 W. Stevens sent 

 out twenty-three winners of thirty-one races, and in the 

 previous year he won the Cambridgeshire for Sir William 

 Ingram with Comfrey, a good-looking son of Despair, whose 

 stock have in late years done great things for this stable. 

 Taking one year with another, few trainers meet with more 

 uniform success than Stevens, who is a thorough master of his 

 work, and good to follow when he fancies his horses. Stevens 

 very rarely goes North, but in the smaller handicaps and 

 in selling races at the Southern meetings he is always 

 dangerous. In the neighbourhood of Ilsley J. Lowe, 

 J. Dover, McKie, East, and H. Lukie are also at present 

 located, but the Compton establishment is the great stable 

 of the district, and some two-thirds of the races which are 

 won by Ilsley-trained horses are credited to William Stevens. 

 At Lambourn, also in Berkshire, no fewer than seven 

 trainers are at present established, and the largest establish- 

 ment is that of J. F. Peace, who in 1898 sent out thirty 

 winners of forty-four races, and who is especially dangerous 

 at the Lancashire meetings, many of his patrons hailing 

 from the County Palatine. Another Lambourn trainer is 

 Harry Bates, a son of Fred Bates of Middleham, and though 

 comparatively a new beginner, young Bates trained fourteen 

 winners of eighteen races in 1898, and is likely to take a 

 good place among country trainers. J. Chandler, who had 

 charge of that beautiful horse Amphion, is another of the 

 Lambourn trainers, and Hobbs, whose Burnaby won the 

 Csesarewitch, P. Sherrard, J. Rhodes, and T. Worton now 

 complete the number. Mr. Worton, who made a mark in 

 the Turf world through owning Victor Wild, is quite an 

 amateur, and has only a small stud ; he, however, wins 

 races, and that he evidently understands the business is 

 shown by others training with him. At Lambourn many 

 good horses have been trained, and besides Victor Wild 

 and Amphion, Surefoot and Bendigo may be mentioned 

 as big winners of not very remote date. Not far away 

 from Lambourn, near Kingston Warren, where W. Grey 



