246 THE ENGLISH TURF 



Perhaps the most prominent of all the Northern stables 

 just now is the comparatively new establishment over which 

 Elsey presides at Baumber, in Lincolnshire, and from a 

 geographical point of view this stable is more in the 

 Midlands than in the North. Elsey only began a few 

 years ago with a few platers, but he gradually increased 

 his string, and his successes have been very marked of 

 late years. In 1898 he turned out thirty-one winners of 

 seventy-five races, worth ;;^4,988, and during the season he 

 won fifteen more races than any other trainer secured. 

 The racing season extends over thirty-six weeks, so that, 

 roughly speaking, Elsey won two races a week during the 

 whole period — a singularly fine average for anyone, but 

 really extraordinary when it is considered that Elsey only 

 took to training in middle life, and had not been brought 

 up in the stables. As a rule the Baumber horses run more 

 on the Northern Circuit and in the Midlands than in the 

 South, but anyhow they are dangerous wherever they go, 

 though as a matter of fact the stable seldom goes for big 

 stakes, and generally confines itself to minor events of 

 every description. At the Northern meetings so many 

 successes have been achieved by Baumber -trained horses 

 during the last four or five years that a long price is very 

 seldom obtainable, and it is a fact that many starting-price 

 bookmakers in the North will take no money for these 

 horses without charging a big commission. In modern 

 racing Elsey's success is in a way without parallel, for 

 though William I'Anson, of Malton, won as many races 

 over a period of several years with a smaller stud, William 

 I'Anson had been bred up to racing, and during his youth 

 had been associated with such celebrities as Blair Athol, 

 Blink Bonny, Caller Ou, and a host of famous horses. Up 

 to the present time no great victories have been scored by 

 Elsey's stable, and so far Lord Edward II., by Enthusiast, 

 has been the best horse which the Baumber stable has 

 sheltered. The colt in question won the most valuable 

 two-year-old prize of his year (the Breeders' Produce Stakes 

 at Sandown Park), and as a three-year-old was placed in 

 the Lincoln Handicap, and again in the Jubilee Stakes, 



