57 8 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



Pottos (1773), Waxy (1790), Whalebone (1807), Sir Hercules (1826), Birdcatcher 

 (1833), The Baron (1842), Stock-well (1849), Doncaster (1870), Bend Or (1877), 

 Ormonde (1883), Orme (1889), Flying Fox (1896). We have started several prizes 

 for ,10,000, but we have left the Derby at the same it was in Lord Lyons day, 

 thirty-seven years ago. Taking other figures again, in 1813 we find there were 

 barely 800 horses running on the flat in the 103 race-meetings held in Great Britain. 

 Out of these 103, only Ascot remains of the four Berkshire meetings ; Chester of 

 the four in Cheshire ; none at all in Cornwall, Dorset, Hertford, Hereford, or 

 Oxfordshire; many others have vanished altogether. Yet in 1900, 3955 horses ran, 

 on the same basis of calculation ; more than 4000 in 1901. We have six or eight 

 races in a day's card now, compared to the three or four, sometimes the single 

 match, which our forefathers were content to see. But this would not alone give 

 employment to the vast total of thoroughbreds in training. Racing has become 

 far more frequent than was ever the case before. It is true that when a license 

 was requested in the autumn of 1902 for a new course at Rotherham, it was refused 

 by a Jockey Club which had added an eighth meeting to Newmarket. But our 

 Turf legislators are evidently only slowly realising that meetings have grown too 

 fast of late. There are four at Alexandra Park ; nine (including steeplechases) at 

 Birmingham; and four at Derby and Doncaster; while Hurst Park, Lingfield, 

 Kempton, Nottingham, Windsor, Sandown Park, and the rest, keep us going hard 

 right through the season. The tendency towards centralisation has been inevitable. 

 The most indefatigable Londoner could hardly do his round if meetings were 

 scattered all over the country as they used to be. The success of Bendigos Eclipse 

 Stakes at Sandown confirmed the feeling that enclosed meetings near London 

 would prove popular. But it may be doubted if every one realised what the 

 result would be in later years. How the trainers stand it is a question they alone 

 can answer ; and I do not believe they would, as a body, oppose the elimination 

 of Saturday and Monday from the Racing Calendar, if only to give a little more 

 time to themselves and their charges to recover from their constant journeys. We 

 get a " real smasher " now and then among the thousands of our young stock ; but 

 so they did when the sires and dams were far fewer in number. What we have 

 increased enormously is the moderate animal who is good enough to make an 

 occasional win, and give his backers a chance of keeping up their stable. The need 

 of a good one is sufficiently emphasised by the huge prices paid for a fashionable 

 yearling, which may after all turn out as worthless as the worst bred of them all. 



