374 TITE HORSE. 



" A word, on the subject of game in the English horses, and 

 I will close this piece. 



" At the last Doncaster races, a. d. 1839, Opera, sister to 

 Burletta by Actaeon, on Tuesday won the Cleveland stakes, one 

 mile, 16 subscribers. On Wednesday she won the Corporation 

 plate, two-mile heats, winning the iii*st and third heats ; and on 

 Friday, two days after only, she won the town plate, two-mile 

 heats, at four heats, winning the second heat, the third heat being 

 a dead, heat between her and Humphrey, and then won the 

 fourth heat, the last mile of which she ran in Im. 49s., with 119 



lbs, on her, she then four years old. Now if ' P ' will not 



admit tliis to be a game nag, lie must be hard to satisfy. Opera 

 is a good nag, but by no means at the head of tlie English Turf. 

 Her performance, there, is no marvel ; and perhaps in Cai'olina 

 they might place a low estimate on it, but I am certain that 

 Crusader would have found himself in bad company with her. 

 Each heat was well contested — the last mile of the second heat 

 was run in Im. 48s. ; the last mile in third, in Im. 50s. ; and the 

 last mile in the fourth heat in Im. 49s. — timed by an American 

 now in this country. The shape of the course enables a spec- 

 tator to time the last mile correctly." 



It is a remarkable fact, that, in 1826, I saw myself the very 

 counterpart of this race, run for the same Corporation plate, the 

 account of which I take from " The Annals of Sporting " of that 

 year, but I myself remember the circumstances as if they were 

 but of yesterday. 



Purity, the winner of the town plate, had on Wednesday 

 won the all-age stakes, St. Leger Course, — two miles, less 312 

 yards — in 3m. 37s., carrying 107 lbs. at four years old. The 

 all-age stakes is a selling stake. The winner liable to be claimed 

 at 200 sovereigns, but not deliverable until the end of the meet- 

 ing. I mention this to show precisely how near to the head of 

 the ifwrf Purity stood, and, as a consequence. Opera likewise. 



Indeed it is notorious to every English turfman that no owner 

 will enter a valuable horse or mare for a race which takes so 

 much out of the animal, while the gain — £100 — is so small, and 

 the renown, to be got by beating inferior horses, nothing. 



The race in 1826 was as follows. Unfortunately no time 



