70 HANDBOOK OF THE TURF. 



Declarations. The Turf Congress rules require that 

 declarations must be made in purse races by 12 o'clock, noon, 

 the day of the race. If a person having more than one horse 

 entered in a purse, declares one out, he thereby declares all 

 out. All declaration fees go — 60 per cent, to second horse, 

 and 40 per cent, to third horse ; and in case one horse distances 

 the field, in heat races, all entrance and declaration money 

 must go with the purse. 



I>eiital Star. A particular marking in the permanent 

 incisors deemed an important factor in judging the age of a 

 horse after he is eight years old. It is a discoloration of the 

 dentine, (the ivory-like substance filling the cavity of the teeth, 

 softer and darker colored than the rest of the tooth), which 

 appears on the table of the tooth as the x^rown becomes worn 

 away, in the form of a transversely elongated dark-yellow line. 



Dentition. The act or process of cutting teeth. The 

 horse has two sets of teeth, like all the other domestic animals. 

 They are called those of the first dentition or temporary ; and 

 those of the second dentition, or permanent. See Teeth. 



Derby. The most important annual race in England, 

 possibly in the world, run on the Downs, a mile and a half 

 south of the village of Epsom, Surrey, fourteen miles from 

 London. The Derby stakes were founded in 1780, by Edward 

 Smith Stanley, Twelfth Earl of Derby, the year following his 

 establishment of the Oaks stakes. The stakes are 6,000 sover- 

 eigns — the winner to receive 5,000 sovereigns, the nominator 

 of the winner 500 sovereigns, the owner of the second 300 

 sovereigns, and the owner of the third 200 sovereigns. The 

 event is for three-year-olds, colts to carry 126 pounds, and 

 fillies to carry 121 pounds. The first Derby was won by Diomed, 

 owned by the celebrated Sir Charles Bunbury, which horse in a 

 few years won over i$38,000 in stakes, and was sold in 1798 for 

 fifty guineas, and brought to this country. From the time 

 the race was inaugurated up to 1784, the length of the Derby 

 course was one mile. From 1784 up to and including 1871, 

 the distance was one and a half miles. In 1872, and since, the 

 start has been from the new High Level starting post, the dis- 

 tance being one and a haK miles and twenty-nine yards. It is 

 up hill for a quarter of a mile, tolerably flat for the next half, 

 down hill for the next quarter, and undulating Mdth a rise to 

 the finish for the remainder of the distance. The Derby has 

 been won by such great horses as Queen of Trumps, Bay Mid- 

 dleton, Smolensko, Surplice, Don Juan, St. Bevys, PleniiDoten- 

 tiary. Bard, Bend Or, Sainfoin, Pyrrhus the First, Mameluke, 

 Orm, and greatest of all, the mighty Ormonde. 



