^o A MIRROR OF THE TURF. 



in every year on which large sums are spent in 

 the same direction. Travelling, hotel expenses, 

 and entrance to race grounds soon take the 

 corners off a ten-pound note, and there are 

 thousands at that kind of work nearly all the year 

 round. It has also been "calculated" that, in all 

 probability, ten thousand persons are employed 

 in various capacities in direct connection with 

 racing, in stables, on stud farms, etc. ; and if men 

 and boys be set down as earning over-head, 

 including board and lodging, £\ a week all the 

 year round, the sum so expended will exceed half 

 a million sterling. 



III. 



The following brief rdstimd of the yearling- 

 sales of 18S9-90 will give readers a good illustra- 

 tion of the prices referred to in the preceding 

 pages : 



Recent sales almost indicate a return of the 

 sensational prices which were the rule a good 

 many years ago, when baby blood stock seemed to 

 many buyers worth " thousands upon thousands "; 

 very fair averages have at all events been ob- 

 tained, and in one or two individual cases, big 

 prices were the order of the day. The number 

 of yearlings of both sexes which changed hands 

 throughout the season of 1889, ending about the 

 middle of October, was 662, the produce of 189 

 different sires. The average reached was, as 

 near as possible, 300 gs., the total sum realised 

 by public sales in that year being 195,358 gs. 



The figures which follow will afford a means of 

 comparing the average prices obtained for year- 



