THE CLASSIC RACES. 137 



over Blue Ribbon history, we find that those 

 running horses in the great Epsom event re- 

 quired to pay for the privilege of doing so a 

 sum of ^50. Gentlemen who entered their 

 horses, but for some reason or other did not 

 run them, had, according to the conditions, to 

 pouch out ^25, and in the earlier years of 

 the Derby "guineas" were exacted. In the 

 rubric of the first race no sum is allotted to 

 the second or third horses, but in 1782 it is 

 mentioned that "the second received 100 gs. 

 out of the stakes." No allowance would appear, 

 in the earlier years of the Blue Ribbon, to have 

 been assigned to the other placed horse, but in 

 the course of time there appeared a clause in 

 the conditions to the effect that the winner would 

 have to pay ;^ioo towards the expenses of ad- 

 ditional police officers, and some years afterwards 

 another exaction was made in the form of a fee 

 of ;^50 to the judge ; so that the very earliest 

 traditions of the race point in the direction of 

 meanness. 



How the race for the Derby Stakes was 

 originally organised is not very well known, but 

 that machinery of some kind existed for collecting 

 the stakes, and handing the amounts won to the 

 winners of them, may be taken for granted ; 

 indeed, we know that it was so, but, for lack of 

 authentic information on the subject, it is better 

 not to risk the publication of merely hearsay 

 statements. For more than a century British 

 sportsmen have quietly allowed themselves to 

 be, as may be said, " victims " of a confederacy 

 that " grabbed " all and gave nothing. Year 

 after year owners of Derby horses generously 



