I40 A MIRROR OF THE TURF. 



the value of the Derby — the figure was greatly- 

 dependent, of course, on the number of horses 

 that came to the starting-post — would very seldom 

 reach a sum of ;^3,ooo. Not till George Fordham 

 steered Mr. Acton's Sir Bevys to victory in 1879 

 did the stake reach its highest value, when, 

 with 278 entries and 22 runners, the sum must 

 have amounted to ^7,500, if all who entered 

 their colts paid their stakes. But long before 

 that son of Favonius had placed the Blue 

 Ribbon of the Turf to the credit of his owner, 

 the Epsom Summer Meeting had been placed 

 on a thoroughly business footing, such a footing 

 as has secured for many years a magnificent 

 dividend to the proprietors of the grand stand, 

 who are lessees of the course on which the 

 Derby, Oaks, and other races have for so many 

 years been run ; but it has been said that so 

 far as the gentlemen of England — who run colts 

 in the Derby or fillies in the Oaks — and their 

 foreign friends are concerned, they might as 

 well write the names of their horses on pieces 

 of paper, and shaking them together in a hat, 

 select at random the first three and divide the 

 money in accordance with the result of the draw. 

 Minus the excitement attending the race, such 

 a mode of procedure would be better than allow- 

 ing their costly horses, provided at great expense, 

 to run for the benefit of a body of persons who 

 have a greater love — in all probability a far 

 greater love — for a big dividend than for sport. 

 No more curious feature of our present-day 

 civilisation exists than that a large body of gentle- 

 men (and ladies as well) should enter a couple 

 of hundreds of the finest horses bred in the 



