THE RACING SEASON, 1840. 



237 



THE EACING SEASON, 1840. 



In reviewing this Racing Season, it is impossible for any- 

 one conversant with the Turf not to be struck by the'.vast 

 increase of the number of Racing Meetings, and also of the 

 great importance now attached to Stakes heretofore of but 

 moderate local interest. The most influential of these newly- 

 invented races are the great Handicaps, now so much in 

 vogue at almost every Meeting, and to which public money 

 (that magnet of attraction to the owner of the race horse) 

 is very liberally subscribed. 



The Coventry and Warwick Spring Meetings are de- 

 cidedly progressing. At the former place Tubalcain beat 

 Fitzroy for the Craven Stakes, and was in consequence 

 talked about (but not backed) for the Tradesmen's Cup at 

 Chester. At Warwick, Mr Etwall's colt by Mulatto, out of 

 Melody, was in fine feather and full tune; not one of his 

 companions (ten in numberj could keep time with him in the 

 Trial Stakes — he won in the commonest canter. This su- 

 periority over good horses made John Day's stables look 

 well. 



The Newmarket Craven Meeting was looked forward to 

 by the Derby betters with considerable interest. The Rid- 

 dlesworth decided the fate of Glenorchy. Theon ran his 

 race honestly and well, but the defeated ones were so well 

 known to be below mediocrity, that it made little or no im- 

 pression on the odds in his favour for the Derby. The 

 Angelica colt, whose fame had been " said or sung" at all the 

 sporting haunts in Newmarket, London, and elsewhere, 

 turned out the most wretched cur alive. Assassin, a smart 

 little horse, qualified for the short Newmarket courses to a 



