BRITISH SPORT PAST AND PRESENT 



challenges, and the pair fight it out amid a roar of excitement 

 which, when Persimmon wins by a neck, culminates in an 

 outburst of cheering compared to which the previous uproar 

 was a whisper. The hubbub that follows the winning of the 

 Derby generally dies away as the horses pull up to return to 

 scale ; not so to-day. The purple and scarlet of the Heir to 

 the Throne has been borne past the post first by a neck after a 

 splendid race, and it is not a vast crowd of racegoers but of 

 loyal subjects that is cheering. Now it lulls for a moment, 

 now swells again, while hats by hundreds are thrown in the air 

 by men fairly beside themselves. The crowd floods the course 

 and surges, a dense mass, round the winner as Marsh leads him, 

 escorted by mounted police, to the gate where the Prince is 

 waiting. Another roar as Watts doffs his cap to His Royal 

 Highness. Another lull. " All right ! " from the weighing 

 room, is acknowledged by yet another deafening storm of 

 cheering. The croAvd seems unable to leave off. " Well," 

 says an old racegoer, " I have seen a good many Derbies, and 

 I thought the demonstration when Ladas won couldn't be 

 beaten ; but it was nothing to this." ' 



The Derby crowd of Persimmon's year was one of the 

 largest — some estimated it to be quite the largest — ever 

 seen on Epsom Downs : the police maintained that there were 

 a quarter of a million people present. 



The Derby of 1901, Volodyovski's year, was the first in 

 which the starting gate was used. The field was a large one, 

 twenty-five horses, and only one. Orchid, made any objection 

 to the barrier he was required to face. 



The origin of the starting gate can be traced to the Arabs. 

 The famous Emir Abd-el Kadir in the account of racing he gave 

 General Daumas {The Horses of the Sahara) says: 'The horses 

 are grouped together by tens, but before allowing them to 

 start and to prevent false starts, the following precaution is 

 taken. A rope is stretched across touching the animals' chests, 

 the two ends of which are held by two men. This rope is 

 called el mikbad and el mikouas.' The gate had been an 



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