NEWMARKET 47 



scale. Its biggest event is the Newmarket Stakes for three- 

 year-olds, and since this old stake was revived in 1889 it has 

 been won by such horses as Donovan, Memoir, Mimi, Isin- 

 glass, Ladas, Galtee More, Cyllene, and Diamond Jubilee. 

 It has often been remarked that such a race for three-year- 

 olds is not required between the Two Thousand and the 

 Derby, and on two or three occasions the fields have been 

 very small ; but some big stake was required to keep the 

 meeting going, and unless a handicap of at least equal 

 value had been substituted I hardly see that anything better 

 could have been done. In these days of great competition, 

 when valuable prizes are being offered by the racing com- 

 panies nearly every week, Newmarket, seventy miles from 

 town by train, and with its high charges, has considerable 

 difficulty in holding its own. As I have already explained, 

 the casual London race-goer will not go there when he 

 can see sport at his own door, so to speak, on a hundred 

 days in the year, and the place is not so situated that 

 it can attract a Midland or Northern crowd. It has to 

 rely upon London and an exceedingly thin local population, 

 and sometimes the attendances are so weak that one would 

 think that it could not possibly pay to run the special 

 express trains. It must be remembered, however, that the 

 best horses in training run at headquarters, while the best 

 supporters of racing as owners are amongst the attendance, 

 and also that the Jockey Club are not anxious to make 

 a profit, but are satisfied in making the two ends meet, 

 while furnishing the best of sport. It naturally results that 

 those who go to Newmarket must pay highly for their 

 amusement : in other words, entrance to the stands is more 

 costly than it is elsewhere. That the Jockey Club is anxious 

 to march with the times and it must be remembered that 

 they have no huge income from gate-money, as the Parks 

 have is proved by the increase in value of the Newmarket 

 Stakes, and also by the foundation of the two ten-thousand- 

 pounds stakes run later in the year. 



The Payne Stakes for three-year-olds, on the Rowley 

 Mile, is also run at this meeting, and on the three days 

 there are several good two-year-old prizes, viz. the Somer- 



