OTHER COUNTRY MEETINGS 155 



note, viz. the Althorp Park Stakes for two-year-olds, the 

 Earl Spencer's Plate, a popular sprint handicap, and the 

 Northamptonshire Stakes, a handicap run now over a course 

 of a little over a mile and a half, and worth ;i,ooo. The 

 course is unfortunately situated on common land, and 

 thus it is a most difficult matter to keep it in good order. 

 If the season is favourable fairly good going is afforded, 

 but if the weather is dry the ground becomes very hard 

 and worn. There is also, as a rule, a lot of crowding at 

 the turns, and an inside position, especially as the sprint 

 races are run round a big curve, is of great value. The 

 autumn programme is not so ambitious, but fields are 

 generally of good size, and perhaps the Nurseries are 

 the chief attraction. Both meetings are wonderfully served 

 by the L. and N.W. Railway Company. They also receive 

 substantial local support, the Rothschild family being always 

 conspicuous as entertainers, while the combination of blue 

 and yellow is invariably cheered when it passes the post 

 first. 



Worcester Races are held on the Pitchcroft, close to the 

 town, and are by no means important, though they are 

 popular enough locally. Meetings are held in July and 

 October, and at the latter fixture the programme embraces 

 several events under National Hunt Rules. The course 

 is a somewhat peculiar one, the two-mile track being some- 

 thing like the figure 8, and the shorter course one mile 

 and a quarter like a figure 6. There is a straight five 

 furlongs and a straight run-in to the longer courses of 

 something like half a mile. Small handicaps and selling 

 races are in the ascendant. 



Yarmouth, which has one fixture in the early autumn, 

 is a much more popular fixture, and is always well patronised 

 by the Newmarket trainers, who make the meeting an 

 excuse for a week at the seaside. The course, situated 

 on the Sandhills, and a mile and a quarter round, is not 

 a good one, but good -class horses are often to be seen 

 running there for inconsiderable prizes, and the fixture 

 has immense local popularity. 



Chester, Lincoln, and Liverpool are three of the most 



