228 THE ENGLISH TURF 



times, and the St. Leger fifteen times. That as a record 

 speaks eloquently in favour of Newmarket, but at the same 

 time it is only right to mention that a majority of the most 

 successful private breeders send their horses to Newmarket to 

 be trained, whilst, with one or two exceptions, the country 

 stables are dependent on groups of small owners. Newmarket 

 is the fashionable centre, and many an aristocratic owner 

 trains there who might be expected to entrust his horses to 

 a trainer in his own district. With the richest men from all 

 parts of the country concentrating at one spot, that spot 

 may be expected to yield the best results. With most of the 

 racing wealth of the country represented at Newmarket by 

 some horses, where, if not there, should we look for the good 

 ones? Besides the possession of a variety of very fine 

 training grounds, other advantages which the place offers 

 present very strong reasons why Newmarket is likely to hold 

 its own in the future. Then eight race meetings are held 

 there during the year ; and an owner can thus combine the 

 two pleasures of seeing his horses at work and attendance at 

 a pleasant first-rate meeting. He can see or hear something 

 of the horses of his friends ; he can very often arrange his 

 trials for a race week ; and if, as a regular attendant at the 

 meetings, he has a house in or near the town, as is so 

 customarily the case, he can see far more of his horses than 

 he would if they were trained elsewhere in the country ; and 

 some owners practically reside there all the year round. 

 The doyen of Newmarket indeed, of all English trainers 

 was Mr. Matthew Dawson, who died at the end of 1898. 

 If I may say so without invidiousness, I consider the mantle 

 of Matthew Dawson to have fallen upon Richard Marsh, 

 of Egerton House, who trains for the Prince of Wales, the 

 Duke of Devonshire, Lord Wolverton, and others. Marsh 

 has been gradually coming to the front for the past twenty 

 years, and though still a youngish man, he is quite at the top 

 of the tree, and won three Derbys in five years. His estab- 

 lishment at Egerton House, just beyond the July Course on 

 the Cambridge Road, is quite a sumptuous place perfect in 

 its way where, one is pleased to know, the "boys" are 

 looked after as well as the horses, and where everything 



