300 THE BLUE RIBBON OF THE TURF. 



ville's Preserve, winner of the One Thousand, started 

 favourite. With odds of 6 to 4 betted against her, 

 Queen of Trumps won the race for the St. Leger at 

 Doncaster. 



PubUc interest in the Derby began to grow more 

 intense about the middle of the ' thirties,' when the 

 ^g3g entries began to grow and multipl}'' till 



BayMiddieton. the year (1868) Blue Gown credited Sir 

 Joseph Hawley with the stakes accruing from 262 

 entries and eighteen runners. Only once since Blue 

 Gown's 3^ear has a larger number of horses been 

 entered, and that was when Sir Bevys won from 

 twenty-two competitors, the number entered being 

 278. The value of the stakes depends chiefly on the 

 number of horses entered, and in a lesser degree on 

 the number that run. The amount won by the 

 victory of Sir Bevys in 1879 was the largest that has 

 ever fallen to the owner of a Derby winner. The 

 greatest number of horses that ever ran for the race 

 was in 1862, when Caractacus carried off the stakes, 

 beating thirty-three competitors. As has been in- 

 dicated, no great amount of interest was excited by 

 the Derby in the earlier j^ears of its existence, nor 

 was much written about it in the newspapers of that 

 time. In 1886 the number of horses nominated was, 

 as in the preceding year, 128, and of these twenty-one 

 came to the starting-post on May 19th. Although as 

 many as five of the horses might have been placed, 

 only two were so honoured. These were : 



Lord Jersey's b. c. Bay Middleton, brother to Nell Gwynne. 

 by Sultan out of Cobweb - - - - - - 1 



Lord Wilson's ch. c. Gladiator, by Partisan out of Pauline - 2 



