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used for conveying a horse from training 
quarters to the race course. Lord George 
Bentinck, who managed Lord Lichfield’s 
racing stable, resolved at the last moment 
to run Elis in the St. Leger, and astonished 
the betting fraternity by producing him at 
Doncaster in time for the race; to do this 
he had borrowed a van which had been 
constructed to carry fat cattle to Smithfield 
Show. The fact that Elis won the St. Leger 
to which he had been brought in this, then 
novel, fashion no doubt did something to 
stimulate the practice of transporting race 
horses thus; but the van was gradually 
superseded by the horse-box, which was 
first employed for the purpose about 1840. 
Railways, as they spread over the country, 
did much to increase the number of meet- 
ings held and to increase the numbers of 
entries. We find that in the period between 
1827 and 1837 the number of horses run- 
ning increased from 1,166 in the former 
year to 1213 in the latter; while during the 
period between 1860, when railroads had 
become numerous, and 1870, the number of 
horses running rose from 1,717 in the former 
year to 2,569 in the latter. 
The development of the daily sporting 
press and the spread of the telegraph system 
