A HISTORY OF SURREY 



the Eclipse Stakes, but on the first day the 

 programme also includes the Great Kingston 

 Two-year-old Race, in which horses of good 

 class compete. On the second day the big 

 event is the National Breeders' Produce 

 Stakes, of a total value of ;Cs,ooo, which is 

 at present the most valuable two-year-old 

 stake of the year. Curiously enough this 

 race has often been won by a horse who has 

 failed to distinguish himself afterwards, but 

 owing to penalties and allowances the weights 

 take a wide range, and thus the best of the 

 field have on some occasions succumbed to 

 very moderate animals. In September, 

 generally on the Friday before Doncaster, 

 a single day meeting is held, when the Sep- 

 tember Stakes for three-year-olds and the 

 Michaelmas Stakes for two-year-olds are the 

 most important races ; and towards the end 

 of October the last flat race meeting is held, 

 the sport being under Jockey Club rules on 

 the two first days, with a supplementary day 

 of cross-country racing to finish. At this 

 meeting, generally held at the end of the 

 week which intervenes between the Caesare- 

 witch and Cambridgeshire fixtures at New- 

 market, the Great Sapling Plate for two- 

 year-olds, the Orleans Nursery, and the San- 

 down Autumn Handicap are the features 

 of the first, whilst the Sandown Foal Stakes 

 for three-year-olds and the Hersham two- 

 year-old race are the principal items of the 

 second day. 



Steeplechasing at Sandown is quite as 

 popular with devotees of cross-country sport 

 as flat racing is with those who follow the 

 legitimate game only. Several meetings are 

 generally held during the winter, one of two 

 days in December, and two of two days each 

 in February or the beginning of March, 

 while the Grand Military Meeting has also 

 been held there for many years, and is now 

 looked upon as a regular Sandown fixture. 

 This is an enormous ' draw,' if only the 

 weather is propitious, and probably attracts 

 as big i) crowd to the club enclosure as any 

 other day of the year, the Eclipse Stakes day 

 alone excepted. For an artificial track the 

 steeplechase course is a very good one, and 

 nearly all the crack cross-country horses of 

 the last quarter of a century have raced over 

 it in their day. 



HURST PARK 

 Hurst Park, situated at East Molesey, 

 thirteen miles from tovm by road and 

 fifteen miles by rail, has had an existence 

 of rather more than a dozen years, and is 

 now a remarkably popular racecourse. It 

 occupies the site of the old Hampton Race- 



course on Molesey Hurst, but the course is 

 not the same as was used in the old days; 

 the stands are much farther from Molesey, 

 and are differently placed. Beginning at 

 first with pony racing and steeplechasing, 

 Hurst Park acquired a flat racing license in 

 the second year of its existence, and since 

 that time it has marched steadily onwards, 

 and now its meetings rank very highly indeed, 

 though it has never attempted the big prizes 

 offered by the Sandown executive. The 

 great secret of the success of Hurst Park lies 

 in the fact that it is excellently managed, 

 and that the course is naturally wonderfully 

 good. The subsoil is sandy gravel, light and 

 porous, which becomes wet rather than deep 

 in bad weather, but allows of such free and 

 quick drainage that the ravages of a heavy 

 storm very quickly disappear. Then, too, 

 in dry weather the surface is so friable that 

 it crumbles, and thus it is almost impossible 

 to find the going hard. Moreover in times 

 of drought a liberal system of irrigation is em- 

 ployed, and at all times the " going " is con- 

 stantly attended to by a gang of experienced 

 men. Under these circumstances the place 

 is immensely popular with owners and 

 trainers, who never need fear the breakdown 

 which often occurs on a very hard course in 

 dry weather. 



The Round or Oval Course, as it is called, 

 is a mile and three furlongs in length. It is, 

 as its name implies, almost a perfect oval, 

 with no very sharp turns, and the run in of 

 about half a mile is quite straight, with a 

 short but sharp rise about two furlongs 

 below the judges' box. There is also a 

 straight course of seven furlongs, but this 

 does not allow of mile races being run on it, 

 and in fact all distances beyond seven fur- 

 longs are run on the Oval Course. The 

 stands are large and well-built, and the club 

 enclosure is a very fine one ; but the angle of 

 the stands to the winning post is such that 

 if horses finish very wide of each other — and 

 the course is a broad one — it is no easy 

 matter to know which has won. In the 

 matter of dates Hurst Park is not particularly 

 well off, for, like all modern courses, it has 

 had to stand aside for the ' vested interests ' 

 of old-established meetings. In conse- 

 quence its fixtures are nearly all held at the 

 beginning or end of a week. Probably these 

 arrangements suit the place well, for by 

 catering for bank holiday crowds and London 

 Saturday racegoers it has been enabled to 

 earn big dividends for its shareholders. 

 Whereas 2s. 6d. is invariably charged for 

 admittance to the course at Sandown, the 

 entrance money is reduced to U. at Hurst 



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