The Express.
London, England, 1867-09-09 00:00:00

TO TEE ZDTPOR OP THE EXPIRES.

Si •,—Favourites may be " finn" enough, and
integers wofully at a discount, hut still there is no eu-
genic; against a St. Leger surprise, the doings of the past
few days having been quite in keeping with those earlier on,
and which so deservedly give P,e'a the appellative of the
Outsider,' Year. Only at York, Beesvrtog told us how
met .1 certainties could be bowled over ; and again, last
wee .'s ieturna fairly make out that a " donkey " might do
the trek ma Wednesday next, Goodwood having beaten
Goinera at a stone in the Warwick Cup, and he in turn
nace.:nibing to a Yarmouth Plater called Aasinehoiee at
According to this " paper" measurement, the
latter could heat the Duke of Beaufort's mare at about
711. ast now ; so that he is bound to win the Sellinger,
becifuse he is a 211 b better horse—on the Ebor form—than
Cfaaeuve ! What a pity he was not in the Cessrewitch
and CAlibridpshire at :Jet 71b, just to make things
easy fe backers, who—as regards these races—confess
themselves to be sorely puzzled where to look
for the " pea." though the Admiral Les not been
No
ban: or their early investments as usual. Some in-and-
oat I.e, formers lave caught it rather wane—Stmthconan,
De le same, and Rama to wit—as also one or two of the
niyhteriocs division, Merry Christian actually giving
weil;fit tolllinkhoolie ; still, Usurper, Annourer.Pototuac,
Sportsman, the Maid of Mecham filly, and others we are
supposed only to have seen the worst side of, have been
altmst turned loose in the long race ; whilst Blinkhoolie
and Lily Vane have got no more than their backers pro-
vided fo, ; hence the handicaps give general satisfaction.
How they will look a week hence is hard to tell. as there
may he some inure Assineboine—Goodwood Gowen per-
Lien:maces at Doncaster, though it is to be hoped some-
thing more reliable than the running of this trio will turn
up. Goodwood has &lisp' been a most uncertain gentle-
man. and Gower,. too. may have suddenly gone back to
the very middling form she displayed before winning
the Gueslwood Stakes and showing herself a tirstmlases
mare in the Great Ebor ; but anyhow it will not
do to believe in half what the pair did last week, or we
should have totake 5 to 2 about Assineboine for the St.
Leger. The latter may not even start, the prestige of the
two favourites lining so grout that their real opponents
are net expected to muster wore than hslf-a-dozen strong,
though the majority will have their partizans, and as much
inteleat will be taken in the contest as in the olden time,
when they used to get between twenty and thirty under
anima. The other features of the Doncaster September
Meeting will also hold their own, and keep the excitement
up from beginning to end, the Champagne Stakes, one of
the crack 2 yr-old events of the season, never before having
lookul wore " open." This will be the great card on
Tee elay, many being anxious to learn how klanteluke,
Be! thorn.), Thunderstonu, Mercury, and Ironniaster have
progressed since they figured in public so backward in pre-
widen. They were never disgraced, and hence ought to
shine some day when thoroughly wound up, even Blue
Gown and Rosicrucian having to fear them, to say nothing
of Vale Royal There are many popular characters
opposed to these, on paper, that have not been
out yet, and among them Typhoeus, Pace, Talk o' the Hill,
and Glenelerg ; but I do not anticipate seeing any drbiitant
at the post better than Virtue, who, as both illue Gown
sad itosecrueian have been in queer street, must
chalice, though Ironismater or kLameluke look the more
a trustworthy allies, if Sir Joseph's pair should not have fully
recovered their " form." The Great Yorkshire Handicap,
another feature, will be worth about a thousand pounds,
and hence all the supposed good things ought to run.
Bradainiente, (Auer, East Lane-leads-0, Miss Marriott.,
Monitrees, Mandrake, Thalia, Wild Briar, the Priest,
Padnlhah. and Sod le, were all supported for what seemed
" good money " until the pencil fever attacked Miss Har-
riette and MMltress, and left Seville and East Lancashire
in the front. If Seville is really better than her stable
companion, N'iridis, at the weights, and can stay the course,
she can hardly lose ; however, not being quite certain of
this, and believing East Lancashire is a mach superior
horse to Success, who won the Leicestershire Handicap
with Mt 12th, I shall give the preference to Mr. Idich's old
Ogle. who may have as much to fear from the Priest as
aaything, supposing Thalia to be in mime fur the Cam-
bridgeshire litmus. Athena may stay well enough to beat
Idalia for the Filly Stakes ; and Cecrops should very
nearly win the Revival, the Mayonaise filly the Doncaster
Plate, Donaldbain the Glasgow, and Nike the Match.
The St. Leger is not the only plum worth picking on
Wednesday. The Municipal is a rich stake the Parson
ought to secure, and ttedivivus and HUSlliall Bear in the
Handicap Sweepstakes, with Corporal and Icicle in the.
Oorration Plate, will probably be expected to bring grist
to the mill. The great event, it is the universal opinion, is
reduced to a match ; and all there is really to fear by
those who are laying their odds on Hermit and Achieve-
xneut is the way l'auban performed at Ascot, when be ran
clean away from Marksman, Colonel Peen-sec's filly, and
Julius. Giving the latter Mb and " losing" him was no
joke, even allowing the other two were all amiss, anti in
no condition to run at all ; Kral had Vauban not succumbed
to Achievemeut at York he would now be a great favourite,
for WI staying qualities have been fairly tested, and he is
welldigain as any horse could be. However, it can hardly
be doubted that Hermit fairly beat him in the Derby, and
the beat his friends can my of him is that he should get a
" place" in the following field :

Jockey. Jockey.
Achievement Chaßoner. I Mandrake Cameron,
Blinkhosile
Challenge Cannon. Palmer Wells.
Yervammes Osborne. Tarahan C'arrolL
Hermit Cunene.). Tynn.laid -
Ines Kalna Van Amino& French
.. . ' .. . _

Julius poky. Vaubau ruralise°
Mr. Johnstone may not start both Mandrake and Tyne-
dale, and with Hermit to represent him Mr. Chaplin ought
to reserve his Cesarewitch horse, Blinkboolie, for the Don-
easter Stakes on Friday. Then Ines will only be running
to assist her companions, Challenge and Vauban ; and,
agiit seems useless for either Lord Glasgow or Sir
Joseph Hawley to start anything, with the Miss Sarah colt
and Palmer their cracks. The latter will be more useful
looking after the minor affairs, like Tibthorpe, Verulam,
Kidderminster, end others that will be on the ground;
and the actual list of competitors may be safely reduced to
nine, vie., Hermit, Achievement, Vauban, Jelin', Chal-
lenge, Fervacques, Taraban, Van Atuburgh, and Man-
drake. As in Caller Ou's year, we are promised
a doable race between Achievement and Hermit for
the first prize, and Vauban and Julius for a
" place." Both issues look very near things, the many
days rest they were compelled to allow Vauban after
York to prevent his " going" altogether giving Julius a fair
chance of revenging the many defeats he has sustained
at his hands. It is rather ominous for the backers of the
Two Thousand hero that the Marquis of Hastings has
backed Challege for a " bumper^ since his return into
favour, a movement that would be worth following were
there not such wonders in the race as Hermit and Achieve-
ment. Between these the throw must be made, for all
the strange things that have happened in '67, and a more
even match never appeared on paper, the defeat of the
oolt on the only occasion of his meeting The Flyer having
been partially wiped out by his extraordinary performance
when dead amiss (") in the Derby. But whether it is from
having seen Imperieuse fly past the chair a winner, after
a most chequered summer career, or from sheer gal-
lantry, I incline most decidedly to the lady, whose
jockey has fought three head-and-head battles for the St.
in two of which he came off best, and must know
every inch of the ground.
Plenty of sport will be found on the "off day," when
there is a mile 2-yr-old race to decide (the 10 soya
Sweepstakes), that the previous doings at the meeting of
Mameluke, Athena, Roeicrucian, Mercury, Thunderstorm,
lronmaster, &c., may not quite reduce to a certainty.
The Earl, in the same interest as the two first-named, is a
rare glutton, and it will take a rum 'um to upset him
if he is in the field, whatever may win the Champagne. '
Seville is well in the Cleveland Handicap, but not so
safe to stand, pending the Great Yorkshire Handicap, as
Kidderminster, Castanet being another threatening can-
didate. The Portland Plato is a more epee race still,
all I can make sure of being that the Lord Weettuor.
land interest will be worthily represented, whether by
Icicle, Tibthorpe, or anythin else ; that Skylark, last
year's winner, will be "all there" again; and that
the friends of Sir Oliver, Minster Bell, and Wolsey
ought to try their hands at bringing off • grand
coup. The Eglinton, a mile race for twee and
threes, must find Friponnier in the van, and
the same stable will he worth standing for the Scarborough
Stakes with Knight Errant and the Zetland with Verulam.
The most important of Friday's races—the Cup—will not
close until Monday evening ;but I may venture to say that
Beeswing ought to enter and win, unless a great three•year-
old should turn up that is, like herself, unpenalised. The
Doncaster Stakes may prove to be a match between Blink-
hooli• and Vauban (or anything engaged that can beat the
Litter iu the St. Leger), but the other three-year-old events
are in a nutshell, for already The Hermit is a moral"
in the 200 nova. Sweepstakes, whilst Ines has pot a very
hard task set her in the Park Hill, and The Don is but a
question of Fripoenier beating V iridis. The new sweep-
stakes is open enough now ; yet by the time Mameluke,
Blue Gown, Rosicrucian, Thunderstorm, The Parson, and
Ironmaster are " run through," it will have a very dif-
ferent complexion, though Court Mantle and Michael de
Basco should cut in against the best of this bunch.—l
am, he., METEOR.