The Express.
London, England, 1866-01-08 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, JANUARY 8, 1866.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

THE TWO-TEAR-OLD PERFORMERS OF

1864.-BIIMMLRY.

TO TR! EDITOR OP THE EXPRESS.

Ste,—lndications of the racing season's approach
ere now pretty strong, and the." spring" meetings of 1866
commence and close so much earlier than usual, that
trainer., taking advantage of the open weather, are putting
their horses to as much work as is possible for them to do
with safety. The Spring Handicap (the entries for which
display a marked falling off) will soon be oat, and every
great event decided this rids of the Darby week (also •
fortnight earlier than last year) will then be before the
public, who will not, however, meddle with their favourite
Chester Cup, and such like puzzling affairs, until after the
acceptances, if they ere wise. Them will be plenty of
employment for their brains in the three-year•old races to
come off, and which will remain to the last an open as they
are now, judging from the budget of nominations
just publicised, very few of last year's fint-clase
rim-year-olds being erumiged in any event they
embrace coming off this aide of the Derby, until
when the question whether Lord Lyon, Rustic, or Student.
is the superior, will have to remain in doubt, as Rustic is
not in the Gaines'. On their performances it is impossible
to bring these together, for no two of the three ever met
when it was possible foe them to try conclasioas (or Student
and Rustic would not have been beaten by Vaspasian at
Bath), whilst they each won the last two races! they
contested with such ease, that no one could judge with any
degree of accuracy what weight would have brought them
down to a loved with those plead second. There is no
doubt that the Guise's and Derby can claim the best of
last season's juveniles, great as Robin Hood, by Wild Day-
i roll, and Mr. Pitt proved themselves when in fettle, and I
have ventured to handicap these for • mile race with the
best of their oontemporaries as under, though Robin Hood
world shins to much greater advantage over a Jaeger dis-
tance, being the most certain stayer of his year.

_ _
st lb at lb
Lord Lyon 8 9 Mephistopheles
Rustic 8 9 Langham
Student .
Robin Hood. by Wild bayonette l3
Myna
'anise
Roden
3Ir. Pat
Jack-to-the-Green
Primate 7 13 The Squire 1
blue Riband 7 12 Panacea 1
Auguste 7 Goojerat 1
Repulse
Robin Hoodjiy.N.Llncobs 7 Proserplart 1
Rica 7 Alberta. by Trumpeter.. 1
King Hal
Young Monargue
Chitties
Magician
Strathconan 7 Retrousse
Sella
hells 7 Tourmalin
Mount Matins
Beelzebub .
Rector 7 ritrroy
(rentord 7 Rococo
&natio. colt
Crown Prince
Mszeppa
/lemmata
X 1....
Honesty 7 Sweet Alma
Vespastan
Spilt the Difference .... 7 Castanet
Lord of the Vale
Stilton ,Preach)
pieta 7 Lucifer
Plutua 6 1 Aldcroft
Chapel Royal
Chronometer 6 13 Ramada
Nutrition

The greater difficulty presents itself when the second-
raters come up for judgment ; and from the above list I am
compelled to leave out several occasionally good performers,
' but who went a so much towards the finish, or betrayed
the fact they can never get a mile "in company," that it
would be useless trying to bring them on a level with the
cracks. In this category we have Ozone, Valentine, Qui
Vivo (one of the fastest things out), Macdonald, Tina, Sans
Si, Vigorous, and WoUdog, who would bees hard to handi-
cap for a mile race with Lord Lyon as the brother to Rapid
!those, Rather High colt, Dilemmas, Lothario, Wolaey,
Monarch of the Glen, Hawthorn, Doke of York, Claris, or
Lye o'Gowrie, would be. These, and a host of others it
would be unfair to mention pending the publication of the
many handicaps on order, there can be no doubt we
saw anything like the best of, owing to
their running when amiss, or backward in preparation ;
and yet Monarch of the Glen, the Rather High colt, Dales-
man, Wolsey, and Duke of York ran forward enough,
under all the circumstances, that it is possible for them to
take very high hononn indeed, when they are thoroughly
fit to do battle. The same remark will apply to a few of
the geod performers included in the above list, Robin
Hood by North Lincoln, F,sca., Young Monarque, Magician,
Strathconan, Mesamate, and Elfetm, having all betokened
that time would do more for them than those higher up the
tree. But I have only taken cognisance of what they h►ve
done, intending to deal with what they and others might
do when I have occasion to notion future races they are
engaged is, one of which, the Derby, will form the subject
of my seat letter.—Your, fie., METEOR.