The Express.
London, England, 1867-01-28 00:00:00

TO VIZ EDITOR Of THE ZIPRISS.

Stn.—Every " legitimate " event of the spring
the public take so much interest in is now before us. Mr.
Johnsoo having issued his excellent Lincolnshire Handicap
00 Tuesday last, whilst on Wednesday Admiral Roue
followed suit with the City and Suburban, Metropolitan,
and Newmarket ; the Weailierby's with the Northampton-
shire Stakes, and Mr. Topham with the Chester Cup. The
Liverpool Steeplechase (the weights for which are to come
out early this week) and Two Thousand complete the list
of heavy ante-post betting races decided this side of ;he
Derby ; and oot.sidering that six of the eight come off
within a period of 37 days, we shall have a bustling spring
campaign —in which, by-the-by, the Lincoln and
Liverpool affairs, of February 19 and March 7, are
searcely entitled to be included. Though a week later
than last spring with the " fixtures" fathered by the
Jockey Club, we &rental pretty early throughout, the 22nd
of May beitg the Derby Day ; yet this might,with advent-
a re, have been put back another seven days, to prevent the
el is of the York and Doncaster four days with Ascot
Spring and Salisbury. As it is Epsom spring has been
forcol out of its usual track, and dnven into the "illegi-
timate" season, having actually to precede the Northampton
week, whist the Craven reunion dared not wait for Easter
tile, owing to the late falling thereof ; so that all the
old-fashioned arrangements of the executive at head-
quarters, stuck to so obstinately in former years, are over.
throonat last by the moveable feast they are so strangely
made subject to. The Guineas' meeting has to take to
Easter. but would cause its usual amount of excitement at
any date, as we are certain of a splendid Two Thousand
race, little interest as is taken in it just now. The" market
is almost precisely in the same state as it was before the
death of Lord Exeter (another link between the good old
sportimg " ientletuan" and the purely gambling swell"
of our day gone l) despite the wagers about Grand Cross
being null and void, and the colt going out of the race
altogether ; and but for a genuine commission apparently
to the tune of thousands, to hack the Duke of Newcastle's
Julius. the gamesters would have had no other " tools"
trim Plaudit and Hermit to work with. They seem
te have had a nice hit of fun with these already,
and will probably have some more, all sorts of
ailments having attacked Plaudit—so they say during
the present winter—from a slight cough, up to influenza :
the Hermit, too, has fairly divided Newmarket in
their ',pinions as to whether he hes trained on to per-
fection or become " not worth fourpenee." Taking every
thin; into consideration, however, the market prices of
the part are not a whit too long, foci! wants three months
to the race yet, and there is sure to be a good field
[Gartto
something
,pose then., made up from Julius, Knight of
the
er, Vauban or else from DaneburY ,
Marksmen, the Palmer, one of the Frenchmen, Star of
podia, Master Butterfly, Sir Oliver, one from the Regalia
stable. &r. ; nevertheleas, it is bard to perceive what be-
yond Marksman or something " dark " can interfere with
toe two cracks, if they are not Buccaneered before the day.
The metallic men have other things to occupy their at-
tention tow, and may leave Plaudit alone for the sake of
operating upon the new handicaps, the first of which, the
Lincoln, seenu, to have puzzled them most, as no one seems
to care about investing upon it to any extent. It at-
tracted a far larger field than any of its rivals last year,
when the two five-year-old maidens that " could
net 1.a.e." and all that sort of thing (Valiant
and Copenhagen), were put clean out by Treasure
Trove and the nine." stunner," Seecarometer, who
ran such an exciting race home. The old horse has
exactly the same impost given him again, Copenhagen
(still a maiden I) having also the same, 7st 121 b, put on his
nix-year-old back ; but Treasure Trove takes 331 b extra for
his yens, which is handicapping him to have improved
some 716 n.ore than an ordinary colt in the same time, and
I have no doubt he has done so. Early as Mr. Johnson was
in the field Admiral Rous has not deigned to copy his
h-tliwork in regard to several animals that are in the
City and s.lburhan, as the weights of many in the two
events differ to some extent, though the northerner has
apparently only been severe in two instances, when he
gives Mb and flib more to Chepstow and Wild Agnes re-
spectively than they herein the two-furiong longer affair. The
Meseta. Weatherby's. and the productions from head-
quarters do not tally so closely as one might expect.
there being some two dozen examples of their running
rather wide in the Northamptonshtre and Metropolitan,
or the St. Liz and City and Suburban ; but Mr. Topham
i
has given us some hard nuts to crack in regard to his
views about what certain horses can do, and his brethren
of the scales must have stared when they saw the result
of his ti.ree weeks' labour. Beginning slightly lower than
any of them, he has given Lecturer, Rama, Caithness, Dr.
Syntax. War. Archimedes, Acms., Pintail, Gomera,
Miss Harriette. Beeswing, Monitress, Chepstow, Minster,
Proserpine, quick March, Black Prince, Sergeant
Paequot, Barrington, and Fan, such weights that their
owners who look at their treatment in the other long
races must accept ; but, by the same rule, Brown
Bread, East Lancashire, Scarborough, Flatcatcber, Nutri-
tion, Sportsman, Fortunatus, Conundrum, Oracle, and
Othello, ought to " shunt," and look to other matters, if
they are frontier anything. Mr. Topham has adopted the
plan seldom used in handicaps, of giving the good horses
fair chances, and the very top of his tree, The Duke,
at :Ist 31b, is bound to be natisfied, seeing that even in our
day a five-yr-old has won with 9st 41b, and a three with
fief 111 b, though it did take an Asteroid and a Tint Wittier
to perform these feats. The other horses at J. Day's are
very well treated indeed, and there may be something
better than his grace in the stable, for John Davis has only
Set 1016, Lecturer fist 216, Redcap 7et 61b, Gomorra Ist 21b,
Black Prince Est, and the dark VllOl3 eist ; however, what-
ever can polish off The Duke in the final trial should
about accomplish what Ackworth and Redcap failed
to do when they were made such favourites, and win the
present Danbury school their first Chester Cup. Dalby
will have to prove a real good horse to throw his third
main over the Ithoodee, for he has the sensible impost of
Set 1016, or 1916 more than he won with last, since when
his improvement should not have been more than 316.
Last year it was a moot point whether a three-yr-old
(Delight) running him at 1316, or about 171 b less than
weight for age, would not have beaten him but for a break
down ; and here he gives from 3811 to 4 Mbi to nearly
fifty three-yr-olds that may include a second Delight, the
lot receiving more than the necessary weight for the
three years, to the tune of half a stone or a
stone. Old Moulsey, who was in his best form
last season, is actually receiving 291 b from Dalby
for the beating he got, which ought surely to
turn the tables, bad as was his third to the
young Highflycr, and the talent were quite right
in making Lord Bateman's horse the favourite when
the handicap appeared, he having been " favoured "
to all intents and purposes. At the same time
it is quite possible such gluttons as Rama and Lec-
turer will give him the tab and two years over the two
miles and a quarter ; another four-year-old I strongly swi-
ped we have not seen the best of, Rococo, being also a
thorn in hie side at 7et 81b. Strathconan and Caithness
are handicapped to their St. Leger form exactly, and the
grey stands pretty highly in my esteem, if he is only " well
on the day,' and better at the 2Jlb between them than
Newland. This latter has more than once ran like the
good horse Bracken, Weather Star, Ailesbury, the Sister
to Scottish Chief, Barrington, &c., are only suspected to be,
and is not giving away much weight—nor is the slashing
Manuelba. • filly that last Chester promised to make
a second Regalia ; consequently, those who stand
the young Lambton will be upon velvet before the day
if he, and not Strathconan, is " the one" from Belleisle,
in which event it would go hard indeed with the other
three-year-olds. Harrogate, 3 yrs, sst 1016, did one
putt thing when he first came out, and may be better than
his stable companion Rococo, whose party again have so
many others in their interests that they are too awk-
ward to meddle with. In fact, the Chester Cup is •
race hardly worth meddling with until the acceptances
are published an Wednesday next, even as regards some
of the turned loose lot (Abergeldie, Monitress, Minster,
Cora. Burney, kc., of which body Monitress looks almost
too " well in"), as there can be no good investment until
the best of .f. Day's and T. Dawson's teams are discovered.
Similar difficulties present themselves over the
other handicaps, with horses like Troublesome and Ilia-
mark in James Dawson's formidable lot at Lincoln, and the
auspicious Ailesbury among the tenderly-dealt-with three-
year-olds there, Les-bourne, too, being at the head of Mr.
Savile's string. the City and Suburban is too good a
handicap to touch upon in any way, Sportsman being only
a fancy" of mine ; and I can only say of the Northamp-
toashire Stakes that the heavy weights look threatening,
with John Davis and Regalia among them, Nutrition
standing well among the mediums, and Weather Star,
the Splitvote colt, and Anchorite among the feathers.—
I am, &c. METEOR.

1, but nothing came of it. Hermit's price was 6 to I
(offered), and Julius 10 to 1, but the concession of another
point against the latter would have led to some business.
Master Butterfly and filarkluian were each offered to be
laid against at 100 to 6, and at this price the
last-named was occasionally supported. The General
—who is in the formidable Lord Lyon stable—for
the first time found his way into the market,
1000 to 15 being accepted about him. An attempt
was made to negotiate some place-betting, but the
offer of 100 to 80 against Plaudit, and al to 40 against
Hermit produced no result. For the Derby The Rake's
name was not mentioned. D'Estournel's price was 9to 1,
offered, but at 10 to 1 he would have been backed. Plaudit
looked like retrogradin , for the continuous offers of 11
to 1 passed unheeded. A proposition was made to take 16
to 1 about Hermit, but 14 to 1 was the outside offer against
him. The odds against Marksman and Master Butterfly
were 25 to 1 each, and a alight advance upon these quota-
tions would have led to both being supported. The only
outaider mentioned was Skysail, but the tempting price of
:4000 to 30 was not deemed good enough for aninvestmenL
The quotations at the close were as follows :

LINCOLN HANDICAP.
100 to 6 agst Battayany 1 100 to 4 agst Copenhagen
and of, (tt
Christmas Carol 100 to 3 Saceharonictee
(t and o, (t,
NORTHA)IPTONAHIBE STAKES,
100 to 4 on the Field.
CITY AND SUBURBAN HANDICAP.
100 to 3 apt Jollity (t) I 100 to 3 apt, Thalia (I)

93 to 1