The Express.
London, England, 1868-02-13 00:00:00

LATEST UOVKIEE'NTS AND EARLY SPRANG

SVENTI3.
TO TEO MOTOR OF ?R ELTIRIMO.

fin,—Turfosem must gird up their loins for a
busy spring campaign, every day now bringing indiums
item of news to indieate how brilliantly it will epos an
Tuesday next ; and I ass safely prognosticate that Ihriela
will afford the bast two dap' sport ever found Ilvese.
Not many hours after my last letter was penned, seem
totally new names were introduced into the emeeket
for the Lineelnaltire Handicap, at least • dome pro-
mising at this 'writing to "go for the eseetry,"
whilst at the finish • field of a more we tsw
dozen will probably be made up. King Cbmsding.
es I suggested, has turned up tramps again, • p&p
that he had with Mount Palatine on Monday isaming,
whereby the idea was erroneously entertained that the
latter was the better horse, having enabled his party to get
on to their satisfaction ; so that, ea he is in ea good form
as ever he showed in his beet days, the King must do good
battle for Newmarket. What is to beat him is hard to
say, especially as the Czar has not crossed the Channel yet,
the Frenchman's friends beginning to fear that when he
does arrive he will not have time to recover from the
effects of the journey; but Disowns!' of Purveyor and Rhine
Wine do not appear to be much afraid of anything—the
former, in fact, threatening actually to per all before him
in the betting, so satisfactorily did he acquit himself when
put through the mill. Artesian, I understand, helped to
measure Purveyor, his decline in the market Ulna
being easier understood than that of another or two
upon whom the public were evidently once too sweet. It
will take a good three-year-old, however, to win, judging
from the statistics of the last few years, Anglo-8a:o•
and Blamer& getting no nearer than third with fiat and
Est slb respectively in 1864 and last year, end Treasure
Trove only getting home a neck first when he beat old
Ssecharometer, receiving 3st 71h two years ego. Ar-
cadia's wretched third to Suburban is the only other
"place" the youngsters can boast of since the sst nb
minimum in handicaps was resolved upon ; and my
im-
pression is that, if King Charming should fail to give the
weight away, the Czar has too much the beat of
the three-year-olds to fear them, besides which we
have the " soft " Easby—and Grey Stocking, Indigestion,
and Skirmish, in case of accidents—to keep them
in check. Not only on the flat, but across country, shall
we have some fine sport at Lincoln, the Grand Steeple-
chase being far from spoiled by the Birmingham results,
though it would be premature to discuss this before Monday
next, tempting as Greenland may appear after his forward
running to-day. The proceedings on Sutton Coldfleld were
of more immediate importance to those interested in the
Grand National, several candidates for which performed
during the two days, including the early favourite Shakes-
peare, who ran simply a respectable hone, and not like a
wonder. Had Sightlyer been left in the Aintree affair,
he would certainly have been " heard of" with only list to
carry, as he won his two races like • good horse, leaving
More and Charming Woman so fax behind on the first
cloy as to quite put their pipes out apparently. In the
great event we had three Grand National horses unplacied,
viz.., Musketeer, Woodbury Hill, and the rogue Archi-
medes, who made a very sorry clibilt at his new line of
business, and did not cut so good a figure (and that was
bad enough) as another of Lord Stamford's ones famous
racehorses, Brick, did in the Craven Cup. It wag a
splendid race between the Nun, Benue*, and Greenland
for the Grand Annual, being too clam for the winner to
have much chance at Aintree with her 10ib penalty, which
will easily allow Shakespeare to turn the tables, as he will
meet her on 121 b better terms. But perhaps the Duke et
Hamilton had • better representative than t►e
immortal one in Jimmy or Jack of Trumps,
the market having warranted such a supposition ,
for some time past ; and I have only further
to observe that the whole of today's form looks
moderate when Benazet could so eerily win with his
Ilst 121 b. When last they met, Gameboy beat the king
of black and red by about twenty lengths, Hall Court
separating the pair, and hence my selection of him " with
• start " would probably have been justified had he been
pulled out, considering he only had to concede ne for the
beating ; nevertheless, it was gratifying that another of
my fancies, the Nun, should win in him absence. There
were more notorious absentees than this Gameboy, the
two earliest backed, Sylph and The Doctor, failing to put
in an appearance, and from all accounts the latter's case is
so bad that be is likely to become a very troublesome
patient, about whom the layers of 1,000 to 5 and 1,000 to
10 for the Grand National need not be nervous.
Busy as the industrious makers of " books" were over
the Birmingham events on Tuesday and yesterday (what •
sad straight those who wanted so much to " pepper " the
Doctor and Sylph must have been planed in by the de-
struotion of the great midnight place of rendezvous ! they
have found time to create a new sensation over the Two
Thousand and Derby, independently of the "bringing
back " of Blue Gown, and inclination to shake the Roof-
crucian's faith. Poor Typhoeus is again under fire, though
what ho has done wrong this time doss not exactly
transpire, and it may be that it is oozing out his owner
I. doubtful shout running him for the Two Thousand.
Perhaps confidence will be restored before I have occasion
so address your readers again, so far as the Derby is con
corned ; but till then he is a question that must lie on the
table.—l am, Sic METEOR.
Thursday morning.