The Sun.
London, England, 1840-09-14 00:00:00

CRUCIFIX.

(Abridged front the Sunday Times.)
The bubble has burst : the winner of the Oaks is not
to start for the Leger—and the heavy betters p. p.
against the filly may pay or levant as their consciences
or pockets dictate. It is agreeable to notice the cool
way in which the public were made cognizant of the fact
of her not starting. We quote front the (yjicial article
from Tattersall's :--

" Thursday was the last public betting day in town,
and it proved a very important one to those whose spe-
culations have comprehended Crucifix : she broke down
in her gallop in the morning, and was declared not to
start before business commenced. Few will be surprised
at this, as the betting for some time past has been calcu-
lated to engender doubts as to her reaching Doncaster
the public are sufferers to a large amount."
The foregoing is from the pen of a careful and prac-
tised writer, yet mark his words—" Few are to be sur-
prised at THIS (i. c. at Crucifix breaking down), as the
betting for some time past has been calculated to en-
gender doubts as to her reaching Doncaster." The
betting might indicate that she was not meant to reach
Doncaster, but could not show that she was likely to
break down, which at the utmost must be a casualty
beyond any man's foresight to discover. Crucifix was
in training at John Day's, at Dancberry, near Stock-
bridge ; was seen on Wednesday (9th September,
1840), " ready to start out of her skin"—we quote our
informant's words ; and again on Thursday morning,
before her gallop, in the same form. About noon on
that day it was made known at the Grosvenor Arms,
Stockbridge, that " the mare had broken down in her
morning's gallop, with John Day on her back, and that
her chance was up." Lord George Bentitick, the pro-
prietor of Crucifix, had been at his trainer's house for
some days, and departed by the twelve o'clock train
from the Andover Road station, avowedly to convey
the sad intelligence to Tattersall's.
Everything has tended to increase the amount of the
bets against Crucifix. A respected Contemporary an-
nounced as the rumour (which was current in the vici-
nity of the stable), that young Jokn Day was sweating
to ride her, and that a two pound saddle was made for
him. In the same Journal we read that if she "be
found fit to go to the post and carries off the Great St.
Leger Stakes, the consequences will be most awful,"
and that Lord George backed the ware on Friday at 14
to 1, to the extent of two hundred pounds ! (Enor-
mous
yisetLcoorndssihdiepr,s
twhilehec ee
sf e
farels
ft
rhoemodds
vol
eusgsh.!t t bee
mous !) " A pretty strong indication (says the writer)
thati
gr e a
don't think this sop to takers any indication at all ; it
rdlglit be given merely " to keep the game alive," if we
may use that homely expression ; and as it appears to
ug, every thine has been done in that spirit, and that
spirit only. When there were no takers at Bto 1, of-
ferers were found to increase at larger sums. What
matters it whether a man bets 10 or 100 to 1, if he is
sure HE HAS IN HIS OWN HANDS THE CERTAINTY OF
WINNING HIS BETS BY THE WITHDRAWAL OF HIS
HORSE ?

Is a horse publicly in the betting, and publicly betted
upon by her owner, so exclusively his property, that he
may do what be likes with his own P We maintain not;
it cannot be reconciled to reason that any man should
make a bet with the power of winning it when and how
he pleases. A possesses a mare, backs it for the sake
of appearacees, but employs B to bet 5,000 to 500
against her with C ; that and similar bets being made,
A draws her, and reduces the thing to a certainty. Is
this sporting ? And yet if the right of withdrawal with-
out cause be admitted, this may perpetually recur. Sup-
posing another case : That A had betted on a mare
heavily—say to the amount of 20,0001.—is it not mon-
strous that he alone should have the power of getting
out, by counter-bets made on the certainty of the mare's
not going at all ?
It is far from an exaggeration to say, that one hun-
dred thousand pounds have been laid out one way and
the other about Crucifix ; and, as the writer of the
Tattersall's article quietly says, " the public are suffer-
ers to a large amount." No doubt of it; but there ne-
ver was victim without persecutor—debtor without cre-
ditor—or loser lacking winner. Now, who are the
winners l'—who are the lucky people who foresaw this
break down, and changed Crucifix's station from 8 to 1
to 25 to 1? Racing prophets are at present plentiful,
but this comes under the head of racing profits with a
vengeance.

Our readers will recollect that Crucifix was drawn for
the Drawing-room Stakes at Goodwood, being amiss.
We then wrote as follows :—" "Would it be too much
to ask, where so much money depends, that a com-
petent Committee should be appointed to exa-
mine " dead amiss" nags ; and ought any Ho-
nourable man to object to such an examina-
tion ?" We repeat now what we then said—Cnuciyix
SHOULD BE SEEN ; the ipse disit of John Day, or, if
he pleases, that of Lord George Bentinck, will probably
not satisfy the sporting world. For his own sake the
noble owner is bound to show that Crucifix is really unfit
to go, and to show also that the instant this
fact became apparent to him, he communicated it to
the public. The enormous fluctuation in the betting
makes the whole affair pregnant with suspicion. We
are old enough to remember the heir apparent of the
throne being driven from the turf ; it was a wholesome
and necessary example, and exists as an example in ter-
rorem to extensive ryeculators.
We never do bet, we never have betted one guinea
upon any race, and speak merely for the sake of the public
—" the sufferers to a large amount." We think this a
case to make a stand upon. Lord George Bentinck de-
clined settling at Tattersall's when doubtful as to the
pedigree of Bloomsbury—he need not bo surprised
if he find persons unwilling to pay until satisfied as to
the state of Crucifix. This is not a paltry Hampton
affair, but a thing that may—in souse cases must—
prove ruinous in its result. Throughout Stockbridge
we hear but one opinion (and we state this on the
authority of a well known correspondent), and that
opinion is, that the mare is NOT " AMISS."
The batting men hissed poor Ephraim Bond out of
the Doncaster rooms about Ludlow. We are no ad-
vocates for hissing, but we are fir speaking, and speak-
ing out too. Let losers pause and demand an inquiry.
The certificate of two first-rate veterinary surgeons
should be obtained, specifying the nature of the injury,
and whether it is of an utterly disqualifying character.
This doctrine may be unpopular, but we know it is
honest ; if this be done now, a death blow will be dealt
to the ever-recurring principle of withdrawals at the
eleventh hour.

The inhabitants living in the vicinity of the Old
Quay at Lane aster, were thrown into an unwonted state of
activity and excitement, early on Sunday morning last,
by the vagaries of a large sea monster, which was jump-
ing about and spouting out jets of water in the river Lune,
a little below the Old Bridge. As soon as it got suffi-
ciently light, all who could lay their hands on a gun were
firing away as fast as they could get reloaded, and the
owners of boats, armed with harpoons, lances, and scythes,
were laying in wait for him in all directions, to give him
a warm reception as soon as he should show himself above
water. After about three hours' hunting, he was shot in
the head by a marksman posted at the Old Bridge, when
he immediately spouted an immense jet of blood, and a
man being near at the same time in a boat, struck him with
a harpoon, and after some little further trouble he was
landed, and proved to be a large specimen of tho Del-
phinus Terlio, measuring about twelve-and-a-half feet in
length, and weighing fifteen cwt., a fish whose appearance
in our latitude is a very rare occurrence ; indeed, we learn
from a gentleman deeply read in natural history, that there
are only some four or five instances on record of this fish
having been seen in England, two of which have been
taken near Lancaster, the one under notice, and another
some years ago, in Morecambe Bay.—Preston Pilot.
The Bishop of Worcester will, on the 22d and
days, consecrate ••...• ' '
pal burial groukniii in' his Gaic,:Pe.--
tiouotai. .

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