The Sun.
London, England, 1849-12-29 00:00:00

THE EGYPTIAN CHALLENGE TO
THE JOCKEY CLUB.
An English sporting gentleman has taken the
trouble and incurred the expense of measuring accu-
rately the piece of ground laid out for the race ex-
pected to come off between his Highness's horses and
those proposed as competitors by the English Jockey
Club. It is on the desert, within a few miles of
Cairo, and consists of heavy sand, from five to six
inches deep. The distance to be run is equivalent to
6i English miles, and was accomplished by Bedouinand other Arab horses,i at the recent race 'meeting
there, in from 18 to 21 minutes—a pace there is
every reason to suppose can, notwithstanding all the
difficulties of the ground, be well attained by any
well-bred English hunter. There are, nevertheless,
some beautiful animals among the Viceroy's exten-
sive stud still untried ; but the opinion of knowing
sportsmen in the country, acquainted with the capa-
bilities of English cattle, is decidedly favourable to
the success of the latter. Bell's Lffe, from which
we take the above, gives the following interesting
account of a somewhat similar match in Russia,
which, although it has been before published, may be
interesting to many of our readers :
" On the 4th of August, 1825, took place a race
between two English thoroughbred horses end two
horses, said to be of the Cossack breed, from the
Don. The English horses were Minis, by Orville,
bred by Lord George Cavendish ; and Shaiper, by
Octavius, bred by Lord Egrearont. One of the
Russian horses was a fine animal, and showed high
blood ; the other, to an Englishman's judgment,
looked like a thorough rip. The stake was 1,0001. ;
the distance to be run (68A- versts) 38 English miles
and one-third. The English horses carried about
Bist. each. The Cossacks were ridden by lads,
weighing respectively about 6st. or 7st. I was to
ride a portion of the distance with the racing horses
to see fair play, &c., and was stationed on the top of
a pretty steep hill, called Pulkova, shout eight miles
from the starting post. The horses rose the hill at a
moderate speed, the two English leading by about 40
yards. I had a thoroughbred English mare, :led had
no sooner begun to gallop with them•than I found
the pace, as I thought, too great, as I was obliged to
keep nay mare nearly at full speed to keep up with the
Cossacks, who soon dropped wady 300 yards betind
the English horses, and were flogged severely to pre •
serve even that interval. I vainly called to our
jockeys to slacken their pace ; they either did not hear
or attend, and it was not till after the race that I dis-
covered the reason. William Arthur, who rode
Sharper, had broken his stirrup in the eye, and could
not hold his horse; whilst Alexander Eve, who rod.
Mina, and had been ordered to lead, was acting up te
the letter of his orders, and racing against Sharper,
who was all but running away. Had the
boys who rode the Cossacks known the state
of the case, it is mare than probable they might have
won the race, by sparing their horses whilst ours
were exhausting themselves in struggling with each
other. This state of things lasted all the way to
Zarskoe Selo, where I had to await their return. I
saw them leave me, holding the same tremendous
pace ; and, though not much more than one-third of
the entire distance was yet accomplished, one of the
Cossacks was greatly distressed. I had waited rather
more than an hour, when I saw the gentleman who
had taken them up from the point at which I stopped.
He came up to me with a most woebegone face, and
said that Mina had pulled up, and that Sharper was
so distressed he did not think he would get home !
He seemed to know nothing about the Cossacks. In
another minute appeared the lad who had ridden the
Cossack horse, whose distress I had noticed when
they left me; he was on a Cossack soldier's horse,
and shouting for water. Close behind him came the
racing Cossack and Sharper, nearly neck and neck,
but as they neared me the Cossack lost a little
ground in turning the corner at Sophia. There now
remained twenty-two versts out of sixtyseight and a
half to be run, and really neither horse looked as if
he could go another mile. Arthur, the jockey, was
tired and dispirited, and said to me that he should be
beaten, to which I replied angrily, that that was im-
possible, and that if he said another word
of the sort I would knock him off, and
ride his horse in myself. After getting over a
little more than a mile Sharper seemed to re-
cover a little, and by my direction the Cossack was
suffered to take the lead for about four and a half
miles. During this space, the people who rode with
him changed his rider, flung away his saddle, and
made the child they put on him, who could not have
weighed sst. strip to his shirt. The Cossack lad
who had ridden the horse which had given in took
more than once fresh horses from the soldiers who
kept the course, and rode with the long bridle of the
running horse over his shoulder, thus taking him in
tow, and was further assisted by a Calmuc horseman,
who lifted him along by the tail ? To my own and
companions' remonstrances at these unfair proceedings
we got answers equivalent to the English Go and
be d—d.' On reaching the top of Pulkova hill, trust-
ing to Sharper's good legs, and the little breathing
we had been able to give him, I told Arthur to get
along, and we soon went ahead of the Cossack, gaining,
I should think, nearly 100 yards in 600. In fact, the
boy who sat on the Cossack's bare back, having no
bridle, could not hold him together, and the towing
system rather tended to bring him on his nose, which
would in all likelihood have been his fate had he ven-
ts...ea out of-ft.trot in -the aeitsets l#
my mare fresh, I determined on edlll the win-
ning post with Sharper, and in company with Mr.
8., took turns in riding alongside of him. Having
shortly increased the distance from the Cossack, we
ventured to pull up for a few seconds, wipe out
Sharper's mouth and nostrils with a wet pocket hand-
kerchief; and draw his slackened girths. At the side
of the road below the hill there was a sort of tramway
for the Empress Mother to travel upon, composed of
three-inch planks, about two feet in width, and on this
tram I got Arthur to ride his horse. Whether it ATS
the wiping out of his mouth or the new medium on
which he galloped I cannot say, but Sharper recovered
in a wonderful degree, and we soon had the immense
satisfaction of seeing the distance gradually increased
between ourselves and the Cossack. We at last lost
sight of him entirely, and reached the winning post
in 2h. 48m. 17s. from the time of starting. The
Cossack horse came in just 17m. after Sharper. It
may interest the reader to learn that Sharper, though
much distressed, took his gruel after being bled.
Mina, whose condition had never been so perfect,
lost a good deal of blood from his having split his
coronet, which obliged his rider to pull him up in the
race, and was longer amiss. Both eventually re-
covered, as did the Cossacks; and I saw one of them
subsequently run a very good race against time. The
Russians were a good deal surprised at the result of
the race, and assured us that their horses had per-
formed as great or greater distances in less or propor-
tionally less time. It will, I think, be the opinion of
any one that, considering, first, the disproportion of
weight; second, the bad riding on our part (for so
must, no doubt, be styled the racing of our two
jockeys, in consequence of one of them having broken
his stirrup), the superiority of the English blood was
sufficiently proved. The race was run along the high
road, which the Russians insisted on, as they appre•
hended being jockeyed on a circular course. The
road selected was from the third verst-post on the
Zarskoe Selo road to Gatcbina and back ; and the
measured distance was, each way, 34i Russian versts,
equivalent to 38 1-3 d English miles. The course
was kept by more than 1,200 Cossacks, and they had
arranged a telegraph, by pike motions, to give notice
when the Cossack horse took the lead, which led to a
few bets being cleverly made while we were between
Zarskoe Selo and the winning post."

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.
BETTING AT MANCHESTER.—FRIDAY.
Only two bets laid, viz.:-500 to 15 agst Black Eagle
and 500 to 10 agst Repletion for the Metropolitan
Stakes.

HUNTING APPOINTMENTS.

F. B. hde., Mon., Perron Wharf; Fri., Stitbians
Church•town-10i.
Cambridgeshire, Mon., Sandy Warren; Fri., Eltisley
Green-10i.

Oakley hds., Mon., Snelson; Thurs., Chiobeley; Sat.,
Clapham Turnpike-104.
Mr. Brand's hds , Mon., ThP Hyde; Wed., Heaton;
Fri„ Colney Heath-10i._

Pitekeridge hds., Mon., Barkway; Wed., Widdingtoh;
Sat., Throcking7lol-:
_...
... . _ _

Southdown lids., Mon., liellingley Workhouse; Fri.,
Langton Pound-10i.
Crawley and Horsham hds.. Mon., Rowfont
Wed., Rusper Village; Fri., Wakehurst
Mr. Nipper's lids., Tues., Loxwool-bridge; Fri., The
Compasses-10f.
York and Aiusty hds., Mon., Riccall; Tues., Rid
House; Thurs., Copgrove; Sat., Oulston-10i.
Captain Lewis's harrs., Tues., Cowsby Mill; Fri.,
Buller Moor-11.

Sinnington hds., Tues., llorimgham; Fri., Riceal-
bridge-10.

THE FLIGHT OF A. GIG MAIL.—On Friday
evening last the gig mail which run between Kegworth
and Derby was on its way home to Derby. driven by a
young man, the son of Mr. Newham, mail corrra-tur.
When on this side of Loekington the horse took fright
and ran away. Upon nearing the toll-bar at Caveadish-
bridge the gatekeeper heard its approach, and ran to
open the gate; but, before he had time to unfasten the
Loh the horse sprang at the gate, which he nut only
cleared unhurt, but also took the vehicle safe over
without the slightest damage being done to it. More
singular than all, the driver was able to keep his seat;
but it was not until after he had proceeded a considerable
distance further that he succeeded in stopping the horse.
We understand the only damage done was a trifling in
jury to the bolt of the gate.—Derby Mercury.
A RICH BEGGAR.—John Ilughe,s, an exceedingly
wretched looking street mendicant, brought before the
magistrates at the City Court House, Limerick, on
Thursday, bad in his possession 14 sovereigns, four I/.
notes, 21 in half-crowns, and 9s. 11d. in smaller can
He wept bitterly on icing informed (jneesel3) that his
bioty was forfeited to the C'own, and was sentenced to
ten days' imprisonment, to he maintained at his own ox-
idise.