The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-29 00:00:00

SPORTING NOTES,
No. CI XIII •

A CHRISTMAS BOX FOR THE SPORTING
WORLD.—ANALYSIS OF THE SEVENTY-
THIRD DERBY, &c.

" Some there are, that by due steps aspire
To lay their hands on that golden key,
That opes the palace of futurity:
To such my errand is."—MILToN's Jlask of Comus.
"Now hear me speak, with a prophetic spirit:
For even the breath of what I mean to speak
Shall blow each dust, each straw, each little rub
Out of the pull which shall directly lead
Thy foot to Fortune's Temple; therefore mark !"
SIIAKSPERE.

" Rave a care o' the main chance,
And Jook before you ere you leap,
For as you sow, you're like to reap."
BUTLER'S Hudibras,

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SIR,—A few short days, and the memorable year 1851
will have sunk upon the shores of Time. It has been an
extraordinary year in many respects,
Particularly so in
the political and social worlds. Teddington's year, 55
sporting men term it, and the Exhibition
year, as known
to the general world, has also wrought changes of some
note in the sporting hemisphere. There has been
general disposition on the part of the principal supporters
of the Turf, ono or two persons excepted, to discounte-
nance every attempt at chicanery; and it is also
with pleasure that I perceive a general determination
to prosecute vigorously all attempts at frauds—for ex-
ample, the case of the Alleyne Brothers. I am, however,
sorry to perceive that several of the staunchest supporters
of the turf, in Colonel Peel, the Marquis of Exeter, Lord
Strathmore, the Duke of Richmond, and Sir Joseph
Hawley, have, during the last twelve months, either left,
or are about to retire from, the scenes of their numerous
triumphs, to be met with no more, except, per-
haps, in the case of the Tyfield Baronet, who,
I fancy, has not altogether renounced the pleasures of
the racecourse.

My BUCCOS9 on the flat races during the year has been
weighed in Fortune's scale and found to be an average
quality. Out of the three hundred and eighty-three
races I have attempted to select the winner of, I have
been successful in one hundred and ninety-six instances,
and in those that did not come off as I anticipated, I
was in fifty-two cases very near the bull's eye, having
selected the second horse as my especial choice. Thirty-
six times—a feat unprecedented—have I been lucky
enough to place the first and second, and in ten instances
I have accomplished the still more difficult feat of placing
the first, second, and third ! Since the steeplechasing season
commenced, on this across country work, I have selected
the winner in nine cases out of seventeen, and in the re-
maining eight my fancy horse ran second four times.
These are my credentials for the confidence of those
who accept me as their pilot in the stormy sea of Turf
speculation.
During the past season one of the most noticeable
movements has been the vast increase of betting-list
houses, many of them being of a mushroom character;
this is owing in a great measure to the cleverness of the
" GREAT UNPAID," who, in ordering the removal of the
lists from the houses of respectable publicans, have com-
mitted a most notable blunder ; a man then had some
chance of seeing his money again if successful, whereas
in one-half of the b.-Mpg-list houses the odds ;ire two to
one, if on a great race, that the shutters are put up
simultaneously with the arrival of the telegraphic dis-
patch of the issue. In past years I have made a rule of
publishing a list of those houses that I have considered
safe; on account of the immense number now existing I
shall not attempt doing so this winter; but before closing
this subject I cannot help referring to a fashion amongst
a set of " men of straw" that has sprung up of late, of
trading under other people's names, exemplified in the
case of Mr. Davis, the Leviathan, whose honourable
name is an excellent shield to speculate under, and also
in the prophetic world in that of " Priam," of the
Racing Times, whose cognomen has been assumed by
one of the " tipping gents" well known about town,
and whose advertisements, contrary to all newspaper
etiquette, appear weekly in the leading sporting journal
of the day.
The Westbury Steeplechase, last week, was decided
in exactly the manner I predicted, the General being
landed a clever winner by a length; Hinton, to whom
I gave the second place, running home in that position.
There are many who say that if the latter had not
bungled near the close of the race he must have won.
I, however, am not of that opinion. Venice, who was
made such an immense " pot of the day
.before the
race, was exactly in the position I fancied he would be,
namely, the rear; he also, it is said, would have done
the deed, or been thereabouts, if he had not blundered at
his fences ; I again take a different view of the case—
whether I am right or wrong the next couple of months
will decide.
Having disposed of all the odds and ends floating on
the surface of my mind, I now turn my attention to the
main subject of this note, which, at the request of nume-
rous readers of The Sun, I publish nearly a month earlier
than is my usual plan.
Seventy-two years have disappeared down the sliding
scale of Time since the first

DER BY
Stakes at Epsom, with thirty-six subscribers, was won by
Sir Charles Banbury's Diomed, in very clever style,
beating a field of eight. No very great improvement,
either in the number of Subscribers or starters took place
until 1825, when the former amounted to fifty-eight, and
Lord Jersey's Middleton, the sire of Bay Middleton, and
grand ire of the Flying Dutchman, ridden by Robinson,
beat a field of seventeen. From this time the position
of the Derby was determined; it became the first racing
stake on the faco of this sublunary ball, "the blue rib-
bon," as Disraeli has termed it, of the universal Turf.
In 1827 a considerable advance in the number of sub-
scribers took place, they suddenly rose to eighty-nine,
and for the four successive years—Mameluke's, Cad-
land's, Frederick's, and Priam's—remained at that iden-
tical figure. From this period the number of subscribers
gradually increased, until in 1842 (Attila's year) they
amounted to ono hundred and eighty. However, in the
two following years, they fell off considerably, and in
the Merry Monarch's year (1845) had decreased to one
hundred and thirty-seven, probably owing to the shaking
the Ring had had two or three years before. From this
time the Turf has been in as flourishing a condition as it
well can be, notwithstanding the dampers that have oc-
casionally been thrown over it by several wretched set-
tling days, as is testified by the number of nominatious
in Pyrrhus the First's, and succeeding years, standing
recorded as follows:

SUBS. STARTERS,
1846—Pyrrhus the First 193 "' 27
1847—Cossack ••• 188 ... 32
1848 —Surplice • • 215 ... 17
1849—The Flying Dutchman 237 ... 26
1850—Voltigeur ... 204 ... 24
192 ... 33
ThisigBrsela—t rTacededwinagst°enstablished by the grandfather of
the present Earl of Derby in 1780, as Sweepstakes of
50 guineas each, h f, for three yrs old, colts Bst, fillies
7at 1 llb over the last mile. The conditions were altered
in 1784 in respect to the weights and distance, the
former to be colts Bst 31b, fillies Bst, arid the latter the
last mile and a half. In 1807 the weights were, again
altered to what they have remained ever since, viz ,
colts Bst 71b, fillies Bst 21b. In 1848 the new Derby
course, one mile and a half, as originally proposed, I
believe, by the late Lord George Bentiuck, was finished,
and Surplice, the produce of Lord George's celebrated
mare Crucifix (the winner of the One and Two Thousand
Guineas and Oaks Stakes) was the first to travel over it
a Derby victor, and destined afterwards to be renowned
as the dissolver of the Champion charm—winning both
Derby and St. Leger. The levels of the new Derby
course, as far as rough measurement (taken a year ago)
will allow me to judge, are as follows :
Ia the first 100 yards it rises 1 foot in 18.
In the next 120 yards it rises 1 foot in 16.
In the next 130 yards it rises 1 foot in 17.
In the next 160' yards it rises 1 foot in 18.
In the next 215 yards it rises 1 foot in 40.
In the next 155 yards it rises 1 foot in 25.
(Here it joins the Old course.)
In the following 120 yards it rises 1 foot in 48.
(Here ends the hill.)
The next 720 yards are nearly flat, then a gradual
descent of 1 foot in 75 for 280 yards; then 1 in 45 for
the following 280 yards; then 1 in 52 for the next 104
yards; then nearly flat for 116 yards, and ends on a
steady rise from the distance to the beginning of the
stand of 1 foot in 30, and from the stand to the winning
post of 1 in 22—st very severe finish. I have been in-
duced to give these particulars as I think they may be
of service to the thorough-paced tnrfite.
The Derby, of 1852, in the number of subscribers, of
falls short of this year's by eleven, one hundred and
eighty-one nominations being all that are made for ;the
" great go " on the Downs of Epsom next May.
The favourite in the betting claims my first attention,
I shall therefore begin with the merry lot trained by

SAUNDERS.
at Hednesford. This lot consists of the crack Masham,
Saredon, and Garibaldi.

Mr. Merry's HOBBLE NOBLE, by Pantaloon out of
Phryne, bought some time since of Lord John Scott,
for, I believe, the hitherto unprecedented sum for a two-
years-old, of aix thousand five hundred pounds, has ap-
peared in public twice. His debut was at Ascot, where
he won the New Stakes in a very clever off-hand man-
ner, beating Grey Tommy (second), Kingston (third),
and nine others, including Glenluce. His next appear_
anon was at the Newmarket July Meeting, where, with-
out the semblance of a struggle, he beat Claverhouse
(second), Livermere <third), Bullseye, and Songster.
These are his only perforinances, but they are enough
by themselves to stamp him as the best two-year-old out
engaged in the Derby of next year. This horse is un-
dergoing a careful preparation at the hands of Saunders
erbo
him, and he can be kept in his present form, the_D a
iy.
of 1852 seems all but oYer ; but there are signs of we
.1
tion. Should they allow him
ness in the posterns, Which are of the longest
on,descrip-
by tender
do ought f
at least long
treatment I think he may be keptnd Guineas,if
and attempt
enough to do the Two Thousand
strong in the fore-arms,
the Derby. He
short, is remarkablywell laid down. He is, in
and has splendid quarters to trainnrm,
to believe that he is a second
would almost lead
He is quite well a t the present
Ono of the finmeset race-horses I have ever seen, and
y gas also another Derby nag, which he
FiimlyeinagadDtuatkebeen:aentle exercite diurnally.
Mr. Ewbank—a b c MASHAM, by Nutwith,
out of Sultanas. This horse may do
something in the handicap way, some time or other, but
hssno chance in the great spin of May next.
dsmMirn'yide purchased
Velocipede,ror i M
Mr. Merry's string has two other nags, a b c SAREDON,
by 'Vault= out of Ridotto, who has managed to win
ono stake out of five that he has started for, and this
was only accomplished by a neck; he, however, beat
Trosseau, though this performance is not good enough
to warrant an investment for the Derby.