The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-02 00:00:00

THE TURF.

From the Newmarket Correspondent of the Racing Times.
Croydon Steeplechases may now be set down as ono of
the best meetings of cross-country sports in the kingdom,
and, indeed, Mr. Verrall has done wonders for the Cock-
neys. It will, I have no doubt, in time be looked forward
to by them with almost as much p:easuro as the Derby
Day. Beautiful weather, good management, and a good
amount of added money, could not fail to bring together
large fields and the largest Ringl have seen at any country
meeting this year. The course is one of the best in Eng-
land, as all the fences can be seen from the Stand, and they
are quite large enough to try the merits of the best steeple-
chase horses in the world ; indeed, in my opinion, we have
but few jumpers at the present time that would care about
leaping any more severe fences than those at Croydon.
The sport commenced on Tuesday with the Selling Hurdle
Race, and Roving Maid pulled her backers through, and
won in a canter ; Maria Louise, from her splendid per-
formance at Liverpool and Shrewsbury, was made a
rattling favourite, and I have no doubt she would have
won in a canter had she not broke down. As the winner's
performance on the flat has only been very moderate,
Endsleigh would, I have no doubt, have beaten him
had she kept on her legs. The success of Steamboat was
only the forerunner of Lord Coventry's success. During
the meeting Comborton justified the confidence reposed in
him by winning the Stewards' Plate, and backers got the
money back they lost on the Hurdle Race. Stiff was made
a rattling favourite for the Selling Steeplechase, but tho
running of the winner, Ace of Trumps, at Liverpool, must
have been overlooked by the talent, where he ran second
to Benazet, and got before such horses as Reporter and
Knave of Trumps over a severe course like Aintree.
Racing commenced on Wednesday with the. Stand Plate,
and Flyfisher from his splendid appearance was made first
favourite ; but some time before the flag fell he receded to
10 to 1, and it was evident, from the betting, that his
backers were no better off than if they had invested the
money with a Welshman instead of on a Welsh horse.
There is nothing more foolish than to talk, as a correspon-
dent of a contemporary dens, about Flyfisher having a
rattling gallop on Wednesda:, and that he invariably runs
better the following day ; what rubbish to toll the public
that three miles and a half over a severe steeplechase
course would improve a rank roarer, but some writers do
"excuse the thing they hate for the advantage of
him they respect." The name of a Welshman
on an English race-course does not smell very sweet,
and the suspicious running of Flyfisher on Wednesday,
and Laura's running on Tuesday and Thursday, will not
tend to improve the odour of the Welsh horses, as no one
in his senses would believe that such a horse as the Niger
could have got before Flyfisher on Tuesday if he had been
Wanted. There is ono thing worthy of remark—that the
Croydon bookmakers that yelled and hissed most at Pope
after he rode Laura on Thursday never said a word whet:
]Flyfisher was beat on Wednesday ; but it made all
the difference, as Flandrin, who beat Laura, was first
favourite, and had Laura won the bookmakers would
have " skinned the lamb." The Epsom Squire lost
a raker on Monitress for the Hurdle Race, as
ho considered it a good thing for his mare in such
moderato company. What a rip to back for the Leam-
ington Stakes and Yorkshire Handicap at Doncaster, and
wind up her last performance of this year by being beaten
by such a bad horse as Foxholes. There was a splendid
race for the Cup, and it is really surprising what could be
the motive of Mr. Powell to run Fly fisher in such moderate
company on Tuesday when he had the Cup in prospective
on Thursday, and could beat such horses as Benazet and
Parnane in a canter; it was a great performance after what
we saw Lord Poulett's horse do at Liverpool. The French
horse Flandrin won the Selling Steeplechase, and wound
up this splendid meeting with a regular row, whizh re-
minded one of a lot of infuriated backers after a welsher
that had run off with their money. Laura's running, to
say the least of it, looked very suspicious ; she was most
certainly only out for au airing, with a view to better

things. The Steeplechase Meeting next week at St.
Albans will no doubt be well patronised by the Cockneys,
and the committee have provided two capital days' sport.
There are too many in the Harpenden Plate for me to at-
tempt to select the winner, but King Alfred looks like
winning the Aristocratic Steeplechase. Patience will win
the Hunt Steeplechase if he runs, and should Lord
Coventry send Chimney Sweep for the Open Steeplechase
he will win ; if not, I have most fancy for King Alfred
and Sprite.

Backers are individuals who back their horses against
other men's horses; who having no horses of their own
back some men's horses against other men's horses ; who
back their sharpness against other men's dullness, their
wisdom against other men's folly. They are a mixed lot ;
some thoroughbred; some hacks, some cabbies, some
costers—some worse than the Bombay mules will be
after the Abyssinian campaign. They are sheep and
goats, lambs, and wolves. They are Bass from Burton,
and Bass from the unknown breweries, which resort to
unwholesome drugs for stomachic flavour. And by rea-
son of their mixed character they are pushing turf trans-
actions to the Crossness Point level of limited liability
promotion, flotation, and liquidation. Of late the un-
mistakeable tendency of turf transactions has been in the
direction of rival twice a week auction sales; of gives and
takes that, at• least, rogues may clear, not five bar, but five
hundred bar gates. What happens is the very thing the
Legislature recently attempted to prevent in net fishing ;
namely, the giving of no chance to the fishes, which is a
course that before long promised to bring to Billingsgate
the last cod fish and pair of soles which would bo fur-
nished.

In its better, palmy days, what gave character to the
turf was the practical absence of this mixed character.
Backing, then, was for opinion ; for that sort of sentiment
which animates Garibaldi, and leads to his giving what
cooler-blooded men regard as mad-man's odds ; or, to put
a less lofty case, it is that sort of sentiment which inflames
Irishmen of disloyal sympathies, and involves such bets
as the aforesaid Bombay mule after the Abyssinian cam-
paign against the field of British nationality and prestige.
This sentiment has every-day exemplifications in the
various walks of life ; wherever, with doggedness of will,
there is a conviction of some intensity the good old spirit
may be said to flourish. In the better, palmy days of turf
transactions, it gave the owner of a horse, that was a horse,
such sure faith that he would almost have staked his life.
Then, also, the bets of such a man were a guide, not a
decoy, to others. In those days there were men who for
years followed in the wake of others; winning when they
won, losing when they lost, and laughing well at the re-
sult whichever way it happened. There, too, were the
judgments of outsiders—of men who knew, or who be-
lieved they knew, what a horse is. Such men staked their
money on their judgments; seeing the horses in the stables,
in the paddock, or at the pest, was all they needed, never
once dreaming of foul play on owner's or jockey's
part. Nor was there foul play, unless on rare
occasions, when some corrupt fellow elbowed him-
self to win, no matter how. But such an one did
not leaven the whole lump; he had the cry of
shame raised at him, the finger of scorn pointed towards
him. He, however, proved the pioneer ; the first wash of
wave over the walls of honour, before the giving way of
dykes and the general overflow.
Where we now are let the giver of odds answer. Now-
adays to own a stud of race-horses, and to eat oyster
suppers oftener than to attend at morning service, are the
handmaids to wealth. Now, to bo well up in figures; to
disregard stables, jockeys, pedigree, form, muscle, pace,
everything, unless the points for and against the horses
in the betting is to be a top sawyer, a s2lendid fellow, a
man with bunches of bank notes, who is at once the envy
and the pride of the unhappy. The turf is as demoralised
as the Stcck Exchange ; the failings of which are
buying long and selling short. Or it resembles operations
in mines, which also, but in a greater degree, are heads I
win, tails you lose. Generally whoever fancies ho puts
money into mines is mistaken, he only puts it into some
schemer's pocket, and in the main it is equally true that he
who backs a horse is sure to be disappointed. Not that
default in payments is more frequent than before, not that
givers and takers are fewer than before, but because the
turf is not what it ought to bo—not what it used to be
The odds of the day ought to be the index to a horse's chance,
the reflex of public opinion respecting such chance ; what
they represent is the state of the accounts of operators, the
stress of weather under whi:l) great and small craft labour,
the unfavourable, condition of the exchanges, and of a
prospective consequent drain of specie. Old Admiral Fitz-
roy's functions have passed from the meteorological de-
partment of the Board of Trade to be 2 to 1 and to be 1000
to 1 signals in the commission rooms and elsewhere.
To rescue the turf from this state of things would be to
re-instate in purity a great national sport, to place judg-
ment at a premium, to win back those whom trickery has
estranged. Generally speaking men are only once vic-
tims; they do not twice run the risk of being bitten.
Well, for years past the biting process has proceeded
until a host of men with money have made way for another
host without money. And obviously the biting process
has only to go on some time longer to thin out to extinction
such rod men as remain. This extremity should be
averted. During the dead season there should be an effort
to stay the downward progress of turf morality. At the foun-
tain head, whence the evil flows, abeginning should be made.
The owner of a horse, while permitted to win all ho can
should not be allowed to inflict wrongful injury on others
From the owner of a horse to the bookmaker is not a step
but it may as well be considered one. The bookmaker,
while suffered to suck all the blood he can, should cease to
be held in high esteem. His recognised position should
be that of a parasite, as ivy is on the trunk of oak
or elm. Ho is not a sporting man ; he is a money win-
ning man. He is a grub ;no butterfly. As to the rest,
the broken, dishonoured ones, why they may be left to
pick what crnmbs they can. They are mere camp fol-
lowers; not combatants in common, or bearing shields.
They are to the turf what the costermongers are to the new
Street Act; persons who have a vested interest in their
peculiar calling, and may therefore be let alone.—Racing
Times.

The marriage of John Day, jun., eldest son of the
celebrated trainer, with Miss Sophia Taylor, of the Royal
Hotel, Derby, was celebrated on Tuesday last with the
usual rejoicings.
Mr. E. Brayley bought La Pique, at Croydon, on Thurs-
day, after her winning a selling handicap steeplechase, for
105 guineas.
Carnbroe, who won the Selling Handicap Steeplechase
at Croydon, on Wednesday, was bought by Mr. Church
for 61 guineas.
OBJECTION TO PLYFISIIER.—This horse, who came in
first for the Croydon Cup on Thursday, was objected to
by Mr. Thomas, the rider of Banazet, who ran second.
The case will be decided at Tattersall's this afternoon.

We regret to announce the sudden demise of Mr. Wear,
a well-known bookmaker, who was found dead in his bed
on Wednesday morning last.
ASTROLABE.-All bets on this mare, who was disqualified
from running in the Croydon Cup in consequence of her
name being in the forfeit list, are null and void.

THE LEAMINGTON AND WARWICKSHIRE HUNT
MEETING.--The three principal cups at these races were
designed and manufactured by Mr. Benson, of Old Bond-
street and Ludgate-hill. The Great Autumn Welter Cup,
value £2OO, consists of a Grecian vase and cover, with
handles in silver, the stein fluted and burnished, decorated
with open festoons of flowers in dead silver, this is sur-
mounted by a wreath of oak also in dead silver; the body
is richly chased with a bas-relief representing a race-course,
and the apex of the cover formed by two models of race-
horses with their jockeys in dead silver. The Guy Cup,
value £l5O, is a richly chased vase, highly decorated with
Greek ornaments ; the body is enriched with a large bas-
relief of a racing subject, and the cover surmounted by a
model of a race-horse. The Hunt Cup, which is a large
re'poussi tankard and cover, value £lOO, is richly embossed
with the story of " Mazeppa ;" the top surmounted by the
model of a horse and foal.

ATHLETIC SPORTS.

LONDON ATHLETIC SPORTS.

The members of this club met on Saturday last at the
West London Cricket Ground, when, despite the un-
favourable state of the weather, a capital afternoon's sport
took place. The first event was the
Handicap of 150 Yards (for members only).—The 31
entries were divided into five heats, the first being won by
J. M. Burke, 9 yards start, by a couple of yards; C. G.
Emory, 3, second. Time, 151 seconds.
Second Heat.—J. W. Bennett, 16, led throughout, and
won by a yard and a half ; A. K. Gregson, Bi, second.
Time, 15k seconds.
Third Heat.—H. A. Sarl, 9, won easily ; C. Scull, 10,
second.

Fourth Heat.—C. King, 10, got in front forty yards from
home, and won by a yard; J. Elphiustoue, 91, second.
Time, 15 seconds.
Fifth Heat.—G. H. Jupp, 61, walked over.
Final Heat.—H. A. Sari, 9, won by a splendid race by a
Foot ; G. H. Jupp, 6k, second ; and J. M. Burke, 9, third.
Time, 15i seconds.

OPEN Two MILES WALKING HANDICAP.—T. Griffiths
(C. A. A. C.), 25 seconds start, took the lead at the com-
mencement of the fifth lap, and held it until entering the
straight of the seventh, when S. P. Smith (Blackheath), 25
seconds, and W. Rye (T. R. C.), scratch, third. '['ho first
mile was accomplished in 7 minutes 10 seconds, and the
whole distance in 14 minutes 50 seconds.

Mr. J. G. Chambers officiated as judge. The prizos will
be presented to the winners at the annual dinner, which
will be held at Willie's Room•, iiing-street, St. James's, on
Thursday next.

terised by great prudence and tactical skill in
eliminating as many elements of controversy as pos-
sible. It was delivered in the quiet, level, sub lued
style which Mr. Disraeli has affected since he be-
came the leader of the house. His oratory has gone
through three or four well-marked stages. First,
there was the outré and. extravagant stage of his
youthful rhetoric, when the house laughed at Whalley,
and when he told the house his time would come.
'Then there was the stage of prepared speeches, of
epigrammatic sallies, of savage attacks upon Peel
and Graham. This was the epoch when Sir Jam.,
Graham named him the " Red Indian of debate."
There was next the stage of office and Ministerial
responsibility of 1852, when, as leader of the Go-
vernment, he had to speak often and without pre-
meditation, and when he had to confront every
word in the newspaper next morning. This was
the period of slowness, caution, and deliberation.
The Conservative leader of the Lower House,
now so fluent and so much at his ease, then
contracted a habit of hesitancy so painful and ..
so persistent that it was anything but agree-
able to listen to him. It was said of Charles
James Fox that he made himself a debater at the
expense of his audience ; and the same thing, with
infinitely more truth, may be asserted of Mr.
Disraeli. lie gradually obtained a mastery over
words, and the a-a-a between the phrases, by which
he sought to gain time until the right word was
remembered or presented itself, gradually dropped
out of his speeches. His next phase was that of
the dexterous, watchful, implacable leader of Oppo-
sition, full of resources and self-reliance, with office
once in his possession, and many times almost
within his grasp. His oratory was now loud, de-
fiant, recriminative, indignant, and resounding.
The last phase of Mr. Disraeli's oratory was when
he found himself in office for the third time, in a
minority of the House of Commons. It was his
task to persuade the House to accept a Reform Bill
at his hands, and his success has made him a power
in the House. It has been his recent policy to ex-
cite no emotion and raise no antagonism, and he
has simultaaeously adopted an easy, level, quiet,
cola vans MIS dire style of rhetoric, sometimes not
ill-suited to his purposs. It stood him in good
stead more than once last session, and notably
when Mr. Osborne, in the tone of a man who
had discovered a new Gunpowder Plot, asked
whether the Chancellor of the Exchequer hal coal-
tnissioned Colonel Taylor to enter into negotia-
tions with Mr. Dillwyn on the subject of the
acceptance by the Government of Mr. Hibbert'a
amendment. Instead of firing up, making
the house resound with protestations or sar-
casms, Mr. Disraeli's words only just dropped from
his lips, and in tones of well-assumed indifference
he pooh-poohed the affair as a "mare's nest." The
same subdued tone has been employed since upon
occasions when it conveyed a sense of mastery and
power. The hearer infers that what the orator i 3
proposing is a matter of course, which cannot pro-
voke opposition from any quarter. The objection
to Mr. Disraeli's new style of speaking rapidly and,
as it were, under his breath, is that he is losing
that distinctness of elocution which was once the
characteristic of his oratory. Formerly he could
always be heard without difficulty—and that was
an advantage in an assembly containing a very con-
siderable proportion of elderly gentlemen—which
was worth the superfine faltering and low and rapid
delivery of the new style a hundred times over. It
is now necessary to pay a strained attention to the
leader of the House, and many words, which appear
from the context ;to be important, are lost to the
more distant portion of his audience, and have to
be looked for next day in the papers. The change
does not seem to be caused by any diminution of
physical power. It is simply a trick and artifice of
rhetoric. If not checked, it will become a vice and
mannerism, so unpleasant and so little to be tole-
rated in the House of Co:nmons that we shall have
the leader of the Government interrupted by cries
of " speak up." From the affectation of being in-
distinct and inaudible Lord Palmerstou was
eminently free; and Mr. Disraeli, who imitates
his leadership in so may things, cannot too carefully
watch and amend his present habit of slurring over
his words and adopting a quiet, level, and un-
emphatic mode of Ministerial explanation.—London
Review.