THE RACING IN JULY. BY CRAVEN. "Sic laudamus equum, facile cui plurima palma JUVENAL, Sat. viii. "I sing the steeds-those worthies of the course Whose feats have made the Ring's rude chorus hoarse." The past month will be a memorable one in the annals of the turf, more especially in reference to the meeting on which, par excellence, it bestows a name-the July of that ilk at Newmarket. Those three days of July were pregnant with matter of account affecting its future fortunes. And first as touching the great event, the germs of which are then and there brought forth. The nominations for the Derby of 1849 amounted to 240, very nearly twice as many as were entered for the race the year before last. The entries for the Oaks numbered 173, very nearly double the field named four years ago. True, the nominations have fluctuated considerably; but, nevertheless, they show something like an advance of one hundred within the last ten or dozen years. From data like these we may fairly conclude that both in popularity and materiel horse-racing is going ahead with rapid strides......" Surgit amari aliquid?" let us examine. On the second of the three days of which we are treating the annual meeting of the Jockey Club was held at their Rooms, one of the results whereof was the publication of the subjoined manifesto in the Sheet Racing Calendar of the 14th ult: "Annual General Meeting of the Jockey Club, held at Newmarket, on Wednesday, the 7th of July, 1847. Present-The Hon. Col. Anson in the Chair; Sir Joseph Hawley, Bart. Geo. Payne, Esq. S, R. Batson, Esq. Rt. Hon. G. S. Byng. C. C. Greville, Esq. H. Lowther, Esq. Col. Peel. Earl Spencer. W. Sloane Stanley, Esq. Hon. Capt. Rous. W. Wigram, Esq. "Sir Joseph Hawley, Bart., was chosen a Steward of the Jockey Club in the room of the Hon. Colonel Anson, who retires by rotation. "RESOLVED,That on account of the unusually late period at which Easter will fall in 1848, the Craven Meeting in that year shall commence a fortnight before Easter, viz., on Monday, the 10th of April; and that notice of this be given in the next Racing Calendar, calling the attention of managers of other races to the circumstance.' "The Stewards of the Jockey Club, having taken into their conside ration the cases of John Day, jun., Samuel Rogers, and William Day, who were severally warned off the Course at Newmarket in the years 1844 and 1845, and declared incapable of riding there or elsewhere, have agreed to recommend to the Members of the Jockey Club, at this their Annual Meeting, that the sentences then passed against them shall now be remitted. 66 They trust that the punishment which these jockeys have received may be a warning to them which they will never forget, and that their conduct hereafter may justify the leniency which is proposed now to be extended to them. "In the case of John Day, jun., strong testimony has been borne to the propriety of his behaviour during the last two years by his em ployers, as well as by others who have had the opportunity of judging for themselves respecting it. "Samuel Rogers is also represented to have conducted himself well since this punishment was inflicted upon him. "Although no representation has been made on behalf of William Day, and the enormity of his offence would justify the Stewards in excluding him from the benefit of this recommendation, they are willing, on account of his youth, to afford him the opportunity of redeeming his character, and of once more endeavouring to prove himself an honest member of society. Upon these grounds, and also from the consideration that the means of obtaining their livelihood depend entirely upon the exercise of their profession, the Stewards submit to the Members of the Jockey Club their recommendation that John Day, jun., Samuel Rogers, and William Day, may be permitted again to ride and train at Newmarket. "RESOLVED, That in accordance with the recommendation of the Stewards, the sentences passed against John Day, jun., Samuel Rogers, and William Day, in the years 1844 and 1845, be now remitted, and that they be allowed to come upon the Course, and to ride and train at Newmarket as formerly.' ووو This document will probably appear to many who canvass it as one of grave account. There may be indeed there are different opinions regarding the policy of the course adopted by the Jockey Club-with relation to the matter it involved in the abstract. But it seems generally understood that these cases must in future serve as precedents applicable to all racing malefactions, whatever their" enormity." It establishes the principle that offences against honesty and breaches of confidence committed by trainers and jockeys are sufficiently atoned for, as relates to public convenience and protection, by a short suspension of the privileges enjoyed by individuals exercising those callings. There are not wanting those who insist that it will throw open those professions, and introduce a new class of actors to the scene. I do not venture upon any expressed view, though I may have my impression. It has been a very merciful decision-a very kind administration, there can be no doubt we will hope it may be met in a spirit worthy the boon. The summer racing at Newmarket set in under circumstances more than ordinarily sinister. H.R.H. Prince Albert having been elected Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, was installed into the academical chair during the first week of July-hinc ille lacrymæ. Many A of the aristocracy of the turf were absent at the solemnity per force, and the country attendants of the course flocked to see the sight as rural people are wont. The sport, it will be seen was a misnomer, and business was dull beyond all experience of the dismal. The opening day put forward the most attractive list; but superlatively bad was the best. Tuesday gave us the July Stakes-but we will follow the programme in its order. The racing commenced with a 20 sovs. handicap, won by Keeley, 8st. 5lb., beating Ellen Horne, and half a dozen others. It was won in a canter, with a long, straggling, ill-looking tail. The July Stakes, out of its original couple of dozen entered, brought to the post seven. Iodine -from a stable always the most forward at Newmarket-I mean as to its early form-was declared to be the winner by her gallant owner; and so she was, after a fine race, that Colonel Peel's other Teetotum could have carried off had she been "meant," for in that case she would have adopted a different policy. Woodcraft was the favourite, and a fair performer, but swerved as they closed the post-for the pace was very true, if not very good. These two" entrées" constituted the feast; they never gorge you at Newmarket, except the last day of the Houghton. Wednesday produced more running, such as it was. £50 Plate for all ages, excepting two-year-olds, began the performance; five went, and Millwood won, being backed to do so even against the field. A Sweepstakes for two-year-olds, last half of the Bunbury mile, brought out half a dozen-Glutton, the property of Lord Spencer, very considerably the best of the bunch. He was accordingly claimed for £200-cheaper than breeding, but not a bargain. The Town Plate of £50 induced five to exhibit-over the B. C., or rather the last mile and a distance of it. Of these Kimblesworth was foremost, though the ring held him in no account. He made the play, and beat the favourite, Ziska, by an honest heart and good speed, half a length. ended the second chapter. Thursday.-The fore part of the day-like the whole of its predecessor-was dull, and looking very like rain; later it cleared off, but beyond that there was little else that was not dismal enough. Betting was all but out of the question-so was sport -altogether. The racing was put on the scene with a 15 sovs. handicap, for all ages, except two-year-olds; course, from the starting-post of the Bunbury mile to the finish of the new T. Y. C. went, and Doctrine, the favourite, at 2 to 1 against her, won by a head; a very close race with the first five. The Chesterfield brought out nine -a strong field, considering that as little as 5 to 4 was taken about The Shireff. Woodcraft, despite his 4lbs. extra for being second for the July, made the running as strong as he could, the favourite waiting on him too near to be pleasant; at the rise of the hill, he went up, took the lead, and kept it to the end, winning cleverly by a neck; the successors followed, as regarded each other-longo intervallo. Alas! for the crack summer two-year-old stakes at Newmarket, once" the observed of all observers !" What sort of a contrast do they furnish to the performances of Messrs. Beverlac, Flatcatcher, Assault, and Co. ! A sweepstakes of 10 sovs. each, for two and three year olds, new T.Y.C., won by Blackcock with all ease, brought the meeting to an end. As premised, it was infinitely below the average of an occasion always beneath the position one might expect it to realize. Perhaps it has seen its worst days. It was the last race week, as we were told, that would Thus Seven see the barrier of the classic Ditch passed by means of a turnpike-road. The rail will be open for the First October. Then won't the public in general, and the publicans in particular-those high-priests of fortune in the present day, as were the Goodluck's, and Hazards, and Bishes, in the past-set their faces towards the rising sun what time the heath shall offer tryst to the enterprising and the speculative. And whatever may be urged against their practice morally, physically they certainly occupy their racing business in a very workmanlike manner. No shadow of the underhand or insincere mingles with it: they go ahead in stark earnest. A plain honest clown, once upon a time, came up with his sweetheart to be bound, as the poets say, in the bonds of Hymen. He knew nothing of the form or ceremony of matrimony: his learning extended no further than the fact and act in the abstract. So when the parson, in discharge of his portion of the mystic rite, asked him" Will you take this woman for your wedded wife?" To be sure I will," replied Junks-" I came on purpose." Thus when your boniface of sweep and lottery appeareth on a race-course, if your need lies towards the odds one way or other, approach and open your views to him fearlessly; never hesitate to ask him or yourself whether he may be disposed to wager with you--to be sure he is he came on purpose. Well, a change has come o'er the spirit of the sports at Newmarket. They are not what we can remember them a long time ago. Peradven ture they will anon alter for the better. Something has been done to get rid of the black sheep that heretofore fattened on its turf, I speak of the efforts to purify the ring-only. The system of adopting leggism as a legitimate part and parcel of horse-racing is one that must soon explode; its utter fallacy to say nothing of every other objection to it cannot fail of being presently admitted on all hands. How well does this remarkable axiom of a remarkable man draw the character of a leg, and the deduction from it Contemporary with the July races at Newmarket, there were meetings at Lancaster, Worcester, and other "provincial" places. At the former affairs were in the ascendant-at the latter they tended in an opposite direction. Having in mind the vast increase in the number of racehorses bred and trained, and the facilities for placing them afforded by the great extension of railways, one is astonished that fields should be short anywhere, with money to bait the stakes and plates. But, however, there are obvious causes. For instance, a Royal Plate is absolutely thrown away where it is run for in heats. Now-a-days no man will race an animal worth his keep six or eight miles over a parched surface-or, indeed, over a surface of any kind-for a hundred pounds. Leaving our theory, we will proceed, with the reader's leave, to the shores of the Mersey-where, however, speculation has been as generally cultivated during the last half century as anywhere in this our island. Liverpool races have been improving we are assured ever since their migration from Maghull to Aintree; but they are in no wise perfect yet. The administrators of advice that sole thing beneath crisp heaven, despised of gods and men, though offered "free gratis for nothing"-the hucksters of counsel, I say, have long been telling the authorities how to enhance the popularity and intrinsic value of their undertaking; but somehow, either they have not followed these plans, or the schemes have not succeeded. It may be, indeed, that the directors know the several things needed; but though the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak. "If to do," we read in "Twelfth Night,' "were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces." But what if Aintree has seen its best days? What if the Modern Tyre be on the totter? Very recently, they say, a letter passed through its postoffice, bearing this ominous superscription- For blank-blank-Esq., Liverpool, near Birkenhead į" And that Birkenhead, destined in the generation that shall succeed me to be a city of merchant princes, a site for science, power, wealth, and refinement to set up its staff, I can full well remember a spot without habitation, save where the fox had its kennel, and the coney its burrow. A thousand welcomes to the promise of the future. Let others hail nature, with her sons and daughters unsophisticated: give me eivilization, silver forks, and cooks with consciences suited to Christian bowels. Lest I seem too material in my philosophy, I subjoin the following sample of what the lover of nature in vietnal may encounter" remote from cities" still-and which would probably have distinguished his dining five-and-twenty years ago (if indeed the luck to get dinner at all had attended him) where Birkenhead now stands. I met the passage in a Yankee's narrative of a stroll through the States: "In my first excursion into the interior of Carolina, I made a long ride the second day, and reached the bank of the Padee river; and as the ferry boat was not ready to go over, I concluded to bait my horse and take my dinner at the logtavern standing on the bank. While preparing for dinner I observed the old lady looking round in every corner, and inquiring of every body about for her pipe, which she had lost or mislaid. As the matter did not interest me, I took no notice of it, and sat down to dinner with the family, having a strong appetite from a ride of over sixty miles. It is the custom in many parts of the country for the lady of the house to do the honours of the table and to help the guests. Our fare consisted of bacon and greens, with some good corn-bread and milk (the Lord save us!). I did not wait for any ceremony, but went into the bacon and greens pretty extensively; and just as I was about through my dinner, the old lady, in helping herself, discovered her pipe among the vegetables. Why, la me,' said she, here is my pipe now; and if it 'aint been boiled in the greens until it is as white as when it was new!'" You perceive here a touch of culinary nature which would make "the whole (civilized) world sick." This trait of the New World is not so mal apropos here as it may seem. In commenting on the late meeting at Liverpool, the correspondent of one of the morning papers walks into Jonathan "pretty particular tight considerable slap. "Whether it is," he wrote, "from the influx of Americans, and the consequent falling into many of their habits, or to the unceasing devotion which the inhabitants pay to their commercial pursuits, certain it is that a more unpolished, disagree |