him a coffin, and so you shan't stand in now with the ticket !" and she accordingly took it to the house, and got it well and truly cashed. Somehow or other the list-houses weathered the Epsom week very well, though of course some few had, like Mr. Cureton, “ to regret that they could not sustain the position they had hitherto held.” The prophet's trade is decidedly on the wane ; but we have no sympathy with people who consult them, and who, when they have bought “positive certainties,” whine out that they have been swindled. If a man contracts to do a thing for you, which is clearly within his power to do if he chooses, you bave a right, if he fails to fulfil his promise, to say that you have been humbugged or swindled. Here, however, one " noble sportsman" deliberately contracts with another “noble sportsman" to achieve what he knows to be an impossibility for him, and actually guarantees him a peep into the hidden future. The tribe with one consent claim the honour of predicting Strongbow for Liverpool, and one of them, Arkwright, says—“ He hopes from the recent visit of Prince Albert to Ipswich soon to add his illustrious name to his list of subscribers, His Highness having expressed his satisfaction at the tip he gave him !” Like all other humbugs, they will gradually become matters of history, but not before they have contributed some thousands to the Stamps and Post-Office. Teddington gave them a nobbling they will not easily get over ; and they were equally out about Nancy. There is said to be no doubt that two of Nancy's owners lost on the Chester Cap race. The third, as bluff and honest a Yorkshireman as we ever met, stood to win, and was determined to make assurance doubly sure. " Thou mun ride like a man ;" said he (so the story goes) to little Kendall; “ there's fifteen hundred pun in bank for ther, if thou wins !” and he also laid the lad's master £200 to 0) against the mare, to secure his not being got at. As she was bred by a non-sporting farmer, this mare's engagements are not very heavy. It is difficult to conceive what the stable could have been thinking about, to pull Voltigeur out against her the day after his terrible match-struggle ; and we believe that Job Marson was never more down-hearted than when he got upon his old favourite to endure certain defeat. The match was quite decisive enough to satisfy the Voltigeur stable, though their horse laboured under the disadvantage of having to make his own running. This was a loophole for the disappointed party to creep out at ; but even if a third horse had been started by arrangement, to cut out the running, we do not see how the result could have been materially altered, though Voltigeur might have got half a length nearer at the finish. As it was, both borses had all the water on. Nat thus described the race “ I asked Voltigeur to do a little more when we got to the distance, but he couldn't ; and nothing but sheer game brought him home.” We fancy he received a severe leg-wearying dose, and never did horse answer to the rein more readily, when they were once past the post, and stop so dead. In point of condition, it struck us that the Dutchman had a greater pull of him at York than he had of the Dutchman at Doncaster. His coat was the duller of the two, and he seemed unduly light. They no doubt exercised a very sound discretion in scratching him at Ascot; and it just seems doubtful whether he will show in public again before Doncaster. It will take him some months quite to forget the match, to say nothing of his being under a new training Mentor. It is said that Mr. Clark most devoutly hoped that the match would not be a very near thing, as he has not forgotten the uproar when he gave a very close race in 1849, in favour of Mildew against Cantab ; and seeing that the general feeling among the masses was so decidedly in favour of the Zetland spots (Yorkshiremen always back their own county-lord), a repetition of the same might have been expected if they had again lost by a “short head.” A great deal has been said about Lord Zetland's dismissal of Hill; and it has been fathered unhesitatingly on the Lightfoot affair. Those, however, who are pretty well acquainted with the matter, fancy that there was also a certain private source of dissatisfaction of some standing, which his Lordship did not choose any longer to overlook. A decisive 16lb. trial with Rhadulphus is thought to have inspired Hill with such an exaggerated belief in Lightfoot's powers ; but it was always his misfortune to be sadly too confident about his horses. “The Derby's over ; Nowt but Lightfoot," is said to have been the contents of his letters ; but there was no chance of the horse ever becoming a favourite, as certain partics who knew about Voltigeur's 1850 capabilities long before the “million" did, never ceased to pepper him. We do not ourselves believe that there has been any wilful attempt to deceive the public. IIill stated what he candidly believed to be the case; and the public were so enamoured of the stable, that they converted molehills into mountains at once. By the severing of his connection with his Lordship’s stable, Hill has learnt a doublo lesson, which we trust he will not be slow to profit by, in his future training career. It would have been almost impossible to suppose that one and the same jockey could have won the Derby in a canter, in two successive years, with horses of such a different mould as Voltigeur and Teddington. The foriner looked inore like a coaching-stallion on the Derby Day, while the latter was about the lightest horse on the whole race. We are told that he measures only 63 inches in his girth ; but with all this short allowance of flesh, never did horse look brighter and prouder of himself, and it was evident from the style in which Marson kept creeping up to the head of the line, to secure poor Bill Scott's favourite place next the rails, taking no more notice of the Ban thau if he had been a donkey, what his tactics were to be. For the first fifty yards lie was absolutely first horse, and nothing but a most thorough confidence in his powers could have induced his rider to go away as he did at the mile-post. It is in riding a race of this nature that so many riders fail. They have not the moral courage to give their horse a pull, and let their opponents reach his shoulder for a few strides, and then go at it again ; but keep hammering away, and get nicked by a waiting horse on the post. In riding Musician for the Gratwicke Stakes last year, Marson did the same thing very nicely, and even suffered his horse to be headed, and then worked him home with his heels. Candidly speaking, we do not think that 20 horses, if that, out of the 33 Derby horses, had any business at the post. With respect to Teddington, there soems no doubt that the trial in which he beat Aphrodite, Confessor, and Balsamo, and which got such general wind for weeks before the Derby, was a bond fide one. People did not, however, believe it, as they had made up their minds that Aphrodite was the best of the lot, and nothing would persuade them off it. Hence the very publicity which the trial had attained tended to make the powers of Teddington a greater secret than ever, as people suspected that he must have had a lump of weight given him, and that the object of the stable was to drive back Aphrodite in the betting for the Oaks. The sequel fully verified the good old Newmarket adage—“ IF YOU WANT TO DECEIVE A RACING MAN, ALWAYS TELL HIM THE TRUTH.” It seems fated that the mothers of Derby winners should be despised just before they are about to bring their crack foal into the world. Colonel Peel gave Miss Twickenham to a Huntingdon constituent, when she was quick with Teddington ; and the owner of Martha Lyon, when she was alike situated with Voltigeur, offered either her, Yarico, or a Cain mare to a gentleman for £25, and he chose the latter. For look, the lengthy Ban is our favourite, of all Sir Joseph's lot ; and we do not remember to have ever seen a horse whose shape we liked so well, though he is evidently one of the family of the “slows," and not much attached to hard ground. At Northampton he looked decidedly big; and it puzzles us how he ever got into form in seven days for the Great Metropolitan race. Merry Peal is a very smart mare, but seems as if she was settling gradually into a hollow-back; and Breba reminds us very much of Mendicant, whose owner bred her. Badly as she cut up in the Oaks, she was going strong and well in the Vase, when she rolled over. Clever Sir Joseph was too clever for himself in the former race, as there is little doubt but that he truly believed the Oaks to be all over but shouting. He is a great deal too much of a business racingman to be popular ; and, moreover, rather shifty and changeable with his jockeys. It is said that from this cause Templeman sent in his jacket towards the close of last season. In one race at Newmarket both his jockeys, Marson and Templeman, were looking on while Alfred Day was put up on Vatican. The fornier of these three has won every third race he has ridden this season, and well he deserves and bears his success. But to resume our three-year-old review : there seems a strong suspicion that Newminster was “ got at” by the nobblers early in the spring ; and certainly he was in no order for the Derby : but still we thought his action very little inferior to his brother Nunnykirk's, and every one knows how good that was. If he summers well, we shall hear of him before the Leger Day. Constellation belongs to á slow lot ; and the sooner Idolatry and Moonbeam look out for a lover more suited to them than Lanercost, the better for their fair fame. Juggernaut, Constellation, et hoc genus omne, will do little for their names. Prime Minister can never be what he “ used to was.” The first glance of him reminds you of Attila: It is, however, only in the reach on his face, and his size and colour, that he resembles this horse (whose points were a sad stumbling-block to painters), as he is short and very queer about his loins, and very tender on his legs. This latter peculiarity gives some colour to the metaphorical reports of the touts, the week before the Derby, that he had been doing his work in a sand-lane. The Ascot Vase showed that he can do a distance better than his pepperers chose to believe, but we have little hopes of his ever paying very much. Mr. Halford must think with sorrow of the 5000 gs. offer in the autuinn. Mr. Blakelock made the same mistake, when 3000 gs. was offered for British Yeoman, but to the end of time not one sportsman in a thousand will have the moral courage to act up the well-tested maxim " Sell when you can!” Iris, in spite of her propensity to talk, ought to fill out into a very fine four-year-old ; but at present she is very lanky. Azeth is a showy little chesnut, with decidedly doubtful “ understandings”; Lucky Tom IIoltby was a six guineas purchase. Theseus is like a capital Melton hunter – rather long, we thought, in the neck, and rather short in the barrel; but a racehorse for all that, though perhaps of not a very high stamp. Bonnie Dundee will see a better day, and he quite carried out the public's idea, by beating Hippolytus in their places ; but we cannot say that we are much enamoured of Miserrima, though she is a mare who improves on you as you examine her. Black Doctor has grown the very image of his father, and lengthened out. Marlborough Buck is not cast in what we should call a racing mould, as he has a very coaching forehand, but, like all Venison's, is no doubt very stout, but not very speedy. Old Ebor will witness his next essay. His brother Elcot has far more of the racer about him, and has given a good specimen of his powers both in the wet and the dry. The Foreign Minister, however, has in Buckthorn the nicest two-year-old, to our fancy; and we shall be surprised if he does not some day do a good thing. Brother to Elthiron is a sweet animal, but there seems to be sone little doubt as to his legs; and Lord Eglinton's fine lot of two-year-olds are now reduced down to the heavily engaged Claverhouse, a son of Irish Birdcatcher and Blue Bonnet, Lucio, Pelopidas, and The Sheltie. King of Trumps, with his thick barrel, does not look like a flyer, but his performances have been capital. Grey Tommy is of good promise, and has very much of the Grey Momus cut about him; and M. Houdin, his stable-companion, is a remarkably sweet-looking animal. Red Hind, who has not much to boast of in look, has so far won her race in as good style as anything this year ; still we do not fancy that anything very out of the way has appeared as yet, except it be Bay Rosalind. Among the older horses Russborough shows most improvement in look. Italian is quite the Honeycomb of the north ; and Pitsford's loins look feebler than ever, but to see the style in which he took the hill at Ascot under no contemptible weight, they would seem to make no difference to him. Vatican must be a really wonderful horse, in spite of his queer temper, as he has had plenty of work all the spring, in teaching Teddington and the other Fyfield House three-year-olds the way they should go, and yet he was as fresh as a lark for the Ascot Stakes, which put his sum total of winnings at £6,370. The style in which the hill stopped him when he ran against Landgrave at Newmarket, made us fancy that it would do something of the same kind again. In their best form, he and Elthiron must be very near of foot. The latter little fellow is as great a favourite of Fobert's as Pompey was, and a sort of horse that, under a reasonable weight, never knows when he is beaten. Windischgratz is very much improved in his middle-piece ; and when he is meant, and has a weight to his fancy, will show very differently to what he did at Ascot. For ill temper Vasa has beaten everything through this year by a long chalk, and he only received his due when he was summarily handed over to the royal knacker. Sam Rogers's winning-mount on him in the First Spring of this year was one of the finest specimens of horsemanship we have seen ; and, in fact, in riding a brute, not a man that we know of on the turf is to be compared to him. 15 ........... A glance at the Stud Buok for 1850, shows that there were entered in it during that year 386 colts and 387 fillies, which were credited to 148 stallions. The following list will show who were the favourite sires :Foals. Foals. Foig-a-Ballagh .... 21 Alarm .............. 17 Bay Middleton ... Ion ..... Don John.......... 16 Touchstone ....... Orlando .......... Twenty-eight of Sleight-of-Hand's foals are the property of that glorious veteran, Sir Tatton Sykes (who we expect to see ride into Doncaster from Leicestershire, as is his wont, for many a year to come) ; while the fruit of Nutwith's seem to belong to Lord Exeter, and all Old England's to Sir Joseph Hawley.. The principal crosses were between Bay Middleton and Barbelle (the nursing mother of Van Tromp and The Dutchman), Industry, and Miss Letty, and their respective produce were “ Vanderdecken," " Exhibition,” and a bay colt. Irish Birdcatcher begot " Elspeth” out of Blue Bonnet, and “ Lord Zeuconberg" out of Alice Hawthorn ; and “ Constantine" and two bay colts are the results of the acquaintance of Cotherstone with Crucifix, Miami, and Clementina. lon claims “ Aconite" out of Prussic Acid, and Lanercost has a young “ Brother to War Eagle” fathered on him. “ Eryctho” is the son of Melbourne out of Bellona, and a bay colt crowns the union of Slane and Vibration, and of Old England and Mendicant ; while Beeswing produced a black filly to Touchstone (her sixth live foal we believe), and Mountain Sylph and Refraction own him as the sire of a filly and a colt. Taking the season, on the whole, it seems likely to be a fair average one. Ascot certainly has been dull ; Liverpool would have been as nothing without the Meanee colt, and the entries for Goodwood arc perhaps below par; but York is strong; and there seems every probability of an interesting St. Leger, looking at present like a match between Aphrodite (Marson), and Hernandez (Nat). The field bids fair to be a pretty large one, and to be selected from the following :- Aphrodite, Hernandez, Clasher, Heart Breaker, Bonnie Dundec, Prime Minister, The Ban, Constellation, First Fruits, Newminster, Confidence, Miserrima, Lamartinc, Azeth, Ephesus, Grecian, and one or two “ darkies." Irishmen lament sadly that “ The Marquis” is not in it. A baker's dozen at least will be at the post. The three October meetings at Newmarket look well on paper. The “gentlemen” have got such a haul out of the ring and public through the intervention of Teddington, that it will be odd if they do not come out strong towards the close of the Exhibition year. Speaking of the Exhibition reminds us that there is not very much in it especially to interest the sporting man. Three jockey-caps, and a case of horse-shoes and racing plates, are the only signs of racing ; but there are guns and remarkably natty dog-carts for shooters ; cases of hooks, ad infinitum, for the disciples of Ephemera ; and a stuffed figure of the celebrated hound, Forester, of the Rufford Hunt, in the act of finding, for the delectation of fox-hunters. Mexico has not sent the magnifiers which they are said to fix on their horses, |