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RACES IN JULY. Newmarket ...... 1 | Jersey

.. 9 | Ilsies ............ 15 Odiham ......... Carlisle ..... 1 Liverpool

Nottingham ...... 17] Bridgnorth......
Woodford ....
Mansfield...

Abingdon ........ Goodwood ......
Ludlow ........
Kinneil

Marlborough...... Downhani Park... Lancaster .....

Duuninton........ 14 | Chelmsford ..... 22 Knutsford Worcester ...... Stamford ....... 15 | Guildford ....... 23

REGATTAS IN JULY. Thames Watermen ... 3 & 4 | Greenwich Watermen .... 21 | Royal Cornwall, Falmouth 23 Cliefden And Maidenhead.. 4 | Bankside (Southwark).... 21 | Royal Cork Yacht Club23 & Royal Thames Yateh Club 9 Fulham... iii...... 21 | Wapping.iiii.iiii..... Royal Mersey Yacht Club. 12 The Leander Coat & Badge, Weymouth Royal ..30 & 31 RoyalYorkshire Yacht Club, at Putney............. 92 RoyalYorkshire Yacht Club,

at Whilby ........10 & 17 | Gravesend and Milton .... 98 | on the Humber .... 31" &c,

THE RACING IN JUNE,

BY CRAVEN,

" By debitor and creditor.”

SHAKSPEARE.

The review of Epsom Races, in the last number of this periodical, concluded with an intimation, that on a future occasion they would claim some retrospective notes and queries. I now purpose to fulfil that promise. The two great meetings in May were those at Chester, and upon the Surrey Downs ; for though the former commenced in April, it terminated in the merry month.” Chester is essentially a provincial meeting-among the first of its class, no doubt ; still it is without the conditional characteristics which distinguish Newmarket, Ascot, Epsom, Goodwood, and Doncaster, from races dependent upon mere local interests. Newmarket is the rendezvous of the greatest racing club in the world. Ascot is å royal course : with à Palatial Stand, and royal and imperial endowments. Epson is the scene of the two greatest races run for on the face of the earth. Goodwood is the most princely pageant-take it for all in all — that perhaps the turf ever offered to men's eyes : and Doncaster

“Like the vase in which roses have once been distilled" lives, past, present, and to come, upon the prestige of the greatest saint's day in the (Book) Calendar-the St. Leger.

The pleasant provincial tryst on the banks of the Dee is now comprised in four days--a principle, indeed, of general adoption. In the present year it appealed to the patronage of the practical turfite--to the owner of race-horses—through the eloquence of a bonus of £1638—while in return its demand for "expenses" was limited to the modest figure of £85_leaving to the public credit a net sum of £1553-sterling. The items may thus be epitomized. On the first day £390 were added. and £35 subtracted. On the second day the addition was £418 and the abstraction-nil. On the third day £470 were given, and £35 were taken : and on the fourth day £360 were added, and £15 subtracted. Thus the ways and means of horse-racing profited by Chester Races to the amount of fifteen hundred and fifty-three pounds.

In reference to Epsom Races, in the season of 1851, there appeared the following paragraph in the “Times” newspaper, of Wednesday, May 21st :-"The list for the meeting shewed a vast improvement," = I presume upon preceding meetings-" with £975 added money"...... The expression certainly was vague. The source from which it emanated, however, was security for bona fides, and the conclusion to be drawn was that a sum of nine hundred and seventy-five pounds was contributed towards the funds or capital of the races, over and above the amount subscribed by the owners or nominators of horses engaged in the various stakes and sweepstakes. This I take to be the spirit of its meaning, albeit the letter is obscure. The turf, in short, would

have to credit the meeting to the amount specified : the bonus offered by the promoter or promoters of the races being £975 " added money," as aforesaid, which, it is fair to assume, had no connexion with subtracted money. I proceed to balance the Dr, and Cr, accounts of each of the four days.

Tuesday, May 20, 1851.—Epsom Races in Account with the Racing

Interest

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Total ... £300
Per Contra-DR.
Horton Stakes, to profit on sale of winner ...
To Manor Plate, 64 entrances at two sovereigns each
To Woodcote subtracted money ...
To Heathcote Plate, 26 entrances at two sovs. each ... 52

Total ... £191
Wednesday, May 21st :-

CR.
To Burgh Stakes " added money"
To Epsom Town Plate ditto ...
To Great Exhibition ditto ditto ...
To Carew Stakes ditto ...

::

Total ... £230
Per Contra-DR.
To The Derby, subtracted money
To Epsom Town Plate, 9 entrances at two soys. each
To Great Exhibition ditto, 31 entrances at two soys.

each

...

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Total ... £230
Thursday, May 22nd :-

CR.
To Durdans Stakes, “ added money"
To Grand Stand Plate,

ditto
To Cobham Plate,

ditto
To Aristocratic Plate, ditto
To Two-year-old Stakes ditto

Total ... £270
Per Contra-DR.
To Grand Stand Plate, subtracted money ...
To Cobham Plate, 20 entrances at two soys. each
To Aristocratic Plate, subtracted money ...

... 10 Total ... 260

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Total ... £175
Per Contra-DR.
To Railway Plate, 12 entrances at two soys. each ...
To Oaks Stakes, subtracted money
To Derby and Oaks Stakes, per profit on sale of winner
To Members' Plate, 5 entrances at two sovs. each
To Foreign Visitors' Plate, 31 entrances at two sovs.
each

... ... 62

Total ... £306
Credit for “ added money"
Debit for subtracted ditto

... 787

...

975

Balance to credit of Racing Interest, errors excepted... £188

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It is not easy to catch “ The Thunderer" napping ; but this its in. stance of “added money" amounts, I most respectfully submit, to a case of aliquando BONUS dormitat''- et cetera.

In the year 1851 the money contributed at Chester absolutely was fifteen hundred and fifty-three pounds ; at Epsom the “ added money," after striking the balance for deductions, was one hundred and fiftysight pounds-net.

Is not the contrast a startling one? and is it not something more than singular that notice of it has been neglected by the sporting papers? If the income of a Meeting have-or ought to have-any influence upon its expenditure, what manner of ratio should regulate the “ added money" at the places under consideration ? Is it not a ridiculously low average to assume, that for every crown which the four days at Chester brought to the exchequer, the four days in Surrey contributed sovereigns towards “ the funds” at Epsom? From how much more of the Downs were the public excluded this year than last? Is there any limit to the lines of enclosure as against carriage company and equestrians ? At Newmarket your chariot draws up alongside the ropes, free of all charge or hindrance : at Epsom, such a berth costs as much as your stall at the Opera. Not that I desire to contend against the abstract principle of paying for race-course accommodation or entertainment; but what I insist on is the reciprocity system. Thus apropos of the Opera-your manager of the Haymarket pays his dramatis personce, for appearing, out of his receipts ; while in such dainty Olympic conceits as our Epsom Manor Plate aforesaid, the field pays £128 for permission to run for £100 of its own. Imagine Mr. Lumley demanding two sovereigns a-piece from his corps-de-ballet, for liberty to come on in L'Isle des Amours !And in both cases, to all financial intents and purposes, the rationale of the compact is the same. Iris to the Oaks, is Carlotta Grisi to the “ Esmeraldi."

Passing the week which ended May and began June, with the mere mention of Harpenden Races-a day's sport full of excellent promise for the future - we will take up the racing of the past month as befits it with the precedence due to royalty. The courtly meeting on Ascot Heath commenced on the 3rd ult. Before we turn to the details of its pageantry and pastime, a brief allusion to its exchequer will not be out of place in this our finance statement. In consequence of the extension of the South-Western branch line to Windsor, and the refusal of its representatives to join the Great Western in their annual plate of £300, the Races suffered in exchequer to that amount. The “added money” was as follows:--First day, there was given £250without deduction of any kind. Second day added £375, together with the entrances of one sovereign each for the Windsor Town Plate, which went to the second in the race. Third day, the additions were £365, while, by the conditions of the Visitors' Plate, the “ funds" appropriated to the payment of the “ added money” benefited to the amount of £263. The fourth day-shorn of the Great Western Plate --only contributed £50. In addition to the specie, there were three pieces of plate, whose united value was ONE THOUSAND POUNDS, viz., the Emperor of Russia's Plate £500; Her Majesty's Gold Vase £300 ; and the Royal Hunt Cup £200. Thus the " added money" at the royal meeting was £1040, from which deducting the £263 for the Visitors' Plate, left the pet contributions to the meeting £777.

That the nature of the account current between the turf and the three great race-meetings thus adverted to may be clearly comprehended, the subjoined balance by debitor and creditor" is placed in juxtaposition......

AT CHESTER. “ Added money"

Subtracted money. 1638

£83

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£1777 net. Thus - all who run may read” that at Ascot the racing interest, in the present season, benefited to the amount of seventeen hundred and

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