1 Fourteenth Sunday af, Trinityr 5 1425 44 26 r 5 17 27 morn. | aftern. h. m. h. m. 8 20 9 5 Morning. 0 15 9 4510 25 1 2211 1011 45 s 6 4028 2 36 No tide 0 20 Rochester Races r 5 2029 3 57 0 50 1 20 Bungay Races 8 6 35 N SETS 4 W Barnet Fair 5 T Lincoln Races. 6 F Barnet Races. 1 45 2 5 afternoon. 7 S r 5 23 17 28 2 30 2 55 8 Fifteenth Sunday af. Trinity's 6 30 9 M Cr.-Eng. v. Bradford, at Brad. r 5 17 11 W Leicester R. Totness Races. Lynnr 5 30 12 T Abingdon R. Dover R. [Racess 6 21 13 F 14 S Ashby-de-la-Zouch Fair 811 14 7 30 8 0 15 Sirteenth Sunday af. Trinityr 5 36 9 Morning. 16 M Cr.-Eng. v. Sussex, at Brighton's 6 12 10 0 22 Sebenteenth Sun. af, Trinitys 5 5816 23 M Cr.-Eng. v. Louth, at Louth 24 T Bedford R. Sandbach R. 25 W Howden Horse Fair afternoon. 6 48 0 50 1 10 1 30 1 45 2 5 2 20 2 35 2 50 7 11 3 5 3 20 r 5 49 17 s 5 5418 7 36 3 40 3 55 26 T Manchester Races. Margate Re. s 5 4920 8 37 4 45 5 5 27 F Cirencester Races 28 S r 5 5521 9 18 5 20 5 40 s 5 5422 10 7 6 0 6 25 29 Eighteenth Sunday ak. Trinityr 5 59 23 11 30 M Scarborough Races THE RACING IN AUGUST. BY CRAVEN. "Sic laudamus equum, facilis eni plurima palma JUVENAL-Sat. viii. The great Olympic tryst-which commenced on the 30th of July, and extended over the two first days of the past month-stands, and most appropriately, at the head of the Racing in August." It was the forty-eighth anniversary of Goodwood Races: was it also the climax of their fortunes? That its advent was flat and unprofitable cannot be gainsaid. That its progress lacked the order and eclat once the characteristic of that meeting, is a point upon which opinion was unanimous. Was this a natural consequence of culmination? and, as many an inauspicious augury declared, is the star of Goodwood on the wane? The locale of this princely pleasure resort is to the reader of these pages "familiar as household words." Again and again it has been my gracious office to speak of it as prodigal of beauties, met with in no other domain in England: "Their praise is hymn'd by loftier harps than mine." For this reason the occasion at issue requires but a brief preface. Would it had been of better promise...... London has begun to leave town at the date of the great Sussex Meeting, and the adjacent watering-places were ready with their tribute. Cavalcades of cockneys, rampant from the brine, and ravenous for anything dissimilar to their accustomed course of life, were "up and at" it. The provinces purvey their quota of the curious in courtly pastimes. Caledonia comes to sun herself by the pleasant Wight, and Erin sends her sons with their "saddle-bridle," and now and then a smart nag to boot-"Whack! rowdy dow"...... Thus you see there is "fun in the country," when things get slow in the capital; and there was hardly a site whereon its disciples took more delight to congregate than the velvet downs which sweep in flowery freedom hard by the noble home of the Lennox. Why do I speak of this in the past tense?...... Tuesday the 30th, as aforesaid, dawned cheerfully for this weeping summer; but the social atmosphere at and around Chichester, if not absolutely gloomy, was anything but such as compliments a festival. Arriving at the course, you felt "what a falling off was there:" you missed the marshalling of the master hand; and you met those whose presence called to your thought Byron's "What business had they there at such a time?" On every hand prevailed denunciations which related to the unsettled state of the betting market. Among the eminently "scarce" are said to be the dealers in "lists" and "sweeps"-those who "sold doves!" Chance comforted me with one who had just fallen into the clutches of the Philistines-that is to say, who had run against a brace of creditors ."It's no use," ejaculated the debtor, anticipating the interrogatory-" It's of no use: I aint got it; isn't that enough!" Per Contra Creditores. "Enough!"-and here they lifted up their lungs like a wilderness of famishing wolves: "Enough, and something to spare! It's too much, ye cannibal! Where's the money we paid you to lay us the odds, ye man-eater? Give it back, or we'll have the marrow out of your bones!" whereupon they deposited him on the sward, with his stern to the daisies. I've only got three sovereigns!" cried the supine......" Catch a hold of his choker, and give it a twist or two!" shouted Creditor No. 1 to Creditor No. 2. "Four!" uttered a gasp. Try another squeeze, Bill !"......I thought it was now time to be gone, and as I hastened from the scene of action I heard in the direction of the spot I had left, the word "Five!" hissed out in the last agonies of strangulation...... Still, albeit there was matter for objection, there was much to admire and to eulogise. The Grand Stand is the beau ideal of such a 66 messuage. The centre and cynosure of a most miscellaneous association, still no sound or sight of offence frights its fair company from their propriety. Its motto is "Procul a procul este profani," extending the application as well to the ring within, as to the ragamuffins without. The lawn, or parterre, or whatever it is pleased to call itself, which skirts the building to the south, is as private and exclusive as the most ultra fastidious could require, No course in England presents an ensemble so becoming, so distinguished for hilarious decorum, and the absence of all boisterous and objectionable license and disorder, as that of Goodwood. Foul folks resort to it, no doubt-unclean creatures, that scent the prey afar off-vultures implumes. But they do not practice their obscene calling "before high heaven" as at Ascot-the field of the cloth of gold," appointed for interviews between the sovereign and the subject of this land. I write it far more in sorrow than in anger, but I write it in sad earnestness; and the hope that so crying a scandal may be abated. Rarely, if ever, have I attended a meeting upon the Royal Heath, at which I did not hear and see that which has made my blood freeze for shame of my species...... 66 "Now for our mountain sport." The bell has rung, and the course has cleared itself the metropolitan "police" do not keep the ground here; and the only persons scen to encumber it are its proper constables. The curtain draws up for the conventional Craven Stakes-the prelude here and elsewhere, with slight exception. This chicken handicap-the stake being but "a fiver"-with £50 added, 9 subscribers, brought out eight, Cariboo, the favourite, at 2 to 1 against him. The line run over-the Craven Course. In front lay Woodlark, clear of her horses, till they drew near home, when Tommy Lye brought up the Maid of Team Valley, attended by Cariboo. The Maid, however, was the best, and beat the Derby nag by half a length. Post Sweepstakes of 300 sovs. each, h. ft., for three-year-olds, &c., &c. Craven Course. 3 subs. For this, which was run a match, between Bee-hunter and Nutshell, they backed the former at 2 to 1. I copy the return from the Sheet Calendar of the 7th ult. : "Lord H. G. Lennox's The Bee-Hunter Lord Exeter's Nutshell.... ... 1 2" "Won easily by fifteen lengths." Now is this meant literally? Is it intended to convey as a fact that the distance between the horses as they passed the post was not fourteen lengths; neither sixteen lengths; nor any geometrical part or parcel of space, but only fifteen lengths? By what process was the interval-if the term may be applied to material quantity-which separated them calculated? What is a length? ......Here I laid down my pen, and went over "The Laws and Practice of Horse-Racing" for an answer, beginning at page 1, and finishing at page 127-for there's no index to the book, the more's the pity. Captain Rous hasn't a syllable about it. The Racing Calendar is in a similar category. It furnishes the "Lengths of the Newmarket and other Courses," but not a word concerning "lengths" in reference to the relative positions of horses in a race. This is written in no carping spirit; but now is the wide-awake era of the turf. We are fast coming to half-pounds, and probably ounces, in our handicap system. It wont do for the sober calendar to speculate in the myths of space. Imagine the effect of "won easy by fifteen lengths!" on some honest matter-offact clerk of a county course preparing to handicap Nutshell for the Town Plate......" Let's see? my wig! fifteen lengths! why that's a distance and a half, or thereabouts. I'll stick 'un in at a feather."...... The Innkeeper's Plate of 50 sovs., &c., &c., T.Y.C., mustered eight at the post. The filly by Cowl, out of Calandine, was at even against the field, and all the others were at odds of one sort or other, save Meridian, a German, the property of Count Hahn. The despised, however, speedily opened the eyes of the talents by taking the lead, keeping it, and winning in a canter, "by four lengths." I write by the Calendar. The Lavant Stakes, 50 sovs. each, 30 ft., for two-year-olds, half a mile, 16 subscribers. This afforded a quartet; the odds 5 to 2 on Sir Joseph Hawley's filly by Bay Middleton, out of Venus. It was rather a close thing between the favourite and Turtle, the latter winning between the stand and home, by half a length. A slice of luck for the Goodwood Stable. The Gratwicke Stakes, of 100 sovs., h. ft., for three-year-olds, a mile-and-a-half, 38 subscribers, was run for by half-a-dozen. Hardinge at 5 to 4, ied in the market, and probably had the effect of making the field as select as it was. The race, however, was all one way, and that not the "line" counted on. Musician took a steady lead, ran a steady speed, and won cleverly by a length-Hardinge being the second; Deicoon" boots." His was the "coon" they made the shindy about at Epsom. The Ham Stakes, of 100 sovs., h. ft., for two-year-olds, &c., T.Y.C., 36 subscribers. Half-a-score shewed for this pretty bit of picking one of the Goodwood team, Hernandez, being the best liked, at 7 to 4 against him. This was a sort of Derby trial, on a small scale, and so forth-"the less said the soonest mended." They also backed Bonnie Dundee at 5 to 1, Black Sea at 6 to 1, the Ban ditto, 7 to 1 Coticula, 8 to 1 Knook Knoll, Anspach ditto, 10 to 1 Christina 66 nothing else mentioned. As customary with the Exeter colours, blue and white stripe floated in the van. Phlegra, for so the noble marquis's filly is called, went off in front, and finished there, beating the favourite by a head, and Bonnie Dundee the same distance behind the second. This was the race, as regarded excitement, of the day. A Sweepstake, of 300 sovs., for four-year-olds, h. ft.-the owner of the second received back his stake-course about three miles five furlongs, twelve subscribers. This came off a match between the Flying Dutchman, his last appearance upon any course, and Vatican-12 to 1 on the Dutchman. I need hardly say he won by ten lengths" according to the Calendar. It was the opinion of many good judges that Lord Eglinton's Flyer could have distanced his adversary as easily as he beat him. It would have been a brilliant finish of a racing career, without any modern parallel. Moreover, it would have been £300 in his noble master's pocket. Case No. 2, in the book calendar, has no reference to the conditions of this race, which are "the owner of the second horse to receive back his stake." Had Vatican been distanced there would have been no second horse-consequently, no deduction from the stakes. Henrietta beat Chaplet, both two-year-olds, the winner receiving 3 lbs. a match, T.Y.C., for 100 sovs., by three lengths; and the Bognor Stakes, not having filled, the day's sporting list was brought to an end. Wednesday was a fair but not a fine day-what is summer without sunshine? The surpassing view which, in clear weather, is spread before those who look from the downs of Goodwood was shut up in a dense mist, (and the prospect was mist,) by those who anticipated a survey of the gorgeous panorama. The attendance was a very low average compared with former years-but mutability is life's moral-well is it for such as read it to their learning. The list contained nine events, of which seven "came off," as the phrase goes. The sport was very complex, commencing with a sweepstake of 100 sovs. each, h. ft., for three-year-olds-one mile; five subscribers. This was disposed of by permitting The Bee-hunter to draw his stake, and Mildew to receive the remaining three forfeits. Match for 300 sovs. aside, h. ft., Lord Henry Lennox's William the Conqueror, with 6 to 4 on him, beat Sir Robert Pigot's Moultan by three lengths. The Stewards' Cup, of 300 sovs. value, added to a Handicap Sweepstakes of 5 sovs., T.Y.C., 41 subscribers. This was a race for a very beautiful trophy, besides £205 in sterling money. The field was a monster one, five-and-twenty to the post! There was a good lot backed, the favourite being a German bred horse, high Turnus's, at 3 to 1 against him-short odds about a foreigner. The ceremony of starting was very imposing, and very ably managed, the field getting off as a well drilled troop of dragoons dash into the charge. As they passed the stand, going out, the favourite took the lead at a business-like pace-in like manner he cleared it coming home, winning by three lengths. A sweepstakes of 10 sovs. each, with fifty added, for three-year-olds and upwards-Craven Course-three subscribers, prob pudor !-Quiver won, 5 to 2 on her, and then came the race of the day, if not indeed of the meeting, the Goodwood Stakes. It is hardly necessary here to detail the et cætera of this event. There were 139 subscribers, and a muster of seventeen at the post. The odds were 5 to 4 on Windischgratz! so that the nature of the speculation |