being backed at 2 to 1 on him (or more if you would take it), it will be conceived that the field was rather select. Four started-with one view or another-Foreclosure to make running (his forte is second fiddle playing) for the crack." This he did to the fall of the Swinley Mile, when he stopped, and off went the Hero

"As darts the dolphin from the shark"

-down the incline to demolish the pair that toiled after him-in vain. He won as he liked. Passing the mile-post, Flatcatcher went up, because Alfred Day pulled his horse; but as to living with the Hero, as he now is, or rather as he then was, that's what nothing in horseflesh can do in these days-at weight for age penalty. The winner

is said subsequently to have presented this magnificent prize to one who " helped him in his need." Surely never was the reward of victory and honourable fortune turned to more gracious purpose For a Sweepstakes of 50 sovs., for three-year-olds, Swinley Course, three went; whereof Glendower was much the best. The judge gave him the race by three lengths: good horses pay: that's worth even a turfite's notice-if only it keep him out of the ring. The most important of the early two-year-old trials followed-the New Stakesthirty-eight nominations, and seven runners. They laid all but even that Garrick (one of Mr. Green's trumps-if he don't have them dealt, he takes " miss"), won; and so he did, by a length. Robinson rode him, and made all the running: there can be no mistake about that. The Visitor's Plate (cleven runners) Robinson again won, on Footstool. That master of his art never was in more finished force than this season. His style never had a rival; his grace in the saddle has always been its own parallel: of his science it would ill become me to write. The Stand Plate-half a dozen competitors-Lady Lurewell-a remarkable, nice little lady-won" easily by a neck," as the verdict recorded. By the articles she was to be claimed for £100, which seemed a dead bargain. And here, talking of prices, I cannot avoid mentioning what occurred to me the other day on the walking side of Regent-street, where mostly men do congregate who bear about tiny dogs for disposal to the superfluous of sympathy and small change: "Let me sell you this here little spannel," said a youth in velveteen and a villanous face; 66 you shall have him cheap. I can put him in at half-a-crown a pound." FRIDAY mustered a fair show of the profession, and some of the neighbouring gentry; but London failed to "pour forth her citizens." My space, moreover, warns me that I must epitomise. Flatcatcher having walked over for a 50-sovs. Sweepstakes (seven subscribers), Cossachia (one of the worst of the outsiders) won the Wokingham in a field of seventeen. Three Hundred Sovereigns, given by the Great Western Railway Company, Vampire carried off from nine antagonists; and the Bishop of Romford's Cob did the like with the Extra Class of the Wokingham, beating half a dozen, badly. The Borough Members' Plate brought the meeting to its finale. Pic-nic won it in a canter; and, having been claimed for £150, the curtain fell upon Ascot Races1848.

The revival of Beverley Races is a fact that we have only room to allude to with all the satisfaction, however, that such restorations demand and deserve. Hungerford Races, too, occurred about this time

a merry revel, but not a tryst for sterling turfites. And how am I to deal with Hampton?......The character of the sport might save it from notice here; but, in justice to those who make it their especial place of rendezvous for a holiday, where best of all the suburban neighbourhoods a holiday may be enjoyed, I cannot refrain from quoting the views of it expressed by a competent authority, and one whose record is true:

"What with low diet and unskilful treatment, this meeting has for some time been in a very languishing state, insomuch that its best friends, despairing of recovery, are almost inclined to wish it out of its misery. It is possible, however, that the change of doctors or a more generous treatment may do good. The experiment is worth trying, for it is quite impossible that the patient can survive under the present management. To quit metaphor, the lessees have starved the races almost to death; and unless they are transferred to other hands, or a widely different system adopted, the sooner they are given up the better. To expect that the Queen's Plate will be continued unless something be done, is to pay her Majesty's representatives a bad compliment."

May another season bring about better things on the pleasant Hurst of Moulsey!

I have already spoken at some length of the principle of getting up Here is another modern instance of the working of the

race-courses.

system :"Manchester as it is, and Manchester as it was, offer the most remarkable contrast which racing affairs have presented. Some other places have gone on step by step in improvement, and each change has prepared us for the next, but here the transition from the worst to the best has been so sudden that it seems almost magical. We should think it would have been impossible in the whole compass of England to find anything worse than the Manchester course, the Manchester stand, the Manchester regulations, and the Manchester management, as they were a very short time ago, and it would be difficult to find any thing better than they are now.

Let John Bull alone, and so soon as he is satisfied that something really requires being done he does it, should the result promise him profit or pleasure. That one of the leading race meetings of the kingdom has been permanently established at Manchester, is now beyond a question. This, or very little more, must serve our present notice of it. Mr. Green was the cynosure of observance: he won with his two-yearolds and his three-year-olds, Swiss Boy beating Peep-o'-day-Boy for the Great Handicap, and represented triumphantly his native town in the parliament of Olympus. The issues had no influential prospective effect, or, at all events, but little. For this cause they may more conveniently be spared. The same may be said of Sutton Park-a meeting that once promised better than has come to pass. Let them get rid of their abundance of " heats"—that is the first step of turf reform in modern times.

Tuesday, the 20th ult., was the commencement of the sporting anniversary at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Four days seem rather many for a strictly provincial meeting; but your northerns are gluttons of racing, and they actually applied for its extension. Many of the best horses of the day ran here, and again-is it not of course?-Mr. Green was in the ascendant. Here, as almost everywhere else, the chief feature

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It was

is a monster handicap. The Northumberland Plate is a great betting and sweeping and lottery-instigating race: this year it commanded very heavy investments, and interest in ratio with the capital. There was no pot" for it, indeed, but considerable betting round and hedging to good" draws," and all the minutiae of dabbling in the odds which mark the taste of the day. The winner was Chanticleer. The Curragh has sent forth its host of champions during latter years. formally announced on Thursday that in future Newcastle Races would commence on Monday, the ground for this addition being a guarantee on the part of the petitioners that the sum of "one thousand pounds should be forthcoming for the use and beltoof of the meeting. Bibury Club was shorn of some of its éclât by the absence of the noble steward, who had taken flight to Holland, to be present at the hawking at Loo; and Stockbridge did not put forth much attraction. A few country races closed the third week of June, and the last was a blank, as regarded racing of any account. The present month will begin with the Newmarket midsummer movement, proceeding through a goodly catalogue, to finish with Goodwood. May the end crown the hope!

SURPLICE;

WINNER OF THE DERBY, 1848.

ENGRAVED BY E. HACKER, FROM A PAINTING BY HARRY HALL.

On something the same understanding as that great legal authority which declares every man innocent until he is found guilty, it is admitted as an indisputable maxim in turf practice, that no race is won till 'tis over. Let health, power, and fair-play stand by the crack ever so stedfastly, there are chances, or rather mis-chances, to meet even to the end. Nay! the nearer the event approaches a decision, the greater and less to be guarded against do these dire possibilities become. Let Kent have timed him to that acmè of condition at which it is said no horse can remain more than eight-and-forty hours together: let Lord George have confirmed the fact, and pronounced him “ as fit as a fiddle:" let Sim have taken a taste of him over the New Course, and already booked a run on for his fortunes: let Leadbeater have completed the care and éclât of this occasion with his portly presence, and thenwhat then? After all the party getting so capitally on, who shall say but their hope may get badly off? Consider that in drawing up under Mr. Hibburd's directions, one straight clean lash out from a physical force opponent may lame him for life! or some other brute, with better pins and a stouter heart, go just one stride longer at last, when the race ought virtually to have been even at the corner! Consider all the mis-chances of the last few seasons from Nat being knocked off Alarm to Frank Butler rolled over with Pam on him. Remember how the safest of jockeys have occasionally drawn it a little too fine, or the gamest of horses cut it a little too soon. Put that and that together, ye gentles of Belgravia, who, but a few weeks since, took the round of

first foal, that superior race-horse at two and three years old, Cowl, by Bay Middleton; in 1845, the present first favourite for the Goodwood Stake, Crozier, by Lanercost; missed to Sheet Anchor in 1843, and hit the happy cross to Touchstone in 1845.

Surplice is a dark bay horse with very black legs, standing rather more than sixteen hands and an inch high; he has strong muscular quarters, immense thighs, good back, but with rather loose back ribs ; deep in the girth, with fine oblique clean shoulders. He has large arms, a rather straight neck, and lean head, with a deep jowl tapering towards the nose. From the height he stands, and the way in which he is furnished throughout, Surplice strikes the spectator at once as a very fine specimen of the power and symmetry possessed by the thorough-bred horse. Like most good ones, he is quiet and sluggish in the extreme until once roused, when he is said to show very high courage, though we question whether extreme gameness be amongst his most prominent virtues.

There is one remarkable feature in the pedigree of Surplice, as coupled with great superiority of performance, that we may point out more on "the odd coincidence" principle, than perhaps for any other good showing. He was got by Touchstone, and he won the Leger; out of Crucifix, and she won the Oaks; Crucifix, by Prian, and he won the Derby! Thus numbering the winners of the three great races in his three nearest of kin-a fact that, on the argument of a son of the soil we once heard declaiming, must have alone ensured his success. friend, the agriculturist, had just bought a mare by Emilius, "and," said he, with much emphasis, Emilius won the Derby; her dam, by Phantom, and he won the Derby; I am going to have her covered by Bay Middleton, and he won the Derby; and it must be d- -d odd if her produce don't win the Derby!

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Our

Friend Sneer might say it's d―d odd if he does, but that's neither here nor there in the history of the hero who did.

PERFORMANCES.

In 1847, Surplice, then two years old, first appeared on the home circuit at Goodwood, where ridden by Flatman, and carrying 3 lbs. more than anything else in the race, he won the Ham Produce Stakes of 100 sovs. each, h. ft., over the T.Y.C., beating Mr. Dawson's Liston (2), Mr. Day's Anglia (3), Lord Chesterfield's Distaffina (4), Col. Anson's Contessa (5), and Lord Eglinton's Astrea (6). Seven to four on Surplice, who won very easily by two lengths.

At the same meeting, ridden by Flatman, he won another Produce Stakes, of 300 sovs. each (8 subs.), over last three quarters of a mile of the Maidstone Course, beating Mr. Dixon's Hope (2), Lord Glasgow's Clerk of the Council (3), and Mr. Mostyn's Loadstone (4). Three to one on Surplice, who won in a canter by three lengths.

At Doncaster, ridden by Flatman, he won the Municipal Stakes of 200 sovs. each, h. ft. (10 subs)—Red House in-beating Sir R. W. Bulkeley's Miss Orbell. High odds on Surplice, who won in a canter by two lengths.

At Newmarket first October Meeting, he received forfeit in the Buckenham Stakes of 300 sovs. each, h. ft. (3 subs.), T.Y.C. Mr. Wreford paying only 100 forfeit.