4 35 7 9 41 5 50 6 5 2 S 3 Eleventh Sunday after Trinityr 4 29 6 25 6 40 r 4 38 910 13 7 07 20 7 T Royal Yacht Sq. Regatta, Cowes. 8 F Royal Welsh Regatta, Carnarvon. s 7 34 8 9 55 9 S 10 Twelfth Sundayafter Trinity, s 7 31 10 10 38 7 40 8 10 11 M Kent & Sus. v. All E., at Canterb. r 4 41 1111 17 12 T Grouse Sh. begins. Wolverh. R.s 7 27 12 Morning. 13 W 8 50 9 25 10 510 50 r 4 4413 0 1411 30 No tide 14 T Ludlow Races. Abingdon Races. s 7 2314 1 27 0 10 0 40 15 F Tunbridge Races. 16 S 17 r 4 48 15 RISES after noon 2 55 1 5 1 35 1 55 2 20 8 11 2 40 3 0 Thirteenth Sun. aft. Trinity, r 4 5117 18 MM. C. C. v. Sussex, at Brighton. s 7 1518 8 25 19 T Killarney Races. 20 W York Races. r4 5419 8 38 21 T Blackcock S. begins. Mersey Reg.r 4 22 F Royal Victoria Y. C. Boat Races. s 7 23 S Birkenhead Model Y. C. Regatta. r 5 24 Fourteenth Sun. aft. Trinity,s 25 M All England M. at Loughboro'r 5 26 T Torbay Regatta. Egham Races. s 6 27 W 28 T Teignmouth Regatta. 7 3 25 3 45 4 5 4 25 4 45 5 5 5 25 5 50 722 9 33 6 10 6 30 02310 5 6 55 7 20 22410 49 7 50 8 25 32511 49 9 59 55 5826 Morning. 10 40 11 25 r 5 727 0 59 No tide 0 5 s 6 5428 2 16 0 35 1 5 29 F Weymouth and Glasgow Regattas, r 5 1029 3 33 30 S 31 S Fifteenth Sunday aft. Trinity. r 5 13 1 7 18 1 30 1 50 210 2 30 2 45 3 0 THE OMNIBUS. "There he sat, and, as I thought, expounding the law and the prophets, until on drawing a little nearer, I found he was only expatiating on the merits of a brown horse."-BRACEBRIDGE HALL. July commenced the second half of the racing season with a more distinguished company at the New T. Y. C. post than have met there for many a day. Drumour was, it is true, only a 110 guinea purchase, but his trial had made them "fond," and in addition to the stale Lambourne, there was the 1,000-guinea Zuyder Zee, fine slashing but unprepared (as we hinted last month), and the 1,500-guinea Anton, whose handsome 1,200-guinea brother Danube is shortly, we hear, to sink to hunter's estate. The winner is rather a cross-bred one, as the saying is, being by Big Jerry or Weatherbit out of Elspeth, a somewhat crankytempered mare of Lord Eglinton's. Turbit was a pretty yearling to look at; and he is so now: but Dusty Miller is a very coarse roughand-ready style of gentleman. Theodora, owing to the Fyfield trouble, did not appear; and, by their dead-heat running at 6lbs. in the First Spring, Pit-a-Pat ought to have had her safe. The Chesterfield Stakes was one of those unusual turns-up, which will happen at intervals. The winner has long been an attraction on Middleham Moor, simply for his odd strawberry coat; but his only performance was a bad last to Commotion, out of fifteen at Epsom. It was strange to see an animal by so soft a horse as Hernandez (who was sold with Lanercost and two brood mares and a foal, by Mr. Kirby, for £1,500) and out of a fearfully soft mare, run out his dead heat so strong; but the Chevalier looked as if he had quite enough to do at Findon, and was a trifle dull. Anton did not raise his owner's hopes in the Match, though a third of the purchase-money came back through it, and it is plain that none of that family will touch their elder, Andover, who is, to our minds, the most racing-like horse to look at that Bay Middleton ever got. Mr. Dailey goes bravely on with his meeting, which he has reduced, in the teeth of the "Bungs," to two days, on Carlisle Swifts; but the two first races had three mishaps: Remedy lost a saddle cloth and Lord Zetland (for whom William Abdale seems to be getting some lucky mounts) gained a £38 stake thereby; while Charlton, who is always luckless, and a brother-silk, broke their collar bones by a fall at the last turn, which is a very ugly one for a ruck of horses to come round. The mistake of the jockeys of Warlock and King of the Gipsies, who received 24lbs. and 18lbs. respectively from Fisherman, took away no interest from the Cumberland Plate, as it ended in a head-and-head finish as in 1855, Warlock only beating Freddy, who received a year and 13lbs., by a neck. Such an overthrowing of weight considerations has not been seen this year. Goldhill was not so fortunate on the second day, as, after being slipped at a turn, he could not quite reach the long and narrow Heir of Lynne, whose sire Galaor was long in this neighbourhood, for the Queen's Guineas. The Cup is no longer run for here. In old times, it was fashioned in the true Gold Cup shape, and was year after year carried home in the family carriage of the Heron Maxwells to Springkell, by the aid of their Springkell or Fair Helen. The Earl, Canteen, Revolution, The Barber, Muley Moloch, Inheritor, The Doctor (who never got over having to run four miles for "The Guineas" when the Swifts were flooded) succeeded, and the line of winners ended with Lanercost. Death has sadly thinned the Border sportsmen, like Sir John Maxwell, General Sharpe, Mr. Ramsay, and others since those days, and hence the Cup became money, fell to three or four subscribers, and then merged in a handicap. The Worcester Meeting was a more spirited one in point of racing and fields. Gemma di Vergy, another jaw-cracker for the Ring, won the Two-year-old Stakes cleverly, and Saraband was alike successful for the Handicap, in a strong head-and-head finish, in which J. Goater, who, owing to Wells's inability to ride below 7st. 10lbs., now gets some good Findon mounts, handled him very ably. The fields were all good, and the late Mr. F. Clarke's name appeared for the last time in a racelist attached to the name of Lucy Lockit, who won the Bentinck Handicap. Mr. Clarke had, we believe, ailed for nearly two years, although he was constant throughout to his favourite sport, of which few were better judges, and none so well known by character and personally to foreign turfites. Mr. Feist, who also wielded the pen with no small power on behalf of the Turf, died within a few days of him. He was originally a school-master at Newmarket, where he was private tutor to Frank and William Butler and their cousins, William Chifney's sons, but the Turf jumped more with his humour than the ferule, and on the retirement of Mr. Ruff in 1853, he combined the office of sporting reporter with the racing editorship of the Sunday Times, which he had held for years. Owing to illness, which gradually sapped his fine stalwart frame, these duties have for some time past principally devolved on his son and son-in-law. He was a thorough sportsman at heart, and no one was ever more ready to do a kind turn to all those with whom even his acquaintance, as it was with us, was only of a slight kind. Liverpool is one of those meetings which seems to have lost all its ancient fire, and even £1,350 of added money does not restore it. The low handicapping scale has sunk it as much as anything, and it is pitiful to compare what the Cup is now-only one animal carrying more than 6st. 8lbs. this year-with the days when General Chassé, Inheritor, Velocipede, and Birdlime were winners in its lists, at all weights from 8st. 8lbs. to 9st. 4lbs., and when we never dreamt of a field of less than twelve or fourteen. Happily, it seems that Mr. Topham has agreed to adopt the Newmarket 8st. 12lbs. raising rule; and if he had not done so, we trust he would have received a potent hint from his Knowsley and other Jockey Club supporters. Saving Bartholemew and Alfred Day, who had one mount a-piece, not a single senior jockey rode at the meeting. The Dusty Miller made very short work of Sprig of Shillelah and Apathy, and considering he was only seventh at Newmarket, the leaders there must be a fair form at last. Oltenitza could not stay a second strong-run race for the Lancashire Oaks, and Early Bird seems now to suffer as much from a vile temper as from bad legs. Typee did not like the hill in the Cup, and really Pretty Boy's running, in the absence of staying powers among the three-year-olds, is such that he would have infused a strong spirit into the betting for the St. Leger, if he had figured in it. Goldhill (who had cantered over everything at Stourbridge on the Monday) had the most slashing race of the meeting with Lance for the Queen's Plate; Blink Bonny pursued her winning way; Rotterdam had a rear view of Sprig of Shillelah's broken tail in their match; Paletot turned the last year's tables on to Simony; and Bonnie Scotland ran the Doncaster course distance in good time, 3 min. 21 secs., but did not attract the slightest notice for the St. Leger, as it seems doubtful whether his legs will stand a regular preparation. Nottingham Moor had by no means a very jovial anniversary, and Madame Clicquot, who is little more than a half-miler, was unable to give 3lbs. to the Ma Mie colt, who was fifth for the July, over the T. Y. C. Newmarket, one of the late Mr. Peter Allix's breeding, and for some time in Jim Robinson's hands, made strong running in the handicap for Pretty Boy, who finished only a head in front of Typee, the victrix of last year. However, the old mare had plenty left in her for the next day, when she gave Yorkshire Grey 35lbs. and a beating. How seldom we see a Touchstone mare running on; but here is one rising seven, who with 8st. and a mile-and-a-half not up hill takes a load of licking. She has now done nearly as much for the Chesterfield colours as pretty little Lady Wildair did. The handsome Magnifier stayed at home, and Gemma di Vergy, who was bought originally for 105 gs. at Palmer's sale, divided the Bunney Park Stakes with Remedy on the second day. If there be not some mistake in the reporter's figures, Ashmall rode 7st. 8lbs. on the Tuesday, and could not go to scale under 7st. 12lbs. on the Wednesday, an increase of weight in 24 hours which seems wholly fabulous. The directors of Stamford set their faces against making the slightest concession to Nottingham, and would not shift to Thursday and Friday. Poor Teddy Sharpe joined the list of the wounded, and the number of horses increased from 13 to 24, and thus the meeting presented a very pleasant contrast to last year. Imperieuse, the crack 480-guinea yearling of the Royal Sale (1855), won her two races easily here in one day. Apathy was beaten any distance in the latter of the two, and thanks to the 8st. 12lbs. raising rule, the Burghley Stakes was kept out of the hands of "feathers." Melissa, whose loss of the Oaks for lack of riding was the dullest thing Isaac Day was ever guilty of, ran gamely and well, and beat Goldhill at 5lbs. over the 24 miles, and this crack fell again next day when giving 3lbs. to Pretty Boy for the Cup, while Fisherman, who had won fifteen races this year up to that date, avenged him over Melissa (who carried 2lbs. overweight) by a head in the three-quarters of a mile Welland Stakes. Let Mr. Parr be defeated as you like, he is always certain to take away his expenses from a meeting. After a three years' respite, Hereford once more became a race town with £500 of added money and a good attendance of horses. Lord Clifden's colours were in the ascendant with the Nat-bred Nathan, and although he received a stone and was beat half-a-length from Speed the Plough, the only horse that ever conquered West Australian, he won The City Cup and The Victualler's Handicap next day, one after the other, in "The Vicar's" hands. Chelmsford has well rewarded Mr. Merry's pains; and the meeting came in very opportunely during the lull which succeeded The Great Agricultural Show, and all its Master Butterfly (the Bay Middleton of the "Herd Book ") and British Yeoman attractions. Little Tom (late Corybantes) opened the ball by winning a Selling Plate, and was bought in again (we wonder how often that makes!), leaving £25 for the fund ; and the 720-guinea Polestar, whose name will live in the causes celebrés of our courts, pulled through, with not much to spare, for the Chelmsford Handicap. Strange that two of Palmer's late horses should be winning here one after another. Gemma di Vergi is, we believe, the last of the Sir Hercules get; and he seems determined not to disgrace the name of the old Whalebone black. Winkfield picked up the Queen's Guineas, and Pembdyw, who ran second to him, had the same luck at Ipswich on the Friday, where Middleton bolted at the end of a quarter of a mile. Lancaster knocked up a fair one-day meeting, where old Alonzo was first for the Cup (which did credit to the new handicapper), but could not overhaul Launce for the Guineas. Knutsford was distinguished by the rout of the Puritans, who have come out alarmingly since Palmer's decease with their banners and their race-course preaching; and Marlborough witnessed Gemma di Vergi an easy winner again, and a strong dispute about the identity of Aladdin. Goodwood's opening day made up in quality what it lacked in quantity, and presented a perfect string of winners in its return lists. John Osborne must be sadly short of trying-tackle, or else he could hardly have failed to find out that Manganese's forte does not extend to distance. Fazzoletto looked showy and went splendidly, and certainly a more perfect specimen of a slashing St. Leger horse we have never yet seen. Middleham still makes some demonstration for Ellington, but he must be content to follow the conventional ante-Voltigeur fate of so many Derby winners over Doncaster Moor. Nothing would please the racing world better than to see the colours of Lord Derby, who has stuck by them through evil and good report, when so many of his order have turned faint-hearted, at last winning the great race of the North. Ayacanora's victory in the Ham was also an earnest of good things for Lord Portsmouth, who gave a slashing price for her (600 gs.) at the Burleigh sale last year, as Zuyder Zee, who will be a very delicate horse to train, could not quite get up. The contest was thus reduced to a match between the produce of Pocahontas and Barbelle, the two most successful brood mares we have; and few will now be found to think that Lord Exeter greatly over-valued the former when he bought her in. Such a tryst of two-year-old winners as met in the Lavant Stakes is uncommonly rare, and it is a mystery why John Scott thought so little of Impérieuse when he brought her to Stamford. This race makes her about 7lbs. worse than Lambourn, who is, we think, the best two-yearold form of the year so far; and the Lavant leaders must have some form about them when Fast Day, Nougat, and Pomona had to whip in. The Four-year-old Stakes has sunk back again to nothing, and we look with regret to the days when Van Tromp, The Flying Dutchman, Newminster, and West Australian made this race a sort of conventional seal to their great three-year-old doings. Of the Cup day we shall speak more in detail next month; and although the meeting, as far as it has gone at this date, makes us remember with a twinge how the Kents shipped some forty horses during the week, and "gave a leg up" to Nat in the "sky blue," or the "yellow jacket with red cap and gold |