FIXTURES.

August 14, 16, and 18— C.J.O. Grand National Meeting. THE ENGLISH DERBY. DESCRIPTION OF THE RACE. English papers to hand by the last mail say that the Derby of 1906 proved a rare puzzle to the prophets of the turf, and a regular knock down for ante-post spectators. During the winter, most money was behind Mr Purefoy's Lally, but his Newmarket Stakes running made him out to be little if anything, in front of the Carbine colt Ramrod, or the Two Thousand Guineas winner Gorgos. These, in turn, were shown to be' about oh a par with Gingal Sarcelle, and Sancy. while the queer tempered Black Arrow's victory in the Payne Stakes made him look like being dangerous to the best of them, if caught in a racing humour. Then there was half a dozen more or lees dark horses, apparently fancied by their connections, to reckon with, including Major Eustace Loder's Spearmint, a Carbine colt, whose two year old performances make him out only to be moderate, but who was said to have trained in a remarkable fashion, and then tried with the famous mare Pretty Polly, not only made her gallop all the way, but bested her at the finish. If the trial was made on anything like proper weight for age lines, this made Spearmint out to be something of a " dead certainty," but though backed with any amout of confidence by his stable connection, " Old Jack's "|son's reputed performance with Polly was taken with many grains of salt by the general public, and it was not until the last five days before the race that the horße found favour with the general run of people, and threatened Lolly's position as favourite. Meanwhile Gingal and Ramrod — the two other Carbine colts engaged — had been scratched, as also had a particularly dangerous candidate in Sir Daniel Cooper's filly Friar, winner of One Thousand, and Spearmint's stable companion. The filly, ion book form, had the measure of nearly all the colts engaged, and had all kept well with her, Spearmint would have been reserved for the Grand Prix de Paris, for which race he was being especially prepared. Other favored candidates were Mr Heinemann'g Malua— named after the Australian flyer, which won the Melbourne Cup, the Australian Cup, the Adelaide Cup, the Newmarket Handicap, the V.R.C. Grand National, and other good raced — Beppo and His Eminence, whilst a few loyal subjects pinned their faith to the King's " dark " candidate Nulli Secundus, concerning which we heard some wonderful tales a couple of weeks ago. These tales, alas, had no foundation in fact, for Nulli Secundus belied his name in his trial, and disgraced himself in the race. When the field mustered, 22 strong, at the post on Wednesday last, the atmospheric conditions were absolutely perfect. King and Prince Christian were present, and the crowd on the hill broke all previous records. It was a case of " black acres of humanity." The betting at the start was 4 to 1 Lally, 6 to 1 Spearmint, Bto 1 Malua and Sancy, 10 to 1 Gorgos, 100 to 7 Black Arrow, 18 to 1 Picton and His Eminence, 25 to 1 Sarcelle, White Knight, Beppo, and Radium, 33 to 1 Troutbeck, 50 to 1 Nulli Secundus, and from 66 to 1 to 100 to 1 against the rest. The start for the great race was delayed a little by the antics of Black Arrow and the favorite, and when the gate did go up Prince William was left j at the post. At a ripping pace, Troutbeck made play from Spearmint, but soon an outsider, the Slipaway colt, tried to justify his name, and heading Spearmint tried to take the lead, but Picton shot past him, and half a mile from the start, ran to the head of affairs. The pace was now a cracker, and the field rapidly commenced to string out. The leader's closest attendants at this juncture were Spearmint, Minos, Malua,. Beppo, and Sancy, these being well clear of the rest. Approaching Tattenham Corner, Troutbeck was sent to the front, and swung round the famous bend a couple of lengths abreast of Picton, with His Eminence third, and Spearmint galloping along just behind. So the leaders ran till a quarter of a mile from the winning post, when Danny Maher gave Carbine's son " the office " to get home as soon as possible. The colt responded in splendid style, and swiftly cutting down those in front of him, assumed the lead. Running his race out in a determined fashion, Spearmint increased the gap at every stride, and finally won amiduproarous applause by a length and a half from Picton, which beat Troutbeck by a couple of lengths for second honours. Radium close up, was fourth, and Malua next, but the favorite, Lally, was " down the field," and the Kingfe horse crawled in last, fully. 300 yards behind the winner. The time of the race was 2inin 36 4-ssec, which is a record for the race, the previous best having been Cicero's 2min 39 2-ssec, last year. Pretty Polly, however, won the Coronation Cup over the same distance last year, in the wonderful time of 2min 33 4-ssec. Spearmint, a bay colt by Carbine out of Maid of the Mint (MinsterWarble), bred by Sir Tatton Sykes, was purchased by Major Loder as a yearling for 300gns. The first time out as a 2-year-old, he won the Great Foal Plate of £835, at Lingfield Park Summer Meeting. At Derby, last September, the colt finished second to Black Arrow m the Champion Breeders' Foal Stakes, but at the Houghton Meeting at headquarters, he was unplaced in the Richmond Nursery Handicap. Spearmint had not appeared in public this season prior to his Derby outing. He is not engaged in the St. Leger, and has liabilities in half a dozen rich stakes to be decided during the current season.