THE ASCOT MEETING.

The Duke of Portland's strangely-named .303, son of Carbine, ran in the Coventry Stakes on the first day, and whipped in the whole way. Persimmon's brother, Diamond Jubilee, owned by the Prince of Wales, also made his debut in this event, and on the strength of a good home trial he was made favourite, but lie showed much greenness and delayed the start considerably by rearing, and though he appeared to be running on at the finish, was beaten out of the first three. The winner was the- American-bred Democrat, son of Sensation and the Rayon dOr mare Equality. There were 11 runners for the Ascot Stakes, including an Oaks winner and a Derby second. To quote Mr Allison : " Airs and Grace? failed to stay beyond a sVile and a-lialf, but Bait wa travelling with ='>oh et\<--p that the race seemed over until they made the final turn for home, when he

suddenly collapsed., either from lack of stamina or inability to get up the hill. Sloan had ridden a waiting race on Nouveau Riche, and now came through with the race in hand, as it seemed, but S. Loates, nursing and steadying Tom Cringle with exquisite judgment, sent him out just in the nick of time to catch Lord Farquhar's horse on the post. It was a fine bit of jockeyship, which was loudly cheered as the winner came back to scale. Sloan, too, had done the best possible with Nouveau Riche, who is a shifty customer, and not given to putting in such good work as he did on this occasion. The same praise cannot be accorded to Sloan's performance on Kent, in the Prince of Wales's Slakes, for this enormous son of Kendal seemed to be altogether too much of a handful for him, and after he had been asked to make up a lot of ground more suddenly and more rapidly than was Sibola at Epsom, the big colt swerved badly up the hill, and Sloan, who got rather wild with his whip, could not straighten him at all." The Royal Hunt Cup provided a surprise. On paper the race looked a good thing for Eager; but he got beaten decisively by Refractor, who, in spite of his having disposed of Survivor in a trial, started at 25 to 1. Refractor, who was bred at the Caira stud, only cost 220gs as a yearling and he showed some fairly useful form as a two-year-old, when known as the colt by Prism out_ of Heartsease. In winning his fourth race off the reel in the Triennial Stakes Longy accomplished quite his best performance. This was not surprising, for he was a June foal, and has naturally improved far more during the last few weeks than the majority of two-year-olds have done. Winners like Dum Dum, Rice, and Edith Crag were behind him, and he is a capital advertisement for Trenton. It may be noted, by the way, that while Trenton sired the winner, the second is by Carbine, and the third was bred in America. The Gold Cup was interesting so long aa the French horse, Le Senateur, managed to make the running; but, to use the words of the. Sportsman's special, " when they fairly turned up the hill it was speedily 'seen that there was only one in it, for Cyllene simply played with his field, and then- came stretching away from them in glorious style, quite as easily as Persimmon did in his year. There was vociferous cheering as he passed the post, and S. Loates, who was stroking the horse on the neck with his right hand, even found time just at that juncture to touch his cap in recognition of the applause." A field of a dozen for the New Stakes included several two-year-olds who were making a first public appearance. Favouritism at the start was claimed by the Woodcote Stakes winner. Bonarosa, but she did not do well, and the finish remained with The Gorgon, Bonnie Lad, and Kerseymere, the verdict going to the first-named by a head after a good race. The Gorgon is by St. Simon from Andromeda, by Minting from Stella, by Mogador.