THE DERBY.

(London Sforting Timer.) There hsive been three great receptions on Epsom Downs, first in 1870, when Lord Falmouth won the Derby with Kingcraft, and the crowd were nearly carrying Mat Dawson and his pony shoulder high ; secondly, that of 1894, when Lord Rosebory was the winner, and there was a scene that we thought could not possibly be eclipsed, yet it was eclipsed when H.R.H. the Prince of Wales was victorious this year. Watts was the jockey on two of these occasions. We could hear the gathering roar like the rumbling of a storm long before the winning number of Persimmon was hoisted, and then the thunder pealed forth, and a scene took place which we have not power to describe. Nothing could he more dignified than was the attitude of his Eoyal Highness, when, having received the congratulations of his family, he descended to the enclosure, and held.an impromptu levee at the top of the steps of the Stewards' Stand. He then made his way to the course. The winner was a long time in coming back, and he and St Frusquin must have galloped quite into the paddock before they were pulled up. When at length he came, Marsh fastened a leading rein to the bridle and handed it to the Prince, who atonce led the horse into the saddlingenclosure,followedby Lord Marcus, whose bald head, as, he walked uncovered, glistened more and more, and we could almost fancy that we heard " brother Bill," with his strong military instincts, saying how well it might be used for signalling purposes. The usual ceremony at the scales took place, and when Mr Manning said, " All light," another Prince of Wales, : after a lapse of one hundred and eight . years, was placed in possession of the Derby i winner. . The labourers who entered the vineyard ! at the eleventh hour, and received the same \ wage as those who had borne the heat .and -, A burthen of the day, were scarcely t>opular '<] with their fellow-labourers, and it will be- „', the same with Regret should he, through. ■•] shirking the Derby, beat the ' Derby heroin. the Eclipse Stakes. A man has an undoubted right to do what he likes with his own, and it may savour of dictation to say that he ought to do this, that, or the * other. At the risk of this, however, we ] have no. hesitation in saying that the reasons that were advanced for not starting , Eegret for the Derby were not sufficient, , and the horse ought to have run. He , would haye < run if he had been ours, and we , could do with ten thousand pounds quite as well as the. Duke* of Westminster. We recognise in his Grace one of the finest sportsmen in the kingdom, and no ' one family has done so much for the turf as the House of Grosvenor. In j this case, however, we think . that an error of judgment was committed, and | we have no doubt that those who backed , Regret to win and a place feel this far more , than we do. That the horse would at least , have. finished third there can be little , doubt, as no one would dream of putting him on the same level as Earwig, who managed to " wriggle" into the first three.' , "Be sure and back mine for a place," said , Mr Beddington to us as the horses were on their way to the post,and he did his best to \ make all his friends do the same. It may ', be that the policy in not running Regret , was sound and prudent, but the Derbj' and St Leger are national races, and we expect to see the best horses in them. That, according to Regret's trial, he would ( not have beaten St Frusquin is very possible, but if the principle of \ not running under those circumstances ' were always to be acted upon we should have no racing at all. Lord Falmouth 1 seemed to have no chance against Mac- ; gregor for the Derby 1870, but he started ■ his horse and won. We recollect a story of the late Tom Sayers, who met a man he \ had had some quarrel with, and he asked ; him how he would take his hiding. 1 "If it ' is. all the same to you/ said themari, "I J will take it lying down," and this is what the Duke of Westminster did with Regret. 1 Though Mr Leo, de Rothschild looked for- ] ward so anxiously to winning the Derby, he ' was not present to see the race ran, an act i of filial piety keeping him in town. There were no great changes in the betting at the ' last moment, though the market was easy ! with regard to Persimmon, who had shown i a lot of temper on being boxed the ' previous day. There was a great run on 1 Bay Ronald, both to win and a place. In the preliminary canter he went best of * anything, but he sweated very profusely ' and pulled so hard as to suggest that he would not stay the course. In face of this ] a horse was started to force the pace for ■ him in Tamarind, who accomplished his mission by making running at the wrong end. The " Young Governor " had 1 three ' in the field. Persimmon, Earwig and Brad- ' wardine were not seen in the " prelimi- \ nary," in which St Frusquin barely cantered. He looked cool and well, too cool, ] in fact, for those who think that the St 1 Simon's are at their best when they show something of the devil. Teufel struck us as ] being a nice little handicap horse, and the 1 slashing Knight of the Thistle was clearly J not trained. The race was run in record time, but it ' did not seem to us that the horses were ' going unusually fast. Gulistan and Bay J Ronald set the pace, and when in descending the hill Gulistan fell away and Bay Ronald was left in front, we congratulated ] ourselves on having l'ecommonded him as ] the best outsider in the race. St Frusquin, 1 however, soon took all the go out of ] him; bo it here remarked, that it was * in descending the hill at which it was 1 prophesied he would fail, that he 1 improved his position. When he crossed 1 the road with the lead it could i be clearly seen that the only other horse * that had any go in him was Persimmon. £ Watts rode with a nerve of iron, and would i do nothing to encourage St Frusquin, who i has a knack of " coming again " when any- i thing gets in front of him, exactly as Para- ' £ dox had. Watts did not wait as long with Persimmon as Archer did with Melton, but ( the tactics in both cases were the same, and 1 were equally successful. Timing himself for i one good long run Watts managed to shoot 1 his horse to the front and a roar pro- i claimed the victory of ths Prince of Wales, i The verdict was only a neck, but it was i what we should call an easy neck, and the ] horse was in no way punished. St Frus- ] quin, on the other hand, plainly showed ] the inar?<s of the whip. We do not think 1 that Mr Leo de Rothschild's colt was as >. f;ood as he was in tho Craven week, when ] he looked altogether bigger than he did at i Epsom. Gulistan, too, must have deteriorated, as in the Hastings Plate, for 1 which Earwig was so well backed, he beat < him by two lengths. We may also" note < that in the Middle Park Plate St Frusquin ! beat Earwig by three limes the distance he i did in the Derby. <