CORONATION DERBIES

Otago Witness, Issue 2524, 30 July 1902, Page 45

CORONATION DERBIES

The Coronation Derby of 1902 is not likely to become famous in the history of tho time-honoured race. Not only was the weather indifferent, but (saya an exohangc| a groat favourite, Sceptre, the 10,000gs ytarling, failed to do what was expected of her, .to that the ring is many thousands of pounds the richer by her downfall. Though tho Derbj was founded so long ago as tho year 1780, when Sir Charles Bunbury's Diomed won, there have been in the history of the raeo no more than four Coronation Derbies, for George 111 died 20 years beforci tho Derby was invented, and the race was 41 years old whor George IV waa crowned, the first Coronation Dorby being in 1821. u-hen Mr Hunter's Gustavus, ridden, by S. Day, won by half a length under the> whip, -which wm said to Have been used with all tho severity which delighted the old school of jockey 5 !. The Derby in thosedays received but scant attention in th© newspapers, and it is curious to contrast th& meagre accounts which then satisKetl the public with the columns which .are now devoted to the contest. The second Coronation Derby wa3 that of William IV, 'jusi a decade after the first — that is to say," 1 in, 1831, when Lord Lowther's Spaniel was tho winner, and on this occasion our late Queer. Victoria, then Princess Victoria, was pres&nj with the Duchess of Kent. She wasnot af_ Epsom in 1333, the year of her own Corona-j tion, when Sir Gilbert Hesthcote's Amato] won, but she saw Yr Robertaou's Little! Wonder win in l? 4-0. How different weio! tho m^-ans of gftting to Ko'OTi in. all Ooro-' nation y&ars prior to the raeo of Wednesday last. Post chaises and travoihng oarriaj'"— . rolled into the little town a day or two befort

jthe meeting began, and every house was jalcen. London sent forth its coaches and :arrifcge<3 of every description, and on several )ccuions we learn that some of the traveling public were very angry at finding, when looking eeste, that some of the stage coaches rbich passed through Epsom -would r.ot >roceed further. For some little while the kurth-western line had all the Epsom traffic so itself, yet, notwithstanding th© increase in. the number of stations, the road continues to maintain a certain amount of popularity, though its old glories have, on the jgrHole, happily departed.