DERBY DAY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16706, 25 July 1928, Page 3

DERBY DAY

1,000,000 ON EPSOM DOWNS HOW FELSTEAD WON * LONDON, June 7. Derby Day was one of the most wonderful days Epsom has ever known. Probably a million people went to see the world’s greatest horse race, but as there are no gates orr Epsom Downs, no official figures are possible. Anyhow, only 25 per cent, of the vast crowd could possibly have had even a glimpse of the classic contest for the blue riband of the iuVf. Brilliant sunshine helped to make a perfect day, and so great was the pressure of the multitude that the Prince of Wales had to fight his way with the help, 'of two policemen to join the King- and Queen on his arrival hv car, and the Ducliess OFYOH' required Die a'icTofl ‘the Duke to get through the crowd. The spectacle presented by the Downs throughout the day was most remarkable. Motor buses packed closely together in two- row’s with only six inches between any two of them stretched for half a mile from Tattenham Corner tb the grandstand. MOTOR COACHES Every motor coach in London had apparently been requisitioned for service,, and large; numbers of others had found their way on to the Eipsonr Downs from cities in various parts of the country. The police arrangements for handling the dense traffic were excellent in every way, and vet hours after the last race had been run hundreds off motor coaches were still waiting permission to begin, the return journey. .... u ... : It was a particularly grand day for the bookmakers. They started none too well when the two first- races were won by favorites, but any losses they have thus sustainedi were easily recouped when Felstead won the Derby by a length and a-half from Flamingo. Intense excitement preceded the start of the great- race, and the cry, “They’re oft - ,” could be heard for miles all round the Downs. To the surprise of most' people Fairway and Sunny Trace, which carried so much of the public money, never seemed likely to win, and the vic-

tory of j the despised Felstead was greeted in a silence which was significant. Many bookmakers had not tauten a single 'bet about the winner and all that the great majority of them had to pay was place money on. Flalningo. EXPERT'S MYSTIFIED The Dominion farmers party now touring England were with the rest of 1 the world at Epsom. Most of them were astonished by the spectacle but two of the Australians expressed to me their great disappointment. The course was the worst they had ever seen, they said, the grandstand was a .miserable affair and the crowd the worst dressed crowd imaginable. Epsom could not in any way be compared!—in their view—with Sydney. A well-known Paris journalist who had .* come in the hope of witnessing a French victory said to a representative of the Daily Mail: “For dirt, din and discomfort Epsom must surely stand in a class bv itself.” * All the racing critics are now endeavoring to explain the sensational tout ning in the great race. The Times, expert says : “Directly the race was over I came to the conclusion that the whole of the field was bad, and that for that reason if the race were run again, the result would probably be different. Then I learned that Felstead had covered the Derby course in a time equalling the record made by Call Boy a year ago. “The more I think of the race the more mystified I am. 1 feel that all our three-venr-olds are bad, and then you must remember the time of,the race was as good as that of the previous best. Is the explanation that with the exception of the winner and second we have no staying three-year-olds? I have long been arguing -so, and it may be that now we are seeing the results of using nonstaying sires. BRED TO STAY .. “The winner was bred to stay and did so. as did his lather. Spionkop, who himself won the Derby because he could stay. The time may be coming when breeders will go back to breeds from fines that get stayers and then-they will also get their rewards and wre shall not see as we have done in the last few years’ Derbvs which lack completely the fighting spirit which has come to be associated .with thoroughbreds in this •country.”