THE BLUE HIBBON OF THE TITHE.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 2499, 30 August 1890, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE BLUE HIBBON OF THE TITHE.

(fcAILY >-EW*s.) Mi’. Louis Henry Curzon, being concerned to think that the centenary of tbo Derby passed without a word of notice, has written “ The Blue Ribbon of the Turf’ (Chafcto aucl Win.dus)- It is a bright sketch of what is, what was, aud may bo, and in its way it is a compendium of the history of the race. It is, at any rale, the first thing of the kind in book form. It takes us from the victory of Diomod to that of Donovan, and it gossips pleasantly about the owners, the trainers, the jockeys, and the tag-rag and bobtail of the turf. Though the Derby is now 110 yearn old—it was instituted in 1780 —its celebrity dates from the era of the cheaper, if not the cheapest newspapers, and of improved moans of communication. When Sir Charles Bunbury carried off the first Derby victory with Diomed, owners aud their friends had the course on the Downs pretty much t# themselves. JtclVs Life in London made tho Derby race as we know it to-day. There was racing on the Downs long before Diomed, and the lieges of King James I. are said to have flocked there for such sport as they were ablo to obtain in that period before the Flood. The real father of modern racing was old Tregonwell Frampton, whose portrait is still to be seen in a rare old engraving of price. He was bom in the tune of Charles 1., but ho lived to be “ Keeper of the Running Horses at Newmarket to their Majesties William 111., Queen Anne, George 1., and George II.” He difid in 1727 loaded with years, and, if we may believe half we hear about him, with dishonour. He was a most experienced practitioner, and is said to have been the first to discover the peculiarities of racing as a business. “He i* the cunningest jockey in England,” wrote one of his contemporaries, meaning the cunningest jockeyer. Tie is said to be the first man who “ arranged ” a race. Frampton found racing a sport, and left it a game in which the winner was tho one who best know how to stack the cards. There were long blanks in the moral succession to this worthy, and many who camo after him left a spotless name. Lord Clermont, however, who won the Derby of 1785, was once denounced as “a hardened veteran in every kind of iniquity but many such sayings of tho racing fraternity are to be taken in a_JPickwickian sense. Lord Egromont, who died iu 1837, in his eighty - sixth year, was as honest as the day. There were seventy thoroughbred brood mares in his stable when be breathed his last. It was, in a manner, liis legacy to the nation, and it Ims no doubt been blessed a hundredfold by this time. Lord Foley, an associate of Charles James Fox, anticipated the Jubilee Plunger, duo allowance being made for the limited scale of opportunities in his dnv. He started in life with £IOO,OOO down and £IB,OOO a year, and he lost every penny of it. on the turf. But he won a Derby in 180 G with Paris, a son of Sir Peter Teazle, and so is saro of undying fame. The Prince of Wales, afterwards George IY., began liis connection with tho turf in 1784, but dropped it, for a while, two years later under pressure of pecuniary embarrassments of a general kind. II« returned to Newmarket in 178 S, but again retired a year later, on an accusation of complicity in a race said to have been falsely run. The stewards of tho Jockey Club inquired into the case, but to little purpose, so it is but fair to give the prince the benefit of the doubt. When ho became king, ho was only to I** wooed back to the tiu*f by much entreaty ; aud it is worthy of notice that ho once more took iuto his service the jockey who was said to have sold the race. Lord George Tbutiuck did Ills best lo purify tho turf. The blackleg quailed, says his brilliant biographer, “ before the awful scrutiny of his piercing oye.” When h<** was induced to renounce the turf for politics, he could not forbear a groan of regret. “ You do not know what the Darby is,” he said. “ Yes, I do,” replied Mr. Disraeli ; “ it is the Bluo Ribbon of the turf.” Admiral Rous was another terror to evildoers, and his sturdy honesty and hatred of deception were no less purifying in their influence than the eye of Lord George. He was the vigorous opponent of heavy betting, and foretold unspeakable calamities as the result of it. Another of bis oldfashioned notions was that the jockey should be kept in his place. It will divert our generation io know that twenty pounds was once considered a handsome present for a winning mount. The Duke of Grafton, who flourished about a centary ago, gave that sum to John Day, who had won two important races for him, and, with it a sermon —to the perfect satisfaction of all concerned. “ John Day,” he said, “ I have sent for you as I am going to make you a present for your good riding. There is a twenty-pound note for you, and I hope you will not waste it, but take great cure of it.’’ Tt is a thousand or two thousand nowadays, and we may imagino the awful scrutiny of the piercing eyo of an Arclier or a Cannon to whom a noblemun had ventured to offer less. The Admiral hated the thought of meeting his jockey at his club or at afternoon tea. The jockeys have advanced with the times ; they know that they are indispensable, and they make a good bargain for themselves. Their rise, no doubt, will one day be described as an incident in the emancipation of the proletariat. Tho Jockey Club still keeps up the farce of its decree of five guineas for a winning mount and three guineas for a losing one. But after that, and only after it, truu business may be said to begin. There are the retaining fees from two or three masters anxious to spcuto an honest and capable man to steer their horses to the winning-post Then com© tho presents, amounting, as w© have said, to one hundred or two hundred times the amount received with modest satisfaction by poor John Day. As much as £3,000 has been given for success in a handicap. The minor gifts aro of the moat varied kind. For the successful jockey it simply rains dia.umd rings, new hats, cases of whisky, and l»oxes of cigars. The luek of the Days and the Ohifneya —a Chifney rodo for Georg© l\ r . was but a poor affair compared with the luek of the great winner? of our time. They still lived iri the stables, and it was years before they censed to sleep on tbo straw. Our modern great man is almost lifted into his saddle and lifted out of it, and is put away in rose loaves be two* n mount and mount. -Even the touts have eomo to bo important persons, in the evolution of the turf. The touts aro the watchers, tho men who report performances from training quarters, and who supply the information on which the prophets work. There is sweating iu thie profession, us iu tailoring, or in tho Church. Tim higher kind of touts have themselves laoeom© mere middlemen between the prophets and tho watchers, and they have organised a vast, detective agency covering the whole field of sport. The trainers, who were but. a kind of menials in the good old times, aro now the associates, as well as tho agents of gentlemen. Sm hart* tho changes within our own experience, tho changes yet to come might baffle the perspicuity of the most successful sporting seer. No one knows; but surely it. will be difficult to koep the jockeys much longer out of tho House of Lords. As for prophecy itself, there seems room for now developments of it in the direction of animal magnetism. We may yet do great things in “ spotting winners ” by a judicious use of tho machinery of hypnotism. As it is, wo aro assured the dream and the omen have already yielded encouraging results. Some dreamers dream tho jockey, others the number of tbo winning horse. One gentleman got mixed with Rosebery for the ** Camber witch,” until he expanded tho hint into “ Cosa re v.-itclx” aud ‘•Cambridgeshire,” and assumed that Rosebery would win both races, which ho did. Mr. Curzon lias written