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New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume III, Issue 136, 2 March 1893, Page 3

The prize for the Liverpool Grand National Steeplechase this year has been increased to £2,500. A proposal to license bookmakers something on the same lines as those in force under the Victorian Racing Club was recently mooted in England. The London Sportsman says thereanent “ A project, long talked of, for licensing and registering bookmakers is now taking definite shape. We have reason to believe that it is mainly due to the Earl of Durham, one of the stewards of the Jockey Club, and a nobleman who has for many years interested himself in turf reform, that the question alluded to has come prominently to the fore at the present time, though, we understand, the Duke of Beaufort and the Earl of Suffolk, together with other leading members of the Jockey Club, strongly approve the suggestion that the members of the ring should be licensed, as trainers and jockeys are, and thus brought under the control of the rulers of the turf. The proposal is that in future bookmakers desirous of attending meetings governed by the rules of the Jockey Club should be called upon to obtain a license from the stewards, and that the names of all licensed bookmakers should be registered by Messrs Weatherby. ft is further proposed that a certain fee, the amount of which has not yet been fixed or definitely suggested, should be charged for registration, and that with the funds so obtained the stewards should organise and maintain a special corps of racecourse police to keep the rings clear of objectionable persons. The bookmakers, equally with the racing public, would, we are sure, hail with pleasure any practicable scheme that could be devised for suppressing the * racecourse ruffian.’ But will they be willing to bear the whole or the greater part of the cost of such a scheme ? In other words will they care to pay a heavy registration fee ? The committee of the Victoria Club and the Newmarket Rooms Committee have been approached on the matter, and we understand that Mr R. H. Fry has been requested to ascertain the views of the general body of bookmakers throughout the country. These will be submitted early in the new year to an influential committee that has been formed, and subsequently to the governing body of the turf.” “Rapier,” in the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News seys that it is worthy of note that most of the newly-established big stakes in England have decreased in value since their institution. The largest prize ever run for on the English turf was the Eclipse Stakes of 1889, which was worth £11,165. Last year it had shrunk to £9405. The Lancashire Plate won by Donovan in 1889 was worth £10,131 ; in 1892 it was worth only £7930. The Kempton Park Great Breeders’ Foal Stakes in 1889 credited Mr Warren de la Rue, by the aid of Dearest, with £6177 ; last time it was £4937, though this is an advance of some £6OO on the previous season. The Newmarket Stakes has dropped from £6OOO to £3795, and fie Whitsuntide Plate at Manchester exhibits a much greater falling off. It was when Signorina won it worth £3400; it is now the Wbitsunf de S akes, and it was worth to Lady Bob’s owner £1194. The Prince of Wales’ Stakes at Leicester credited Donovan with 1,000; that has been transformed into the Prince of Wales’ Plate, and Bushey Park won On the other hand it is most satisfactory to find the famous old stakes increasing in value. The Derby, which was only in 1889, had grown to £6960, and that app oaches its richest days. The Oaks has actually bee i down to £2600, a melancholy drop ; but La Fleche won £5270. The Leger was in 1891, and in 1892. Other good old stakes keep up, and some grow, which is an excellent thing.