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FORTY-FIVE HORSES START IN A RACE. "It is interesting to recall that the largest field to start for a race in England was in 1861, when Croagh Patrick beat forty-four others for the Stewards Cup at Goodwood," says an exchange. "1S01 was a year of big fields, as it was in that year that the maximum of runners was reached for the City and Suburban, no fewer that thirty-eight horses going to the post, and Cantine was the winner. The largest field that ever ran for the Great Metropolitan was in 1S40, which was the first year of the race, when the three-year-old Chamois beat twenty-eight others. The Two Thousand Guineas is not a race famous for large fields, says Mr. John Corlett, and we shall search in vain for a larger number than nineteen, which was the total when Pretender won. In 1801, when Diophantus won the Two Thousand, there were seventeen, which is considerably above the average. There were the same number for the Chester Cup, but for the Derby eighteen seems a modest number as compared with thirty in I860, and thirty-four in 1S62. Dundee was the bogey that frightened the owners of the doubtful lot In 1801. Brown Duchess had sixteen behind her In the Oaks, aud there were thirty-three starters for the Royal Hunt Cup. Dundee being out of the way, eighteen faced the starter for the St. Leger."
