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ENGLISH SUBSTITUTE DERBY AND OAKS. It is ratifying to sbotrvc that this years substitute* for th Epsom Derby and Oaks are announced to 1«- h hi at the Fir-t Extra Meeting at Newmarket on May M and .luno i respectively. The entiles for the two events are due to dose on Taeadajr, the 28th in-t.. and thirty subscriptions are stipulated far in each Instance, as compared with ■ third of the number named last yea-. The circumstances this rear are, however, altogether different, and permit of reasonable ant ipatioa that the desired number of nominations will be forthcoming without difficulty. When the new races wen instituted in ]oir all was chaos, a bombshell in the shape of complete stoppage of the span except at Newmarket having hast fallen. Moreover, the seasons racing had progressed sufficiently far to enable on nets and trainers of three-jrear-old Colts and fillies to estimate pretty accurately the strength of oar resources in respect to classic performers. Now. however, it is quite different. At the date fixed for the closing of entries for the New Derby and Oaks little or nothing can be known either in the shape of pabiic form or private trial to deter owners of the most promising Juveniles of last season from t nt. ring into engagements which. la the result, ma] be fraaghl with the greatest pooebMe importance from ■ future stud point of rlewt Sin- PifiaeUa, no two-year old could be said to Staad "in with great prominence at the deed of the Houghton meeting in October, and even FifhseUas ease there is always to be dreaded the possibility of her failing, .is s,, many good fillies before her base done, SO maintain the great promise of her fust season. Thus eerything is suggestive of good and representative subscriptions lor the new race;, to lie followed by interesting and instructive contests. As was the case last year, when the New Derby and Oaks were decided in the middle of .lune. the colts •"classie" is to be a sweepstakes of 100 sovereigns each, with l.MH sovereigns added, and thai for fillies of M sovereigns each, with 500 sovereigns added. A thousand sovereigns, by the way. were added in each instance on the previous occasion, but the owner of the successful filly this year will win more than 1.400 sovereigns at Cared by Snow Marten provided that anything like the required number of entries is received. There is another difference to be noted. viz.. that whereas last year the eligible Candidates were restricted to those originally entered for the Epsom Derby an I Oaks, the races this time are open to all comers. This, again, should help to keep the subscription list well up to the desired mark. The only point, indeed, on which I feel the slightest inclination to criticize is with reference to the nomenclature of the races. There is no real point in naming them New Derby and New Oaks, even if so simple a designation was not altogether inapt last year. Now. however, they are no longer "new" i vents, and it would have been far better to have adapted the titles of "War" Derby and Oaks, so that the circumstances under which they are to be ran might be fittingly perpetuated. Doubtless this is ,i small matter, unworthy of much insistence in times like the present, but there is. all the same, a good deal of virtue as well as utility in appropriate nomenclature. There is. one is glad to note, to be a .lune Stakes Bgaia at the First Extra meeting. this being the event designed to take the place of the F.psom Coronation Cup. and which was so easily cat I led off by Black Jester in its first year. The conditions are slightly varied, the sweepstakes now being thirty instead of twenty sovereigns, and the added money reduced from 1.000 sovereigns to half that amount. It is interesting to note that, while there is no mention of a Newmarket Gold Cup to take the place of the great Ascot trophy, the New Coventry Stakes is advertised to take place at the Second Extra Meeting on June 22 and to close on the same day as the Derby and Oaks. This important juvenile event was decided last year over a month later, bat tiie conditions are the same, though there is no mention of the 1.000 sovereigns added having been provided by the Ascot authority, or of the previous stipulation that the animals en- g i! should have been originally entered for one or other of the abandoned juvenile events at Ascot. Forty entries are asked for, and it is worthy of note that forty-five were secured for the substituted stake last July. The omission of any announcement regarding the Gold Cup does not necessarily mean that it is contemplated to dispense with a race of the kind this season, and I hope that one-will be arranged. Everything points to the determination of the stewards of the Jockey Club to do all in their power to keep racing alive in a manner compatible with the nations interests, and this there can be no doubt they will succeed in accomplishing in spite of the ill-natured and iu some instances extremely vulgar criticism levelled against the continuance of racing during Wednesday nights proceedings in Parliament.— "Augur" in London Sporting Life of March 10.
