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MIDDLE PARK AND DEWHURST PLATES. Although North Star was beaten in the attempt to add "Dewhurst" to his Middle Park Plate laurels, his failure to bring off the "double" was simply due to the inequality of the start. But for this Mr. J. B. Joels colt would doubtless have done the trick. That the double in question does not present insuperable difficulties has been shown oil no fewer than eight occasions. The Dewhurst Plate was not established until 1875, nine years after the inaugural race for the Middle Park Plate, and already in the second year of the big two-year-old race of the Houghton week both events were Avon by the French colt, Chamant. Winners of the "Middle Park" then, as now, carried a ten-pound extra in the later race; and it was not until eleven years later that the double was again accomplished by Friars Balsam. In the following season, however, Donovan followed in his footsteps, and since then both races have fallen to Orme, St. Frusquin. Democrat, Bayardo and Lemberg. Only two of the eight heroes of the big juvenile double afterwards succeeded in winning the Derby Donovan and lemberg of which the former likewise secured the Two Thousand and St. Leger. Chamant and St. Frusquin carried off the Two Thousand and Bayardo the St. Leger. On the whole the Dewhurst Plate seems a better guide to classic success than the older raco, for whereas only fifteen out of fifty Middle Park Plate winners have earned classic honors, sixteen out. of only forty-one "Dewhurst" winners have done likewise; although, as regards success in the Derby, it is a dead-beat, five winners of each race having won the Blue Ribbon. London Sportsman.
