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SOME UNDECIDED TURF CHAMPIONSHIPS. Owing largely to the necessarily restricted program and to some degree also to a perverse fate which kept several of the cracks of divers ages out of each others way, one or two knotty points were left undecided when the flat-racing season drew to its close a couple of weeks ago. So far as the three-year-old championship was concerned, probably the majority of folk were prepared to concede the palm to the unbeaten Hurry On. though those who were inclined to favor Fifinella could point to the circumstance that the filly had won both the Derby and Oaks substitutes, and that whatever else he ma,y have done Mr. Buchanans colt had never beaten the daughter of Polymelus. It is in the nature of an article of faith that when the two-year-old form becomes involved, off-Iflg- to frequent upsets the general standard is low, though tins idea is not invariably borne out by subsequent results. The juvenile form in the year preceding Spearmints Derby victory did not, for instance, work out particularly well, albeit the compiler of the Free Handicap had little hesitation in allotting Lally the post of honor, even if only three pounds separated Mr. Purefoys colt from his proximo accessit. Yet several contemporaries of Spearmint proved themselves to be well above the average. Spearmint himself, of course, won the Grand Prix do Paris, in addition to the Derby, and was unquestionably an animal of quality. Likely enough, too, Picton was a good colt, though he had no opportunity of demonstrating the fact after Derby Day, on which he made his final appearance. Then there were Radium, which won several important long-distance races, including the Jockey Club Cup twice, the Goodwood Cup, and the Doncaster Cup; Beppo, a Manchester Cup winner; Lally himself, which won a Royal Hunt Cup; Malua, a useful but somewhat unlucky horse; Bridge of Canny, winner of numerous races; and The White Knight, which developed into one of the greatest of later-day stayers, and with 138 pounds in the saddle, only lost the Cesare-witch by three-parts of a length, his conqueror being the lightly-weighted and highly-fancied Demure, which was in receipt of no less than forty-five pounds. London Sporting Life of November 21.
