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ENGLANDS GREATEST FILLY EVENT The Classic Oaks Was Founded by the Twelfth Earl of Derby in the Year of 1779 It is a long time since te Oaks led to antepost betting but lie would be a bold man who dared to suggest that as a porting event the race has lost any of its power of attraction It was founded by the twelfth Karl of Derby in 1779 much In the same manner as the St Leger which preceded it by three years The suggestion for the race was raised at The Oaks where the Earl of Derby was entertaining on a magnificent scale and from the fact that the St Leger open to horses of both sexes had proved successful the idea probably arose to initiate a race confined to threeyearold fillies filliesThere There were but seventeen subscribers but they included the most noble in the land and with a dozen of the entries competing the race had a fine sendoff A year later came the Derby for colts and fillies and from that date the greatness of Epsom races had been acknowledged It is still a carnival and no matter what may occur in the turf world during the next generation the Derby and Oaks days will with southerners at any rate con ¬ tinue the most popular openair attractions in the kingdom kingdomAppropriately Appropriately enough the first Oaks was won by Lord Derby the filly to score for him being Bridget daughter of Herod of which so much has been written in reeent years by men who have made a close study of the breeding of the race horse Lord Derby won again fifteen years later with Hermione and then in 1851 a Lord Stanley triumphed with Iris while the late earl had successes in 1S9C witii Canterbury Pilgrim and in 190R with Keystone II one of the handsomest mares ever put into train pnrple gold braid and scarlet sleeves have not been seen in front at the finish Twice our late king supplied the second Thais being runnerup to Canterbury Pilgrim in 1890 and Princess de Galles to Perola in 1909 and in both those years a royal colt won the Derby DerbyOWNERS OWNERS MAKE FINE ARRAY ARRAYLooking Looking back at the list of Oaks winners the owners indeed make a fine array especially during the first fifty years Then the turf had not become democratized and its patrons included such sports ¬ men as the Prince of Wales afterwards George IV the Dukes of York Rutland Grafton Rich ¬ mond Bedford Portland Leeds and Hamilton Lord Derby Lord Egreniont Lord Pitzwilliam Lord Jer ¬ sey Lord Exeter Sir Charles Bunbury Sir t Stand isli and a host of others whose names as owners of race horses would IK welcome now Sir Charles Bunbury who won the first Derby with Diomed and gained a later triumph with Eleanor took the Oaks on one occasion only and it was in 1801 with the lastnamed She was the first to secure both races and the performance stood as a record until 1857 when it was equaled by Blink Bonny Many have tried since then but Signorinetta 1908 alone was successful Nor have more won the Two Thou ¬ sand and One Thousand as well as the Oaks the three being Crucifix 1840 Formosa 1SG3 and Sceptre 1902 Of these Formosa was after all only half a winner of the Two Thousand which she divided after a deadheat A notable feature in connection with the early history of the Oaks is the number of owners who won it on two or more occa The Duke of Grafton stands first with nine vic ¬ tories Pelisse 1804 Morel 1SOS Music 1813 Medora 1814 Minuet 1815 Pastille 1822 Zinc 1823 Turquoise 1828 and Oxygen 1831 Lord Grosvenor won six times Faith 1781 Ceres 1782 Maid of the Oaks 1783 Nike 1797 Bellina 1799 and Meteora 1805 His record was almost equaled by Lord Egremont whose winners were Nightshade 1788 Tag 1789 Platina 1795 iEphemera 1800 and Carolina 1820 The Dnke of Bedford and Lord Ezeter each scored thrice and those with two wins were Sir F Standish Lord Clermont Lord Chesterfield and the Duke of Rich ¬ mond During the past fifty years spoils have been more equally distributed but the late Lord Fal inouth had four winners viz Queen Bertha 1SG3 Splnaway 1875 Jannette 1878 and Wheel of Fortune 1879 and in Spinaways year he also sup lied the second in Ladylove The Duke of Portland can look back upon the race with satisfaction Memoir having won for him in 1890 and Mrs But terwick in 1893 Amiable in 1894 and La Rocho in 1900 Princess Dorrie is the fourth winner for J B Joel who lias already scored with Jest Glass Doll and Our Lassie LassieOUTSIDERS OUTSIDERS BEEN SUCCESSFUL SUCCESSFULOutsiders Outsiders have been successful on many occasions of course but not so frequently as might be sup ¬ posed considering the reputation of the sex for fickleness and if an analysis were made it would show that the fielders have done better over the Derby than the sister race There have been no such upsets as those effected by Hermit Doncaster Sir Hugo Teddah Signorinetta and Aboyenr In our time the longestpriced winner has been Jenny Howlet which brought off a 33 to 1 chance in 18SO and was the last filly to win for the North She was trained by William IAnson whose father had owned and trained the 1857 winner Blink Bonny The Malton stable had two representatives and Bonnie Marden was more fancied than Jenny How let but Mr J B Cookson was not a lucky man and had to see his filly beaten four lengths though it was some consolation that tlw prize went to his great friend Charles Perkins Mr Cookson had oc ¬ cupied the same tantalizing position twelve months earlier when Coromandel II was easily beaten by Wheel of Fortune but in that race success was not expected for the winner stood out conspicuously as the best threeyearold in training trainingOf Of Lord Falmouths earlier winners Jannette had the luck on her side Pilgrimage had beaten her for the One Thousand after winning the Two Thousand and would have repeated the performance at Epsom but one of her legs went before reaching the bell and it was a most artistic piece of riding on the part of Tom Cannon which enabled her to get within a length of Tannttte When Lord Fal mouth gained his first success with Queen Bertha his horses were trained by John Scott at Whitcwall Malton iid it was over this mare that he had tlio only bet lie ever made in connection with racing Mrs Scott expressed her belief that Queen Bertha would win whereupon Lord Falmouth bet her six pense that she would not He had a sixpense mounted in gold and surrounded with diamonds and in due course presented it to the worthy dame much to her delight delightAn An Oaks that will always linger in our memcry was that of 1807 Achievement was out and out the best twoyearold of the previous year and having shown that she retained her form by winning the One Thousand in the canter the Epsom race appear ¬ ed at her mercy Many went to get back the money they had lost over Hermits Derby and laid odds of 3 to 1 on but t the chagrin of her owner and everybody else she could only make a dead heat with Romping Girl for second place to Hippia The winner started third favorite at 12 to 1 and won by a length in the hands of Johnny Duley who had up ¬ set calculations oil Hermit two days earlier It was the barons first success in a classic race but he had been third for the Oaks in 1805 with Zephyr and second and third in the previous year with Breeze and Tomato Four years after Hippia he won it with Hannah which also carried off the One Thousand and St Leger while in the same year with a son of Zephyr Favonius by name he landed his only Derby DerbyYEAE YEAE 1884 MEMORABLE MEMORABLEThe The year 1884 will remain memorable for the per ¬ formance in the Derby and Oaks of a colt and filly that had been sent up for sale in the spring by Lord Falmouth They were Harvester and Busy ¬ body and Tom Cannon was within an ace of buying both for Mr Abington He bid up tp 8500 guineas for the colt but then stopped and Sir John Wil loughby secured him for another hundred Then when Busybody came into the ring there was another spirited competition but Cannon had made up his mind to have her and Edmond Tattersalls hammer fell at his offer of 8800 guineas Harvester ran a dead heat with St fiatien for the Derby and with guineas to pounds laid on her Busybody which had Avon the Oiie Thousand gave Tom Can ¬ non a fairly comfortable ride in the Oaks though she finished only half a length in front of Su perba On the eve of Ascot she met with an acci ¬ dent and could never run again but at the stud she produced a real good horse in Meddler which would probably have gained classic honors but for his nominations becoming void by the untimely death of the Squire When his horses were sold in July 1893 Meddler fetched 14500 guineas and went to America AmericaOnly Only twice in its long history has the Oaks re ¬ sulted in a dead heat The first occasion was in 1S5S when Mr Gratwicks Governess and Admiral Harcourts Gildermere tied Gildermere was favorite at 9 to 4 and Governess a 4 to 1 chance and on running off theslight odds of G to 5 were laid on the former but after another fine race Governess won by threeeighths of a length The other dead heat was in 187G when two French tillies Count de LaGranges Camelia and M Lupins Enguerninde could not be separated by the judge but in this instance a division was quickly agreed upon Count LaGrauge had previously won with Fille de 1Air and since Camelia and Enguerninde no foreignreared filly has won wonSignorinetta Signorinetta the heroine of 1908 belonged to an Italian and Mirska triumphed two years ago for a French sportsman but botli were bred and trained in England Of all the great mares that won none was better than Sceptre and Pretty Polly and the former stands forth as the only winner outright of the Two Thousand One Thousand Oaks and St Legcr With the present fashion of picking and choosing engagements the record may never be equaled equaledThe The largest field that ever ran for the race was in 1848 when Harry Hills Cymba beat twentyfive opponents and the smallest ten years ago when Pretty Polly frightened away all but three though there were 211 entries The Winning Post
