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STAKE VALUES IN ENGLAND Suggestion of Added Money for the Two Thousand Guineas in the Future. .-IJnmMr..:-wfaWyUlams.dev pounds Eclipse Stakes at Sandown, an cxamnle followed at Leicester, Manchester and Newmarket, the Derby was the most valuable race run in England, as one has an idea that it ought to be. It is curious to note how greatly the stake has varied. I cannot remember which Derby yielded most. Reference to my friend Mr. Moorehouses "Romance of the Derby" does not afford enlightenment, though he might perhaps have added this detail, which is not without importance? Turning to my shelves, however, the earliest volume on which happens to be 1S77, I find that Silvios victory produced 6,050 pounds, and in 1888 Ayrshires only yielded 3.G75 pounds, considerably less than Hits sums soon to be .won in a two-year-old race, the National Breeders Foal Stakes at Sandown; but that was not started until 1889, nor was it so rich a prize to begin with. Now, as most will be aware, the Derby is a fixed stake of 0,500 pounds, reduced to 6,450 by the winners subscription, and it is not always the most valuable of the classics. When Kennymore won the Two Thousand lie brought in 7,100 pounds after COO had been deducted for second and third; and yet there is not a shilling of added money to this classic. There were 135 entries for the nice in 1914 at 100 sovereigns each, half forfeit. But in Lord Jerseys recent speech at the Jockey Club meeting he expressed the opinion that money ought to be added, and we are naturally led to wonder what will happen in the case of the Two Thousand: because when the Jockey Club thinks that anything ought to be done it has power to do it. NO MORE 0,000 RACES. We have apparently come to the end of the ten thousand-pounders; as just observed, it seems in accordance with the fitness of things that the Derby should be the richest as it is the greatest race of the year; and the world in general ranks it before the Grand Prix, notwithstanding that the Paris race has been worth a great deal more than twice as much as our Blue .Riband. Houlis Grand Prix credited his owner with 14,628 pounds, and when it comes to comparison between English and French stakes it may be remarked that the Prix du Jockey Club wou by Sardanapale came to 8,309 pounds. But if any money is added to the Two Thousand it must be a substantial sum, and supposing it is agreed that the Derby should be pecuniarily the event of the season, what is to be done witli regard to Epsom V Of course, the owners who enter for the Newmarket classic have little ground for coni-lUaiut as things are. For instance, Sir John Thursby was taking 71 to 1 about Kennymore, and those are liberal odds! We hear much from critics of racing as it is about "owners running for their own money." That depends upon how you read the sentence. The fact is that they are running not for their own money, but for the money of other owners, who have small cause for dissatisfaction if they obtain anything like the odds which proved to have been forthcoming against Kennymore. I do not suppose, by the way, that the demand for added money is likely to affect such races as the Prince of Wales at Goodwood or the Boscawen, etc. The first is a sweepstakes of 200 sovereigns each, the latter of half as much. For these there are always about a dozen subscribers, and as the second saves stakes this means that owners are taking 10 to 1 about races for which there are seldom more than four starters. "Gareth" in The Referee. 1 ; 1
