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HISTORY OF ROYAL ASCOTi Land Where Famous Track Is Located Property of Crown No Other Meeting in England EnglandCompares Compares with It Races Are Areof of Great Value After a visit to Ascot Heath on Cup day many years ago the late Richard Harding Davis pronounc ¬ ed it a rather tame affair by comparison with the rowdy good nature and vast extent of Derby day at Epsom Downs Too frequent Intrusions of horses upon the scene to make it a successful garden party he said and too many women to make it a thor ¬ oughgoing race meeting Among horsemen how ¬ ever it has been regarded as the most important meeting of the year in England It lasts only four days and yet as a rule it draws all the best horses in training Charles Richardson has said that in an average year ninetenths of the non ¬ pareils of every age start in one or another of the twentyeight races which make up the Ascot pro igram Many particularly wellbred highly tried I twoyearolds are kept for this brilliant meetihg i None of the socalled classic races are decided there nor is there ahy larg e stake like the San down Eclipse or the Newmarket Jockey Club to feature the meeting But the races are uniformly valuable amounting to something like 200000 in the aggregate with more than 100KM in added money No race course in the world offers such prizes and the result is that a bad horse seldom wins a race at Ascot Only tlie best run in every class Selling races arc prohibited and few handi ¬ caps arc seen during the meeting The program is framed to promote stamina as well as speed in the race horse There are five races of two miles or more five in which ithe distance varies from a mile and a quarter to a mile and fiveeighths and eight in which the horses run a mile while of the ten at a less distance five are for twoyear olds oldsATTENDANCE ATTENDANCE IK KEEPING WITH RACES The attendance at Ascot is in keeping with the racing No other meeting can in any way compare with it as a rendezvous of English society The course is crown property and since 1839 when Queen Victoria set the fashion of going to the races in state it lias been known as Royal Ascot and the royal enclosure has annually accommodated three thousand of the social celebrities which no other event of the season calls together Every fashiona ¬ ble regiment and many of the London clubs have their own luncheon tents some with native Indian soldier servants in white and red turbans to add color to the picture pictureThough Though the glory of modern Ascot dates from 1839 when the new grandstand was built it is much more than eighty years since racing was in ¬ stituted there L H Curzon gives 1727 as the year of its commencement the Duke of Cumberland uncle to George HI havjng offered two ppizes for competition For some years afterward the sport was intermittent but in 1772 theduke fonndeuvthc most famous of Ascots races the Gold Cup which many owners of race horses would rather win titan the Derby because it is a better test of stamina The Ontiands Stakes founded in 1791 was another famous oldtime fixture 40000 persons having wit ¬ nessed the inaugural race won by the Prince of Wales Baronet from eighteen competitors with a half million dollars wagered on the result Dis ¬ order on this occasion is said to have been respon ¬ sible for changing the venue of the Oatlands Stakes then probably the best known race in England to Newmarket and abandoning tlic Gold Cup race It was lint until 1807 that the Gold Cup was revived to be run for1 every year without a break for more than a century until the great war stopped all racing except at Newmarket and a few minor nieet ASCOTS HISTORIC GOLD CUP CUPThe The meeting this year was the first since 19M and it bristled with noteworthy performances The historic Gold Cup race run over the same course and under substantially the same conditions as when instituted a century and a half ago was won by the fiveyearold chestnut horse By Jingo carry ¬ ing 130 pounds and beating Air Raid winner of the Chester Vase by three parts of a length at the end of two miles and a half The winner has been racing since he was a twoyearold He is by Aquasctttum a son of the Cesarewitch winner Childwick When he won the Manchester Cup a race worth 7500 In addition to the trophy just before going to Ascot Hoiace Bottomly owner of Aynesley the horse that ran sccpnd lodged a pro ¬ test against the winner on the ground that W T de Pledge was neither the real name nor the registered turf name of By Jingos owner but the complaTnT w ts dismissed by the stewards stewardsThe The Ascot Gold vase sometimes confounded witli thfr Gold Cup was instituted in 1838 It is a weiglitforage race at two miles and is run oj the first day of the meeting while the cup race is on the third day In old times it was not uncom ¬ mon for an owner who had won tile vase on Tuesday to pull out his horse again on Thursday and run for the cup and occasionally he won the double event the great sire Isonomy having accomplished tills feat as recently as 1879 Tlie vase this year was won by tlie Duke of Portlands homebred chestnut colt Silbiiyx three years Old by Willonyx sire of Air Raid winner of the cup in 1911 as was his sire William the Third in 1902 as well as his grandsire St Simon in 1S84 Silonyx is royally bred on the side of his dam being a son of Silent Lady by Cyllene Miss Gunning II by Carbine Memoir winner of tlie Oaks and St Leger by St Simon He was quite prominent as a twoyearold but did not win any of the import ¬ ant stakes stakesRACES RACES TOR STAYERS STAYERSAnother Another race which attracts the best stayers o the diiy is the Alexandra Plate a contest at some ¬ thing over two miles and threequarters with weight for age up It bus been a fixture since 1863 with Bitch longdistance runners as Musket the sire of Carbine Doncaster the sire of Bend Or and FaughaBallagh grandsire of Iroquois on its roll St Eloi tlie winner of 1919 is a sevenyearold chestnut by Torpolnt one of the few horses that ever won the race twice In the riardwicke Stakes one of the weightforage races at oue and onehalf miles which dates back forty years it luinuened again that the win ¬ ner Sir Hedge worth Meiixs threeyearold bay colt Sir Douglas was tlie sou of a previous winner ston of St Simon This colt finished fourth in the Epsom Derby Many the best threeyearolds iu tnUniug usually start in the Prince of Wales Stakes the Ascot Derby and the St James Palace Stakes the last event being run over the new course of one mile and fiveeighths It was won this year by the bay colt Dominion son of Polymelus and Osyrua by Desmond carrying 131 pounds He was one of tho two colts Lord Glanely sent to the post in the Epsom Derby and apparently the one his owner backed since the odds against him were 20 to 1 while the winner Grand Parade was at 40 to 1 in the betting Dominion ran third to that most unlucky or overrated of threeyearolds Tlie Pan ¬ ther in the Two Thousand Guineas and third to Bpchan and Bruff Bridge in the Craven Stakes at Newmarket Grand Parade won the St James Palace Stakes at a mile and a half while in the Ascot Derby Stakes over the same course the kings colt Pesaro by Bayardo was beaten an open length by Captain Lionel Montagus chestnut colt Old Bill by William the Third KINGS HORSE A WINNER WINNERThe The kings turn came later in the same afternoon when his bay colt Viceroy won tlie Waterford Stakes for threeyearolds over the Old Mile de ¬ feating among others Sir Edward Hultons Rose way winner of the One Thousand Guineas and run ¬ nerup in the Epsom Oaks Viceroy is another of the good ones by The Tetrarch and a son of Sweet Vernal by the Derby winner Sainfoin sire of Rock Sand the Oaks winner Musa by the Good ¬ wood Cup winner Martagon son of Bend Or Vice ¬ roy started sir times as a twoyearold running third to Buchan and Milton in tlie Spring Two YearOld Stakes and second to Violoncello in tlie Extra Two YearOld Stakes at Newmarket He won the Stewards Handicap at Epsom on Derby Day which seems to have been his only previous race this year Two days after winning the Water ford Stakes he was pulled out again for the Jersey Stakes formerly tlie Triennial and this time was beaten a neck over the New Mile by A E Bartons Knight of the Air sonof the Derby winner Sunstar Tlie Cororation Stakes for threeyearold fillies which is usually contested for by the winners of the One Thousand and the Oaks over tlic Old Mile did not bring to the post either Roseway or Bay ttda but several of the nonwinners were there It was won by W M G Singers bay filly Flying Spear that finished fifttf in the One Thousand Guineas The winner is a daughter of the Derby winner Spearmint by Carbine and was bred by the man in whose colors she ran at Ascot Major Waldorf Astor who has lost so many important races by a liead or a neck lost this one by two lengths with Lady Baba whose sire was Sunstar anil whose dam was by Spearmint SpearmintGREAT GREAT TRIITHPH FOR ORBT Of the races for twoyearolds at Ascot the New Stakes which goes back to 1843 and the Coventry Stakes established in 1896 nre tlie most important In the comparatively short history of the Coventry Persimmon Desmond Rock Sand Cicero The Tct rarch and other great horses have won it and this year it went to James Buchanans royallybred gray coif Sarciiedon by Polymelus Perfect Peach Sec ¬ ond to the winnpr was Poltava another gray colt by Polymelus Tagalie the gray daughter of Cyl lene that won the One Thousand Guineas and the Derby beating Tracery in the latter race Poltava had previously won the Wopdicote Stakes at Epsom which is considered the chief events of that meet ¬ ing for two yearolds and also the Maiden Two Year6ld Plate at the Newmarket spring meeting while SarcMdon Ifad worrtlie Bedford Stakes at the Newmarket second spring meeting When Poltava won at Newmarket in May the runnerup was H CunliireOwens bay colt Or ¬ pheus by Orby that had scored in the Maiden Two yearOld Stakes of the April meeting there his first start in public He turned up among the starters for the New Stakes at Ascot arid won by five lengths at odds of 10 to 1 1This This days racing proved to be a wonderful tri ¬ umph for Richard Crokcrs Derby winner of 1907 whosp dam was the Americanbred marc Rhoda B by Haiiover largeriiie by Algerine In tlie Rons Memorial Stakes Lord DAbernons fiveyertrold mare Iiadem by Orby won by six lengths In tlie St James Palace Stakes it was the Epsom Derby winner Grand Parade by Orby that led from start to finish In the New Stakes Orpheus by Orby finished first and in the AllAged Stakes the win ¬ ner wns Lord Jerseys Freesia whose dam was a daughter of Orby New York Herald
