572 THE BADMINTON MAGAZINE a Nursery at Liverpool with 7 st. 6 lb., which again did not look like winning a classic race. La Sagesse had more claims to distinction, for she had won six times in thirteen attempts during her first season, but these were all unimportant races, the most valuable of them being worth ^485. Amiable was out on nine occasions as a two-year-old and won twice, affording no sort of ground for the belief that she had an Oaks in her. Mrs. Butterwick was beaten seven times in ten essays as a two-year-old. Mimi in 1890 did show some promise if superficially regarded, for she won her first four races ; still, it should be added that in three of these she only met a solitary opponent, whilst in the Middle Park Plate she was either last or last but one of nine runners—the first seven were placed— and in the Dewhurst Plate she was either fourth or fifth in a field of five. The sisters Memoir and La Flèche I am omitting in this retrospect ; they both trained on, and the former improved, but L’Abbesse de Jouarre was not made to appear like an Oaks winner in her first season when she won three small races in eight visits to the post. That is one side of the question ; on the other we have the hopes naturally formed as to what was to be expected from such promising two-year-olds as Bal Gal, Corstorphine, Omladina, Roquebrune, Kissing Cup, Formidable, Wedding Bell, Saintly, Melody, The Prize, and others. It seems rather a waste of time, therefore, solemnly to discuss what was done last year by Britannia, Galicia-—who is happily on her legs again— Princess Melton, Running Stream, Santa Brigida, and the fillies that may be seen at Epsom on the 6th of next month, though soon after the appearance of these pages a little light will be thrown on the subject by the One Thousand Guineas. It may be noted, by the way, that the colts are not equally uncertain. That Jeddah should have won the Derby in 1898 was something between a burlesque and a catastrophe. Sir Visto was successful three years previously, because, bad as he was, the others were a little worse. But at any rate since 1885, to go back no farther, the Derby has been won as a rule by animals that have shown great promise before they went to the post on the Surrey downs, Merry Hampton, who had never been out before he appeared at Epsom, of course forming an exception. If any one who had been away from England for some twelve or fifteen years—any one, I mean, who was in the habit of going to Newmarket-—were now to return, what an amazing