QUEEN’S PLATES.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 525, 23 February 1876, Page 3

QUEEN’S PLATES.

{Fall Mall Budget .) Twenty-nine Queen’s Plates have been run for in England this year, and they have been competed for by ninety-four horses, which is about the same as last year, when there were ninety-three runners for a like number of prizes. They have been shared among only thirteen animals, as seven have been won by Lily Agnes, sis by Lilian, four by Bertram, two by Kaiser, and two by Louise Victoria ; while Sir Frederic, Douro, Town Crier, Industrious, Conseil, Duke of Rutland, Coroner, and Snail have each secured one. None of the eight lastmentioned, excepting perhaps Industrious and Snail, are much above the rank of sel-ling-platers, and it was fortunate for them that neither Lily Agnes, Louise Victoria, nor Lilian appeared upon the scene. Lilian was not so frequent a competitor this year as she was last, when she placed no fewer than seventeen Queen’s Plates to Mr Savile’s credit, and of the six won by her this year two were secured by the easy process of a walk-over. Lily Agnes also obtained two of her victories without opposition, and the same was the case with Bertram, who had the field to himself at Warwick and Egham, though at Lewes he beat Kaiser very easily. The largest and best field was for the Queen’s Plate at Newmarket, which, under the new regulations sanctioned by the Master of the Horse, is worth three hundred guineas. There were nine runners, or one more than last year, when Peut-etre beat Lily Agnes, and Louise Victoria woo after a close struggle with Figaro 11. and Nougat. The success

which has attended the experiment tried at Newmarket ought to have its effect elsewhere, and if there were ten Queen’s Plates for the whole of England, each worth three hundred guineas, instead of three times the number of only a hundred guineas each, the money so granted would be far more likely to effect an improvement in the breed of horses, which is, after all, the object with which these prizes were inscribed upon the Civil List. It is absurb that such horses as Duke of Rutland, Sir Frederic, Town Crier, and Coroner should be able to win what is, as a matter of fact, public money, and they would not do so if the prizes were more valuable, for in that case the Queen’s Plates would be competed for by animals which, though not necessarily of the highest class, are at all events endowed with a fair amount of stamina. The first of the Queen’s Plates was walked over for at Northampton by Lilian, and the last was won at Shrewsbury on Tuesday by Lily Agnes, Louise Victoria and Gang Forward being second and third. A Queen’s Plate was granted by the Master of the Horse to the Bedford Meeting, but as no races have been held there for two years the grant lapses, and will be made over to some other fixture.