Coming to what by comparison may be called modern times, we have to credit that able horseman, George Fordham, with five victories; F. Archer won the Oaks on four occasions, three of the wins being for Lord Falmouth; T. Cannon has been twice successful in the race; that careful horseman, John Osborne, has one Oaks win to his credit; Wood, Woodburn, and Robinson have each had one turn. For the long period of one hundred and eleven years the subscribers to the Oaks ran for their own money only the Epsom authorities never having contributed a shilling to the stakes; the winner at one time, indeed, was charged £100 as a contribution to the police expenses! It is really surprising that owners of horses should have submitted for over a hundred years to contribute thousands of pounds to the exchequer of a public company, who have never till lately offered one farthing by way of _quid pro quo_. There can be no doubt, although the Oaks does not draw so great a crowd to Epsom as the Derby, that the race is highly profitable to the parties who work "the oracle." How the new arrangement begun in 1890 will turn out remains to be determined, but in the past history of the race, as can be seen from a perusal of some of the old Calendars, many gentlemen have, year by year, entered from two to nine of their fillies, and have in consequence incurred forfeits to the extent of from fifty to two hundred and twenty-five pounds, with no other result than that of enriching the Grand Stand Company of Epsom, who, it is said, derive a profit of several thousand pounds from the two great races which are run at their Epsom Summer Meeting. A time is undoubtedly coming when it will be necessary for lessees of racecourses to hand over to the men who supply the competing horses a considerable share of the gains which accrue from the popularity of the meeting; otherwise owners will take the matter more into their own hands, and run their horses for their own profit. Taken from beginning to end, the progress of the Oaks has probably been less marked by chicanery than the other classic races. As was said by one of the late Mr. Merry's grooms, a sedate old Scotsman, "fillies are such kittle cattle that it does na dae to trust them ower far," and the man was not far wrong in offering such an opinion. It is a characteristic of their sex to be fickle, and the Oaks is run at a period of the year when such horses may prove most unreliable; hence it is that there is less gambling on the race than takes place on other equine competitions. If a man thinks his filly good enough to win, and is desirous of backing her, he delays his investment till he sees her at the post.