The Great Metropolitan Stakes, run for at Epsom, was at one period a very heavy medium of turf speculation, but is now at a low ebb. For this race about thirty-five years ago there was wont to be from fifteen to twenty-nine runners--a number that admitted of much betting. Handicaps that aforetime were "great" are now small affairs; indeed the new races which have lately been instituted claim popularity in a greater degree, and now more interest is taken by bettors in the Lincolnshire Handicap than in the so-called "great" races. As a medium of betting the race run at Lincoln affords an opportunity to all classes, there being usually a numerous entry and a fairly large field of competing horses. Several other large betting races, such as the City and Suburban, the handicaps at the Leicester Meetings, and the Manchester Cup in the first half of the year, provide plenty of work for the bookmakers, and relieve bettors of superfluous funds; no wonder, therefore, that many of the old mediums of speculation are being "knocked out of time." As betting races the short-distance handicaps carry the day. The Ascot Stakes even, and the Goodwood Stakes as well--both at one time of importance--have fallen from their former estimate, and no longer attract the attention of the great body of betting men. The Cesarewitch, which is without doubt the greatest of our handicaps, may be referred to at some length as a typical handicap. Instituted in 1839, it is among handicaps what the Derby is among so-called "classic" races. The great Newmarket event was named in honour of the Grand Duke of Russia, whose title in the Muscovite tongue is the "Cesarewitch," and who, on the first occasion of its being run, gave a prize of £300 in commemoration of his visit to this country along with his father, the Emperor Nicholas--the founder of the Emperor's Plate at Royal Ascot. It is now over fifty years since the race was first run, on which occasion there were twenty-six subscribers of £25 each, and as ten runners came to the post, the value of the stakes to the winner, including the sum given by the Cesarewitch, was £715. The first winner of the event was Cruiskeen. In course of time the Cesarewitch became the greatest of our English handicaps, over two hundred horses having in some years entered to take part in the struggle. As may be supposed good fields are usually the result of large entries, as many as thirty-seven horses having, in 1862, been sent to the post, and on another anniversary of the race thirty-six tried conclusions.