The Victoria Racing Club of Melbourne may fairly claim to be the premier club in Australia, and in the perfection of its arrangements and of the course at Flemington, it stands a head and shoulders above any European club.  Already it has an excellent stand, and yet L30,000 have just been voted for its improvement.  The lawn is perfection.  The hill behind the stand would appear to have been made by nature in order to allow the half-crown public to see the finish, as well as the half-guinea folk in the stand.  The course is flat as a pancake, well turfed and drained.  The surroundings remind one of Longchamps.  On race-days trains run out from Melbourne every ten minutes; and, as you can buy your train and race ticket beforehand in the town, you need never be jostled or hurried.  Everything works as if by machinery.  It would really pay the South Western officials to take a lesson at the Spencer Street Station next Cup-day, to prevent the annual scramble at Waterloo every Ascot meeting.

The V.R.C. hold three race-meetings in the year at Flemington, together with a steeplechase meeting in July.  The principal meeting is the autumn meeting of four days on the second of which the blue ribbon of the Australian turf—­the Melbourne Cup—­is run.  One hundred and twenty-eight horses entered for this race last year, and twenty-four ran.  The latter number is considerably below the average.  The Cup is a handicap sweepstakes of twenty sovs., the distance being two miles, and the added money only L500.  Altogether the V.R.C. gave L13,000 of added money last year, the greatest amount given to a single race being L1,000 for the Champion Stakes.  Next to the V.R.C., the Australian Jockey Club of Sydney ranks; but there are four other racing clubs in Melbourne, two more in Sydney, and two in Adelaide—­all holding good meetings, which are well attended and well arranged.  The minor meetings in Sydney and Melbourne are, however, getting to be mere gate-money and betting affairs, and do not—­with one exception—­attract horses from the other colonies.

Undoubtedly the chief fault of Australian racing is the prevalence of handicaps.  We do not get so many short-distance races as at home, but, unless there is a prospect of a keen struggle between two special favourites, the public will not attend weight-for-age races in numbers at all adequate to defray their expenses, while a good handicap is always remunerative.  The V.R.C. does its best to hold out against popular feeling by giving liberally to weight-for-age races, but without plenty of handicaps they could not find money for the weight-for-age races, far less for the luxurious arrangements of their courses.

The colonial jockeys cannot be said to be at all equal to the English, and for really good riding one must still go to the old country; but every year an improvement is visible, and before long we may reasonably expect that Australia will have its Archer, or at least its Cannon.