On the State of the Law. 15 



seven rows are fixed, it does not detract from the 

 legality of the issue. 



It is the duty of the official authorities, the 

 stewards included, to see that the course assimi- 

 lates with the conditions prescribed, and to take 

 care that every facility is afforded to perform the 

 allotted task. 



Although the starter has discretionary power to 

 take the horses 100 yards behind the post, there is 

 no law to limit the extension. A steward has 

 started the horses for the Chester Cup one quarter- 

 of-a-mile before they arrived at the post. At 

 Goodwood, 1860, the starter, after a dead-heat, 

 took the horses to the five-furlong mark instead of 

 the half-mile. In this instance the second horse, 

 Walloon, would have won if they had run the pre- 

 scribed course. 



There is another state of the law imperfectly 

 understood : for 150 years, horses of a junior age 

 have been allowed to run for public money and 

 plates, for which they are apparently excluded 

 for instance, Bonny Black, in 1719, won the King's 

 Plate for five-year-old mares at Hambleton, she 

 being four years old; Eclipse, five years, won 

 the King's Plate for six-year olds, at Lewes, 1769 ; 

 Bedford, three years, won the Hunter's Stakes at 

 Bedford, 1849, carrying four years' weight. On 



