THE TURF AND SOME REFLECTIONS 



certain it is that the Lord Chesterfield of to-day^ 

 when writing to his son upon the general scheme 

 of his amusements d la mode, would add to his 

 worldly code the recommendation that he should 

 not place his race-horses in a stable where gambling 

 was the practice of the trainer. 



In every department of national amusements 

 great changes and developments have taken place, 

 and racing is no exception to the law of human 

 progress. In earlier times the sport was the 

 diversion of the few : it is now the pastime of the 

 multitude. The days are long past when the race- 

 course was attended by a select band of gentlemen 

 who followed the proceedings on horseback and who 

 cantered on their hacks to the ring to support 

 the animal of their choice. Races have increased 

 in number and enormously in value. Matches, 

 which within the lifetime of some who are still 

 racing, figured in one year to the number of 86, 

 are now practically unknown, save when an engage- 

 ment of the kind appeals to the boyish fancy of 

 a Jewish millionaire. The great prizes offered 

 by the flourishing Park Clubs in the neighbour- 

 hood of London and by the management of other 

 racing centres, where enterprise and reforming 

 policy have been rewarded with financial success,, 

 have naturally proved more attractive to owners 

 than running for their own money. 



The purging of racing from the graver kinds 

 of fraud and chicane has been a gradual process. 

 It is improbable that four-year-old horses will ever 

 again be engaged in races limited to three-year- 

 olds ; or that such circumstances as Greville, for 

 example, records in connection with the Derby of 



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