1IOR8ERACING 



HOKSK-ItUHSII 



799 



each day's racing there shall be two race* of 1 mile 

 MI upwards, not being wiling raceH ; and no race 

 shall ! run over a less distance tluin f> furlong. 

 In i In- opinion of those who have the interest* of 

 the turf at heart, there are too many of what 

 are colloquially known a* '.>fiirlong scrambles," 

 which make shifty horses and bad jockeys. The 

 rule as to the number of races in a day of 1 mile 

 in upwards is of course strictly complied with ; but 

 it i- at comparatively few meetings that a 2-mile 

 i- witnessed. At Ascot there are several 

 events run over 2 miles ; the Gold Cup course 

 is 2X miles ; and that for the Alexandra Plate 

 3 miles ; while the Goodwood Cup distance is 

 also 2J miles, and the Cesarewitch is run over 2$ 

 miles. 



The weights carried by racehorses are assigned 

 in various ways. In some races, like the Derby, 

 < >ak>. and St Leger, which are confined to horses of 

 one age, all carry the same weight ; but if, as in 

 the Derby, both fillies and colts are eligible to 

 compete, the lillies have a sex allowance of 3 Ib. 

 Next come the weight-for-age races, open to horses 

 of different ages, in which case horses of the same 

 age carry the same weight, the younger ones less 

 than older ones. Thirdly comes the handicap, 

 which, owing to the field it opens to fraud, is 

 said to have been responsible for many of the 

 malpractices which occasionally take place in con- 

 nection with the turf : it was brought into fashion 

 by the promoters of race-meetings sometimes find- 

 ing it difficult to provide sufficient sport for the 

 spectators and the owners of horses. When racing 

 was in its infancy all horses, which were, however, 

 usually five or six years of age, carried the same 

 weights, so that if a four-year-old happened to start 

 he met maturer horses on disadvantageous terms ; 

 and, when a horse had made a name for himself, no 

 others were entered against him. Weight-for-age 

 races ( in which horses of six years old and upwards 

 give weight, according to a scale laid down, to 

 younger competitors) and give-and-take plates 

 were gradually introduced, the give-and-take 

 plate being one in which a certain weight, say 9 

 stone, was assigned to horses of a certain size, 14 

 hands, for example. Horses above that size carried 

 7 Ib. extra for each inch, while those who fell 

 short of that measurement were allowed 7 Ib. 

 for each inch below 14 hands. Handicaps were 

 known in the 18th century, but it was not 

 till about 1818 that they figured often in the 

 programmes of race-meetings. Since then they 

 nave increased in number. 



The handicaps at the meetings of which the 

 Jockey Club stewards are also the stewards of 

 the meeting are made by the official handi- 

 capper, who is a salaried official of the Jockey 

 Clui) ; but his services are retained for many 

 other meetings, for which he obtains extra re- 

 muneration from those employing him. In racing 

 it is sought to equalise the chances of the differ- 

 ent horses by apportioning to each the weight 

 which, in the opinion of the handicapper, will bring 

 them together, nis aim being to bring about a dead- 

 beat by all the horses competing. The conditions 

 of a handicap are duly published, and the date at 

 which the entries close is notified. The handi- 

 capper then proceeds to consider the powers of the 

 horses, and assigns to each horse the weight he 

 thinks it ought to carry, and in due course the 

 several owners know the handicapper's estimation 

 of their horses by the publication of the weights 

 in the Racing Calendar. Those who think that the 

 handicapper has entertained an exaggerated esti- 

 mate of their horse's powers can save further cost 

 in the way of forfeit by declining to accept ; and 

 then the next piece of intelligence published in the 

 > vl >eet Calendar is the 'acceptances,' as they are 



called in other word*, the name* of the hone* 

 whose owners are primd facie tuitUfied with their 

 chances, though it by no im-iin- follow** that all 

 those that are ' left in,' as the jdirawj run*, will 

 start for the race. It frequently BttMM that the 

 hoi.-e to which is allotted the top weight in among 

 the non acceptors, not always DMMM bin owner 

 thinks that tne borne cannot giveaway the required 

 weight, but Ill-ran--- he is occasionally unwilling 

 for him to carry HO much for fear of breaking him 

 down, of which there in obviously more chance 

 under 9 stone than under 6 or 7 Htone. 



Moreover, the conditions of nearly every handicap 

 provide that a horse winning a race after the pub- 

 lication of the weight* shall carry a penalty, which 

 must be added to the weight originally allotted by 

 the handicapper; and the incurring of this penalty 

 is often the reason of horse* not starting. When 

 the top weight or weights do not accept, the high- 

 est weight accepting is raised to that which wan 

 originally the maximum of the handicap, and 

 then, assuming the maximum to have been 9 stone, 

 a notice appears in the Calendar t<> the effect 

 that, the highest weight accepting Ix-ing 8 stone 

 4 Ib. (or whatever the impost may have been), 

 it has been raised to 9 stone, and the others in 

 proportion. The minimum weight to be carried 

 in a handicap or any other race is fixed by the 

 i-ules of racing at 6 stone, and by the 27th rule 

 the top weight to be allotted in a handicap shall 

 not be less than 8 stone 12 Ib. For a year or two 

 prior to 1889 a rule was in force that apprentices 

 who had not ridden three winners might claim a 

 5-lb. allowance so long as the weight to be carried 

 did not fall short of the minimum weight permitted. 

 The object of the rule M-as to encourage the em- 

 ployment of lads not yet out of their time who 

 gave promise of riding well ; but after the regula- 

 tion had been in force for a short time it was 

 urged that the 5-lb. allowance upset the work of 

 the handicapper ; so, when the rules of racing 

 were revised by the Jockey Club in 1889, the 

 section authorising the apprentice allowance was 

 excised. 



To decide upon the weights horses shall carry is 

 no easy task. The handicapper must be a regular 

 attendant at race-meetings and able to form his 

 own judgment on what he sees ; for the position 

 a horse may occupy at the termination of a race is 

 not necessarily any criterion of his true form. He 

 may be out of condition ; or, when his jockey finds 

 he cannot win with him, a horse is almost invari- 

 ably eased and finishes seventh or eighth when he 

 might have been third or fourth ; and the handi- 

 capper must also possess sufficient perception to 

 see when an attempt is made to throw dust in his 

 eyes. Even so astute a man as the late Admiral 

 Rous occasionally made mistakes ; and whoever 

 may for the time lieing occupy that difficult posi- 

 tion must abandon all hope of pleasing everybody. 



See J. C. Whyte, History of tlte British Turf ( 2 vote. 

 1840); James Kice, History of the Turf (2 vote. 1879); 

 W. Day, The Racehore in Training (1880), and The 

 Horse and koto to Breed Him (1888) ; Hare, History of 

 Newmarket ( 1884 ) ; History of Raciiifl and Steeplechasitty, 

 'Badminton' series, Duke of Beaufort, editor (1886); 

 Touchstone, Pedigree, Description, and History of Cele- 

 brated English and French Racehortes, 1764 to 1887 ; an 

 anonymous History of Satiny (18<>2); Joseph Osborpe, 

 The Horse-breeder's Handbook (1881), and Companion 

 to the Stud-book (Epsom, 1889) ; The General Stud-book, 

 published every five years (voL xvi. 1889); Weatherleys' 

 Portraits of 'Celebrated Racehorses (4 vols. 1887); 

 Taunton, I'ortraiti of Celebrated Racehorses (4 vote. 

 ISV.M; Weatherleys' 'yearly Rnciny Calendar; KuflT 

 Guide to the Turf; R. Black, Horse Raeinff in Eiujlnnd 

 (1894). See also STEEPLECHASE, TROTTING, BETTING. 



Horse-radish (Corhlearia Annoracia), a per- 

 ennial herbaceous plant, belonging to the natural 



