RACES KACINE. 



785 



tried in England have never proved themselves 

 equal in any respect, upon the course, to the Eng- 

 lish racers, descended from Arabian stock. The 

 true test of thorough blood is not speed, but con- 

 tinuance. The speed and continuance of race 

 horses is necessarily affected by the weight which 

 they carry. It is said that, in running four miles, 

 seven pounds make the difference of a distance, or 

 240 yards between horses of equal goodness. 

 Weight is therefore regulated with scientific preci- 

 sion on the turf ; and if the jockeys, or either of 

 them, fall below the amount agreed upon, they are 

 made to carry weights to make up the difference. 

 The weights borne by race horses vary from the 

 maximum twelve stone to a boy of the lightest 

 weight. The usual trial of speed, in English rac- 

 ing, is a single mile ; of continuance or bottom, 

 four miles. It has been asserted that Flying Child- 

 ers ran a mile over Newmarket in the space of a 

 minute. The time was really a few seconds over a 

 minute. Flying Childers, in 1721, ran four miles, 

 carrying nine stone two pounds, in the space of six 

 minutes forty- eight seconds. This wonderful ani- 

 mal leaped ten yards with his rider upon level 

 ground, and is supposed to have covered, at every 

 spring in running, a space of twenty-five feet, which 

 is more than forty-nine feet in a second. Eclipse 

 ran four miles in York in eight minutes, carrying a 

 weight of twelve stone, or 168 pounds. Bay Mai- 

 ton ran over the same course in seven minutes and 

 forty-three and a half-seconds. The present system 

 of training race horses is to commence operations 

 at four o'clock in the morning, by brushing the horse 

 over. This being done, and the horse having fin- 

 ished his com, he is taken to exercise : he takes 

 his walking and galloping before and after water, 

 according to his age, state of his flesh, &c. When 

 he returns to the stable, whisping, leg-brushing, 

 &c., ensue ; afterwards feeding ; and the door is 

 closed, the horse being left to himself, free from all 

 kinds of disturbance. This is finished as early in 

 the day as possible. A similar process, but shorter, 

 takes place three hours afterwards ; at noon, brush- 

 ing, feeding, &c., again, and the stable door is 

 again closed for several hours, when similar opera- 

 tions to those of the morning are repeated ; similar 

 stable discipline follows, and the door is once more 

 closed at six o'clock. At eight, the horses are fed 

 and racked up. Their stables are often warmed by 

 artificial heat. The administration of physic ought 

 to depend upon circumstances. Immediately before 

 the race commences, the jockeys are weighed, to 

 see whether they are of the prescribed weight ; 

 and, immediately after the race is over, the weigh- 

 ing is repeated, to ascertain whether any of the 

 weights have been dropped on the course. There 

 is a great deal of fraud practised in the whole busi- 

 ness of racing. The following are some of the 

 laws observed on the turf. Horses take their ages 

 from May day ; that is, from the first day of the 

 May next succeeding their birth. The term catch 

 weights means that the riders are appointed by the 

 parties without weighing. Give-and-take plates 

 are twelve hands to carry a stated weight, all above 

 to carry extra in the proportion of seven pounds for 

 an inch. A post-match is to insert the age of the 

 horse in the articles, and to run any horse of that 

 age, without declaring what horse, till you come to 

 the post to start. The horse that has his head at 

 the ending post first, wins the heat. If a rider fall 

 from his horse, the horse may be ridden in by a 

 person that is sufficient weight, provided he go 

 l)!irk to the place where the rider fell. Horses 

 miming on the wrong side of the post, and not 

 turning back, are distanced ; horses are distanced, 



if their riders cross and jostle, when the articles do 

 not permit it. When three horses have each won 

 a heat, they only must start for a fourth, and the 

 preference between them will be determined by the 

 event. 



RACES OF MEN. See Man. 



RACINE, JEAN. This great French tragic poet, 

 born Dec. 21, 1639, at Ferte-Milon, lost his parents 

 when a child, and was educated in the abbey of 

 Port-Royal-des-Charaps. Here the future direction 

 of his tastes was already indicated in his love for 

 the old Greek dramatic poets, among whom Eurip- 

 ides was his favourite. From Port-Royal Racine 

 went to the college of Harcourt, where he completed 

 his studies. His first production was an ode on the 

 marriage of Louis XIV., which procured him, 

 through Colbert's mediation, a pension, afterwards 

 increased to 2000 livres, and a present of 100 louis- 

 d'ors. From this time, he continued to reside at 

 Paris, on terms of friendship with Boileau, and 

 devoted entirely to poetry. His first tragedy La 

 Thiba'ide, ou les Freres Ennemis appeared in 

 1664, and, although much' inferior to his later 

 works, was received with great favour. In this 

 piece, he imitated Corneille ; in his later ones, he 

 followed a more independent course. His Alexan- 

 dre (1666), though not approved by Corneille, was 

 received with almost universal applause in Paris ; 

 and his Andromache (1668), was still more success- 

 ful. Through all the faults of the latter production, 

 the power of the poet is perceptible; and, from this 

 time forward Racine was generally preferred by 

 his countrymen to Corneille, whom they had pre- 

 viously looked upon as inimitable. The ease and 

 harmony of his versification, and his delineations of 

 tender love, contributed mainly to this result. Ra- 

 cine replied to the tasteless criticisms of marshal 

 Crequi and the count d'Olone by an epigram ; but 

 he had a more difficult struggle to sustain with St. 

 Evremont, who was a sort of arbiter elegantiarum 

 in France at that time. In 1638 appeared Racine's 

 comedy Les Plaideurs, an imitation of the Wasps 

 of Aristophanes, which makes us wish that its au- 

 thor had done more in that department. Historical 

 truth is most accurately preserved in his Britanni- 

 cus (1670). Berenice (1671), and Bajazet (1672), 

 were the least successful of his pieces, and the least 

 faithful in their historical colouring. Mithridates 

 (1673) contains single scenes and situations of great 

 merit. Phedre (1677), and Iphigenie, which ap- 

 peared two years earlier, are among the master- 

 pieces of the French stage. In Athalie (1691), 

 which at first was looked upon in France as an en- 

 tire failure, Racine displays the whole compass 

 of his genius. In 1673, he was received into the 

 academy, and, several years later, was invited by 

 Louis XIV. to write, in connexion with Boileau, a 

 history of his reign, and was named royal historio- 

 grapher ; but he did not proceed far in this work. 

 After a mistaken piety had withdrawn the poet 

 from the theatre, he wrote Esther, at the request 

 of Madame de Maintenon. It was received by the 

 court, now sunk into an abject superstition, with 

 the greatest applause, having been represented by 

 the pupils at St Cyr, in 1689. Racine had hitherto 

 enjoyed the favour of the court ; but, having fallen 

 into disgrace with the king, he died of chagrin, 

 April 22, 1699. The cause of his disgrace was a 

 treatise upon the sufferings of the people in conse- 

 quence of the prodigality of the government, writ- 

 ten by the direction of Madame de Maintenon, and 

 which offended a monarch who was accustomed 

 only to flattery. An edition of his works by Bois- 

 germain appeared in 1767, and a more complete 

 one by Lenormand in 1808. In forming an esii- 

 So 



