THE PROGRESS OF THE SPORT. 45 



but which are often not even intended to start, and are well known 

 by the advertising bookmakers not to be even probable com- 

 petitors. Delicate and difficult indeed is the task of attacking this 

 side of the Press system ; for the Press can do, and does, much 

 good to the turf, and would do more were all the writers above 

 the suspicion of being inspired by betting men, or by motives of 

 personal interest. Such suspicions may be, perhaps sometimes 

 are, unjustly entertained ; if so, the journalists have for the most 

 part only themselves to thank. The veil of anonymity, which 

 was formerly a tolerable disguise, has now been worn very thin 

 indeed ; the proprietors of the various noms de plume are per- 

 fectly well known, not only by name but by sight to racing men, 

 so if the malpractices of friends are ignored, and more especially 

 if imaginary slight or private quarrel is quickly followed by 

 public denunciation of the foe, who can wonder that motives 

 not altogether of the purest are occasionally attributed to 

 the author of the diatribe? All honour to those who write 

 faithful criticisms on the running of horses, or the conduct of 

 owners, and who are swayed neither by the result of speculations 

 on the former, nor by the amount of ' information ' they have 

 received from the latter. A turf writer should be first capable 

 of observing, and then of writing what he observes, instead of 

 recording the whims and fancies of others, by which means some 

 of our modern soothsayers, who profess to have at heart the 

 welfare of the turf, have brought upon it unmerited odium, and 

 on themselves well-deserved ridicule. These two results may 

 seem hardly compatible, yet that they are so it is not very diffi- 

 cult to prove. By those behind the scenes, the * flying words ' 

 of the ignorant or malicious scribe are, as a rule, treated with 

 silent contempt. Seldom is an answer attempted ; for such 

 answer would either not be published, or by an editorial sneer, 

 or by clever manipulation of words in a leading article, the un- 

 learned would be satisfied that the refutation was unsatisfactory, 

 and the original strictures quite justifiable ; while those of the 

 outside public who do not speculate, but who read racing lore 

 from love of horses, or from a friendly interest in some owner 



