RACING OFFICIALS, 69 



Lord Calthorpe said to him one day, apropos of one of his 

 recently published handicaps, ' Now, Admiral, do you think 

 that my horse has got any chance for this race?' * None what- 

 ever,' unhesitatingly rephed the Admiral. * Then pray, do you 

 call that handicapping ; I thought that every horse was at any 

 rate supposed to be given an equal chance ? ' An unanswerable 

 question which remained unanswered. 



Yet does the apportioner of weights not infrequently score 

 off his tormentors. Over and over again have instances been 

 known where official or quasi-official complaints have been 

 lodged as to the unfair handicapping of a horse, who a few 

 hours afterwards has won the very event his impossible weight 

 wherein has been the subject of such bitter invective. 



In such moments of triumph the conqueror does well to 

 bear himself modestly, and as if this vindication of injured 

 innocence was a matter of every-day occurrence. Perhaps it 

 is! 



The most terrible possibility in the lot of any handicapper 

 is the having to listen to a remonstrance or rebuke from any 

 betting lady on one of his handicaps, more especially if she 



deaf, though no doubt he heard many things which were not intended to reach 

 his ears ; indeed, his friends used to say that he never missed hearing an offer 

 of a good match at Newmarket. Match-making was his dehght — his affecta- 

 tion of bewilderment over the form of two horses whose merits he knew as well 

 as he did the Rowley Mile, his start of sudden inspiration, his solemn and 

 deliberate announcement of the weights, his pompous mandate, ' Hands in 

 pockets, gentlemen ! ' followed by ' Show ! ' and his glee when the half-crowns 

 of two acceptors rewarded his skill, were treats to see and to hear. Perhaps 

 one reason why he was never bored in company, even when he could not hear 

 the conversation, was that he had the resource of constant mental handi- 

 capping. When his life was drawing very hear its close — in fact, a few days 

 before he was confined to his room — he said to one of his intimate friends, 

 ' It's a very odd thing. I lose my way now going from the Turf Club' — then 

 in Grafton Street — 'to my house in Berkeley Square ; but,' he added with a 

 gleam of satisfaction, 'lean still handicap /' No faster friends than he and 

 Mr. George Payne ever lived, and the latter looked a broken-down man ever 

 after the Admiral's death. It was great sport to watch the two at billiards, 

 and to listen to their comments on each other's play ; and the tidings that ' the 

 Admiral and G. P. were playing together ' would any night send the Turf Club- 

 men flocking upstairs. 



