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CHAPTER VI. 



HURDLE-RACING. 



It would be difficult to justify hurdle-racing as a means of 

 sport leading to a desirable end ; but it is impossible to ignore 

 a form of race which occupies a place on so many race-cards. 

 The spectacle of a good hurdle-race is undeniably picturesque 

 and exciting ; and this is much. Very valuable prizes are now 

 to be won ' over the sticks.' Some of the principal races have in 

 recent years approached in value more nearly to i,ooo/. than 

 to 5C0/. ; and though this is apart from, and in some degree 

 antagonistic to, the scope of the present consideration, it may 

 be observed in passing that the amount of speculation on the 

 chief races is very considerable. As a matter of fact, it has 

 been ascertained that, calculating from a large number of cases, 

 in spite of the risks incidental to jumping hurdles, favourites 

 win over the sticks more frequently in proportion than they do 

 on the flat. 



It has already been said that some horses cannot be per- 

 suaded to jump at all. As a rule, however, it is not difficult 

 to teach horses which have not a marked disinclination to 

 jump — induced perhaps by some organic or structural defect — 

 to learn the simple trick of getting over hurdles. A horse will 

 jump hurdles when he will by no means jump a thick black 

 fence which he cannot see through ; and in general, though 

 horses that have not 'stayed ' even five furlongs on the flat will 

 often stay two miles over hurdles, on the whole the form which 

 has been exhibited on the flat will prove a guide to proficiency 

 in this mongrel variety of sport. 



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