THE PROGRESS OF THE SPORT. 47 



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

 known by the advertising bookmakers not to be even probable 

 competitors. 



Some newspapers there are whose editors, fearing to come 

 within actual reach of Jockey Club law, sail as near the wind 

 as possible, e.g. they state that on such and such a morning three 

 or four horses had a rattling gallop stripped, and name them in 

 the order in which they finished in the illegally watched trial 

 a consigne thoroughly understood by the initiated ; but surely 

 it is an oversight on the part of the Stewards of the Jockey 

 Club to allow their rules, which forbid the publication of trials, 

 to be thus clumsily overridden. 



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 much more were all the writers 

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

 motives of personal interest. 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 answer would either not be published, or by an editorial sneer, 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 



