RACING OFFICIALS. 65 



coign of vantage, the judge runs no personal risk, for there is 

 no authenticated instance of a horse bolting into the box ; yet 

 not the less does the man there enthroned need to have all 

 his wits about him. From the moment the flag falls his glasses 

 are fixed upon the coming cohort : as they approach nearer he 

 is able to pick out those that are still in it, and their relative 

 positions on the course ; then when the supreme moment comes, 

 with his eye on the opposite post it is a matter of comparative 

 ease to a practised hand to decide in what order the first three 

 heads shoot past if only people would hold their tongues. 

 But think, in a near race, especially if an important one, what 

 a babel of clamour rises round the box, and how easily a 

 nervous man, one not siir de son fait, might be bounced into 

 putting up the wrong number. No. 6 ! No. 6 ! No. 6 ! shout 

 the partisans of the horse thus numbered, trying to convince 

 themselves, and the judge ere it be too late, that a good 

 second has really got his head in first. Vain hope ! just is 

 Mr. Clark and tenacious of his opinions, and no civium ardor 

 can affect his judgment. Turning to his signal-man he says, 

 very clearly, ' No. 5 ; ' up goes No. 5 ; then after a short pause 

 for the public fully to realise what has won, 'No. 6, No. 7,' the 

 numbers of second and third are hoisted ; the judge descends 

 and solemnly wends his way to the scales, there to watch the 

 jockeys weighed, to take down the numbers, and note in his 

 private book the colours, for the ensuing race. 



Owing to the exceptional advantages he enjoys for seeing 

 everything that goes on towards the finish of a race, he is 

 almost always the first and most important witness called when 

 there is an objection or complaint on the score of a cross, 

 jostle, or any form of foul riding, and his evidence is usually 

 taken as conclusive. Where the weighing-room is very close 

 to the box, it is not impossible for the judge to double his part 

 with that of clerk of the scales, but it is by no means a de- 

 sirable arrangement. He has to send a signed report of each 

 race to the Registry Office. When all is said and done, there is 

 now but one judge and his name is Clark, though in his deputy, 



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