RACING OFFICIALS. 69, 



act on it. If he is on friendly terms with judge and starter, so 

 much the better for him ; both are capable of giving very useful 

 hints. 



There are various systems of handicapping. Some men- 

 keep books i.e. they daily write down the names of the first, 

 three horses that have contended in every race of which a de- 

 scription is published, with the weights at which they ran, and. 

 the distance between each at the finish, and on the opposite 

 side of the page, re-handicap them at such variation of impost 

 as might presumably bring them to a dead heat. Some keep 

 only * ladders,' i.e. long lists of horses handicapped over various 

 courses, from five furlongs upwards, and re-cast the weights' 

 constantly. Others, like Mr. Weatherby (who has unfortu- 

 nately now resigned the post of Jockey Club handicapper, 

 being out-wearied by the worry of the position), go through; 

 the book anew for each fresh compilation, aided only by such 

 notes as they have made from personal observation, and this 

 is perhaps the safest method to adopt. 



The handicapper must indeed be sober and vigilant, for 

 much of his work has to be done at night ; he should be a man, 

 of infinite tact and temper, and to a certain extent he should 

 possess a gift, which at first sight seems hardly necessary for so 

 prosaic an occupation, viz. imagination. The Keeper of the 

 Match Book has ere now been heard to say that so-and-so was 

 a good handicapper, but had no imagination that is, if called 

 upon to handicap a horse for a distance over which he had 

 never run in public, the man could not make a brilliant or even 

 a fairly good guess for it can be nothing else at the form 

 likely to be displayed. 



Never, if you can help it, admit that you have made a mis- 

 take, is a sound piece of advice in this as in other professions. 

 No man asserted his infallibility more loudly than did Admiral 

 Rous, 1 and no man was more thoroughly believed in, though he 

 was tripped up now and then. 



1 The Admiral was one of the rare instances of a man whose deafness did 

 not seem materially to affect his enjoyment of society for he certainly was very 



