STARTERS AND STARTING 151 



have known several cases where experienced racing 

 men who had been down near me have been good 

 enough to say that a start was excellent, while 

 those who have looked on through their glasses 

 three-quarters of a mile away have declared the 

 same start to be " rotten." Many people entirely 

 forget, or do not realise, the angle at which they 

 are looking at a start, and judge it unjustly 

 accordingly. 



Why they quite honestly, fully believing they 

 are right, come to such conclusions can readily be 

 explained. Two or three horses in a big field are 

 tolerably sure to be more or less bad beginners ; 

 the whole lot may be absolutely level when the 

 barrier is raised, but these two or three do not 

 strike off with the rest, the critics through their 

 glasses see that they are behind, assume that they 

 have been more or less carelessly or clumsily left 

 there, and the start is set down as a hopeless failure 

 — on the part, the censors have no doubt, of the 

 starter. Because the majority of horses get off so 

 equally, anything a bit slow is conspicuous and is 

 at once put down as " left." 



But let us consider a few facts bearing on the 

 case. It may be, for one thing, that a jockey is 

 not ardently desirous of getting away first ; his 

 horse figures in the rear, and this is held to be a 



