224 THE RACING WORLD 



correctly the form works out " according to 

 Cocker," not occasionally but time after time, and 

 in race after race, the exceptions only going to prove 

 the rule. 



An average handicap of between thirty and forty 

 horses may, if thoroughly and conscientiously 

 worked up, be said to entail a good three to four 

 hours' study ; but where the horses are for the 

 most part total strangers to the solver of the 

 problem of weights, no doubt considerably more 

 time would be taken up. Some few handicaps are 

 very simple and very easily dealt with ; others — 

 and these are the majority — are tricky and full of 

 pitfalls. In some, most of the horses have 

 previously met, and their form can be estimated to 

 an ounce, providing, of course, that they have 

 given their running, which may generally be relied 

 upon if they have been ridden by a high-class 

 jockey, well backed, and have made a good show 

 in the race. This is the form the handicapper 

 delights in, whilst he regards with suspicion that 

 shown by equine competitors running manifestly 

 out of their distance, unmentioned in the ring, and 

 ridden by " chalk jockeys." The presence of a 

 single horse in a handicap may frequently 

 transform the whole business of the compilation of 

 the weights from a matter of ease and facility into 



