SIXTY YEARS ON THE TURF 



the board. In the main the scale at present adopted 

 is of too restricted a character. Handicappers can,. 

 if they please, take a range of 4 st. 7 lb. But they 

 rarely avail themselves of the privilege, thinking — 

 and perhaps rightly — that as soon as an owner sees 

 his horse with much over 9st., his first action is to 

 strike him out. For this reason I regret the raising 

 of the handicap minimum to 6st., and I cannot say 

 I have ever heard a sound argument in its favour, 

 while we had better racing, bigger fields, and a 

 larger number of good jockeys when "feathers" 

 were possible. Of course handicappers now have 

 much to contend with, and I hold it most unfair, 

 except in cases of glaring incompetency, that any 

 owner can, if he chooses, bring them before the 

 Stewards for an explanation of their action. The 

 inevitable result is timidity, and we see on occasions 

 a slavish acceptance of running when it is notorious 

 that the same was incorrect from want of condition 

 or other causes. If I were a handicapper, and I saw 

 a horse palpably unfit, or watched him "snatched 

 up," I would not take an ounce off his back, and the 

 complaining owner would be told the reason in terms 

 he might not appreciate, but which he could 

 certainly understand. Owners themselves are often 

 to blame in being frightened at an apparently heavy 

 burden, and in this connection I recall that the late 



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