CHAPTER V 



SELLING RACES 



Selling races are the lowest forms of contest recog- 

 nised by the rules of racing ; and selling handicaps, 

 the lowest of all, are, on the face of them, manifestly 

 ridiculous. "Winner to be sold for 50 sovs." is the 

 notification in the conditions of the poorest, the 

 selling price being raised on occasions to much larger 

 sums, though perhaps £100 is the most common, and 

 no prize can be less than ;^ioo under Jockey Club 

 Rules. Weights range from 9 st. to 6 st. ; and it is 

 manifest that if one horse can give another 3 st. and a 

 beating — a beating which may tend to prove that he 

 could have given much more — and if the winner is 

 only worth ^50, the defeated light-weight must be 

 worth a great deal less ; or, on the other hand, if the 

 bottom weight wins, and the top weight, giving the 

 3 St., is only just defeated, and receives, let us say, a 

 3 lb. or 4 lb. beating, he or she must be worth a great 

 deal more than the winner. No one can fail to see the 

 cogency of this argument ; and the man of logical 

 mind who did not understand the exigencies of racing 



