CHAPTER VII 



WEIGHT TIME SPEED AND STAYING COST OF RACING 



RACE COURSES 



WEIGHT 



The usual record of a race states that a horse 

 has won by a short head, a head — a very narrow dis- 

 tinction — a neck, half a length, three quarters of 

 a length or more as the case may be. This is the 

 common formula ; but the critical expert is accus- 

 tomed to say, " he won with 3 lbs. in hand," " it 

 was a 7 lbs. beating," or to use some such phrase 

 which deals with weight and not with distance. The 

 reason of this is plain. A horse may win by a neck 

 and have 3 lbs. in hand or 3 stones, because jockeys 

 do not want to win their races by a much larger margin 

 than is necessary, though it may be incidentally added 

 that the very best riders have thrown away not a few 

 races by attempting to draw things too fine — a stumble, 

 a peck, some trivial accident, and a victory that had 

 seemed inevitable is turned into a defeat. Weight, as 

 the phrase runs, " brings horses together," hence the 

 origin of handicapping, and of the system of penalties 



