842 



RACING. 



Mares to be allowed 5 lb. from April to June 1st; 3 lb. from June 1st to 

 September 1st: 2 lb. from September 1st to November. Geldings allowed 

 3 lb. throughout the year. 



The stone is 14 lbs. 



HANDICAPPING. 



By handicapping is meant an adjustment to the dif- 

 ferent horses entered for a race of such different weights 

 as will equalize their powers, and give them all equal 

 chances for winning the race. The person who makes the 

 adjustment is called the "handicapper," and it is his duty 

 to inform himself of the character of each horse, of the 

 running that he has previously made, of his age, and in 

 short of every circumstance which can effect his running 

 in the race in view. 



Although very much in vogue, it is a system which 

 encourages more dishonesty than any other connected with 

 the turf, inasmuch as it offers a premium for fraud, by 

 making it appear, to the " handicapper," at least, that one's 

 horse is a poor one, when he is quite the reverse. The 

 means by which this is accomplished are as many and 

 as dishonorable as they are notorious. A horse will, at 

 times, be made to lose every race for a whole season, in 

 order that in a " handicap" race, for which he is being pre- 

 pared, he may be weighted as lightly as possible, and that 

 then, with the extra power which has been kept in abey- 

 ance, he may easily win a prize which repays ten-fold the 

 losses of the early part of the season. The whole system 

 has done more to bring discredit on the racing of horses 



