3 i4 KINGSCLERE 



Catch'em Alive was the winner of the race. A reward of 

 50/. was afterwards offered by the Jockey Club for such 

 information as should lead to the discovery of the person or 

 persons who had fastened the lead to the scales.' 



In William Day's ' Reminiscences of the Turf,' the writer 

 gives his version of the transaction as follows : — ' The scandal 

 arose from the fact that some one had fixed some lead 

 under one of the scales — for there were two scales, one at 

 the lower, and one at the top stand. It was pretty well 

 known at the time, and is now, who the offender was. A 

 light-weight jockey who rode in the race had wasted very 

 hard, in the hope that he would reduce himself to the exact 

 weight. Unfortunately, on scaling privately early in the 

 morning, he found himself 2 lb. over the weight he had to 

 ride, and fearing, I imagine, that he might be taken off, 

 he kept the secret to himself. Before the jockeys were 

 weighed out for the race, he went to the clerk of the scales, 

 the late Mr. Manning, then engaged at the lower stand 

 weighing jockeys for some other race, and said : " I have 

 left my light saddle in the top stand ; please let me have 

 the key to get it, as I have to ride in the next race." As 

 there was nothing unusual in the request, the key was 

 handed to him, and the opportunity thus afforded him of 

 fixing, unobserved, the lead to the bottom of the scales 

 without exciting suspicion, as he soon returned and gave 

 the key back to its proper custodian. I should state that 

 though the jockeys were allowed to "weigh out" before the 

 race at either of the scales, they could only " weigh in " after 

 the race at the top stand. The jockey knew that if he 

 carried more than 2 lb overweight without declaring it, he 

 would, if he won, be disqualified, and that by the plan he 

 adopted he was quite certain to be the right weight. But 

 I suppose it never occurred to his imaginative mind that 

 others carrying the right weight being weighed at the lower 

 stand, would prove that he carried the wrong weight when 

 weighing in at the top stand. If he had thought of this, and 

 had had the opportunity of making both scales alike he 

 would have escaped detection ; for in that case all the horses 

 would have simply carried 2 lb. over the weight assigned 

 them. 



' There is no doubt that several jockeys did weigh out 

 at the top stand, and, without knowing it, rode 2 lb. over- 

 weight ; and if cne of them had won, and the fact of 



