424 



A HISTORY Of THK ENGLISH 



The net result of these various considerations may shortly be summed up, from 

 the point of view of the comparison which is my present business. The enormous 

 number of horses now bred and raced has involved the production of an enormously 

 greater quantity of rubbish than was ever the case before. It is not my opinion that 

 the be^t have degenerated yet ; but clearly it cannot be denied that the waste of 

 life upon the Turf is far greater than it ever was. In the season of 1900, for 

 instance, 1,508 two-year-olds went to the post. Of the 1,433 two-year-olds which 

 appeared in 1899, 1,186 raced as three-year-olds in 1900, without counting 

 hurdle-races. But of the 1,055 three-year-olds of 1899 only 582 lasted out; and 



679 was the total of 

 horses aged five 

 years and upwards 

 who competed i n 

 ic,oi on the flat, 

 a number which is 

 curiously enough ex- 

 actly half the total 

 of the two-year-olds 

 of 1897. 



Taking 1875 as 

 the date when com- 

 pany-promotions and 

 enclosed meetings 

 really began to influ- 

 ence racing, we find 



that (on the same basis of calculation) only 2,098 horses in all ran in 1872, as com- 

 pared with the 3,955 of 1901 ; of the 732 two-year-olds of 1871, 627 ran as three- 

 year-olds in 1872, which gives a considerably higher proportion, though the four- 

 year-olds show an equal if not a greater loss. Already the fatal demand for 

 quantity at any rate, whether quality was obtained or not, had begun to show its 

 effects. Mr. Chaplin and Sir Joseph Hawley were among the few who realised the 

 trend of affairs. They pointed this out to the Jockey Club Stewards of the time, who 

 were gradually losing all that control of the whole situation which we have seen 

 them so easily acquire when they began ; they urged that it was suicidal to offer 

 high inducements for two-year-old racing ; that if " weeds " were wanted " weeds " 



" Harkaway" (1834) by "Economist." 



