SOME EARLY VICTORIAN OWNERS. 493 



call the official framer of the weights before the stewards and ask for explana- 

 tions. Such penalties should only be permitted by a body which will also make 

 itself responsible for improving the communication of essential facts, and should 

 only be discussed by men as well acquainted with the difficulties of handicapping 

 as are the officials who may have been arraigned. Unless this is recognised, modern 

 handicappers will only be able to protect themselves by a servile adherence to 

 "the book," in which they will be able to display their justification when required. 

 The handicapper is no longer "the dictator of the Turf," whose decisions are 

 above appeal. If the world of racing were not the generous and sportsmanlike 

 community it is, perhaps handicappers would not live very long in it ; but it is 

 only fair to them to say that their art shows every sign of improving steadily as 

 one season follows another. I spoke, a few pages back, of the number of dead 

 heats that used to occur in the early part of the Victorian era. This must not be 

 understood to refer entirely to handicaps, or, much as I admire him, I should be 

 rightly considered to have paid Admiral Rous too high a compliment. The 

 statistics show that if we take 517 handicaps (beginning with the Lincolnshire) in 

 six years, of which four are chosen in the zenith of the Admiral's reputation, a 

 very distinct improvement is noticeable. Indeed, if bookmakers got along as well 

 as they did when so many favourites rolled home from 1866 to 1875, they ought 

 all to be in clover now ; for here are the figures, which I quote from an admirable 

 article in the Badminton Magazine, so ably edited by Mr. Alfred E. T. Watson. 



In 1902 there were considerably less victories to record of "odds-on favourites ; " 

 only 147 "favourites;" the "neck wins" had increased by 18, the "head wins" 

 by 20 ; and there was one dead heat of three, and four dead heats of two. 



It is sometimes dangerous for a handicapper to express his opinions ; and 

 Lord Calthorpe once fairly caught the Admiral by asking, " What chance has 

 my horse got for this race ? " R. " None whatever." C. " Then, pray, do you 

 call that handicapping? I thought every horse was at any rate supposed to 

 have an equal chance." But the Admiral knew very well that if it was impossible 



