40 FLAT-RAGINQ EXPLAINED. 



nificance, of no possible value to the owner or any- 

 body else. 



Perhaps I may remark here that the old time- 

 honored practice of maintaining inviolable secrecy 

 in stable affairs, if not a thing of the past, should 

 have been so long ago. 



When fifty-ix)und plates and that racing abomi- 

 nation, "four-mile heats," were the order of the day, 

 there was a sort of legitimate excuse for it; but 

 feince all that kind of thing has been swept away by 

 the advent of big stakes and more healthy condi- 

 tions all round, surely bygone methods, rendered 

 obsolete by force of circumstances, might in a large 

 measure have been swept away too. I do not think, 

 if every vestige of information relating to stable 

 affairs were absolutely laid bare, it would be of the 

 least possible disadvantage, and I firmly believe, as 

 a consequence of it, no owner of racehorses would 

 suffer in the slightest degree. Some persons are apt 

 to think market operations would be unduly influ- 

 enced if the course suggested were resorted to. I 

 have, however, not the least doubt just the opposite 

 w^ould occur, and that a far healthier tone would 

 prevail, to the advantage of everybody, owners of 

 horses included. 



Whether trainers will be induced to adopt the 

 method of ascertaining the exact distance their 

 horses can gallop at a single "burst" or stretch, auck 



