HANDICAPS. 69 



dictive hnndioapper; yei, looking over the results 

 of his labors, there were certainly times when 

 owners conlrt hardly feel assured they had been 

 fairly dealt with. The fact is. it was not the gal- 

 lant Major who was open to reproach; it was 

 rather the principle upon which handicaps were 

 founded, and handicapping of itself carried out, 

 not onl3' by him, but by many others, both before 

 and since his time. 



I am not aware there are any prescribed rules in 

 the matter or manner of framing a handicap, the 

 principle, as most people understand it, being a care- 

 ful and well-noted-up particular of every horse's 

 form whose name figures in the entry, accompanied 

 with practical observation of the relative merits of 

 each horse's previous running and what he may or 

 may not be capable of under conditions applicable to 

 the event then under consideration. That it went 

 beyond Avhat may be called "an educated estimate" 

 can hardly be supposed, but there is little doubt, as 

 far as general oi)iuiou went, it was perhaps the most 

 rational method that could be devised, in view of the 

 very great difficulty there naturally would be in en- 

 deavoring to give satisfaction to all parties immedi- 

 ately concerned. 



Another view has been to adjust the weights in a 

 handicap on a sort of sliding-scale basis, by which a 



