HANDICAPS. 75 



However, looking at the results of handicapping 

 from every point of view, especially in the true 

 interest of racing, it becomes a question of the 

 greatest importance whether it would not be better 

 to endeavor to discover some other, and, should it 

 be possible, a far better method of determining 

 the weight, under all circumstances, horses shall 

 carry to bring each and every one into contest on 

 fair terms. In my humble judgment, we should 

 see better racing, more fair play, and an increased 

 measure of sport, if handicaps were wholly done 

 away with. 



I believe that, on the principle of dividing horses 

 of three years and upward into classes, and appor- 

 tioning the weight to be carried in all races eoav 

 under handicap conditions in accordance w^ith 

 merit would work out w^ell. Such a principle 

 w^ould be devoid of all imputation of unfairness, and 

 in the future would put a stop to such exhibitions 

 as seen last autumn in the Derby Cup, when a 

 horse which had been run out fairly and squarely 

 on his merits was made to concede an animal of his 

 own age, of undoubted, though at the same time 

 unknown, merit, no less than 39 lbs., and at a 

 period of the year, too, that favored the latter's 

 sex. 



As an incident in the supposed "science" of han- 

 dicapping, this, unfortunately, is only one of many 



