WtJtOBTS. 79 



because it enables them to see the very best strains 

 of the thoroughbred the worhl can produce, broughl: 

 into contest under circumstances Nature intended. 



When the contest is upon terms that are equal, 

 their pleasure is enhanced; when it is unequal, as 

 in handicaps, where the weights offer no sort of 

 guarantee to the contrary of this, they can only 

 feel that the conditions have changed, and as a re- 

 sult hope for better things on some other occasion. 



The fact is, there is no such thing as racing on 

 equal terras on the basis of "estimate." 



Suppose every course to be surveyed and the 

 running distances reduced by ordinary computation 

 (to which I have referred in the chapter on Courses), 

 to come out at the level, and the stated distances 

 to be run over made the actual distance or length 

 of course at the level, it must not be overlooked 

 there is then the adaptability of every horse in the 

 entry to the particular gradient to be adjusted, for 

 which weight in no sense can be said to provide. 



There are, in every handicap entry, horses of 

 varied running characteristics, such as I endea- 

 vored to illustrate in the respective running of Best 

 Man and Georgic, that no course and no weight 

 would bring together to race on equal terms, for 

 the simple reason that on a particular character cf 

 ground the one horse would win, while the same 



