80 FLAT-RACING EXPLAINED. 



would apply elsewhere in the ease of the other, 

 with little or no chance of being able to prevent it. 



It was seen, as I have said, in the Derby Cup, 

 how a difference of 39 lbs. between two horses of 

 the same age was made to afford a basis of "esti- 

 mate," but if this was supposed to be racing on 

 equal terms, and to satisfy the aims of racing in the 

 sense of "legitimate sport," I thinli, lilce a good 

 many others, I should not be induced to travel very 

 far to witness such exhibitions. 



The idea which has always prevailed of making 

 the conditions in racing such as will bring the "good 

 and the bad" horses together, however acceptable in 

 theory, is subject, nevertheless, to much reserva- 

 tion in practice. A four-year-old at the top of a 

 handicap and a five-year-old at the bottom, placed 

 at a difference of about 3 st. (42 lbs.), if it does not 

 shock one's notion of fair play, rather conveys to 

 one's understanding that something is wrong. 



There is a limit within which a handicapper 

 must range, in fixing the weights at the top and the 

 bottom, but so far as age is concerned, there is no 

 limit, or indeed anything to disallow a three-year- 

 old being: placed at the top, and an aged horse at the 

 bottom, should their respective capabilities appear 

 to sanction it on the basis of "estimate." 



One cannot help thinking tlie "idea" of "good and 



