WEIGHTS. 83 



tion of other than general information touching tlie 

 subjects referred to. 



I saj^ this, liowever, that it opens up matter in 

 the interests of racing of very serious consequence, 

 \Yhile it sliould afford facilities for scientific in- 

 quiry, the advantages of which should not be over- 

 looked by race-horse owners or, indeed, any one 

 associated with the thoroughbred or with racing. 



If what I have said is accurate and well founded, 

 as I believe it to be, then I think it goes a long way 

 to show how little the allotment of weight in han- 

 dicaps has had to do in the long run with races of 

 that description. 



It should be well known that a handicap run over 

 different courses will have a different winner and 

 different placed horses on each occasion, and this, 

 of itself, should have caused something more ef- 

 fective than weights fixed by estimate to have been 

 long since substituted for it. 



The principle of apportioning weight that horses 

 shall carry in races should be governed in certain 

 cases by "scale," as weight-for-age races are so gov- 

 erned. There is this, how^ever, to be said: — Weight- 

 for-age races are races irrespective of merit, while 

 races arranged on the basis of "weight-for-merit," 

 are races irrespective of age. 



