114 FLAT-RAGING EXPLAINED. 



their number, in a half-hearted sort of way, gives a 

 casual notice of the time in which a certain race is 

 run. 



To my thinking this is very much to be regretted, 

 but I imagine it will not be long now before the 

 public will ask, if they do not insist, that all races 

 shall be olficially timed, and the results duly pub- 

 lished in "The Racing Calendar." It will be under- 

 stood that, in pointing this omission out, I do not 

 make any complaint against sporting writers, to 

 whom the public in general, and race-goers in par- 

 ticular, owe so much. 



Tlie labors these gentlemen perform in the course 

 of their duties, it is well known, are prodigious, 

 while the amount of energy and ability they bring 

 into the task cannot be too widely recognized as de- 

 serving unanimous approbation. 



By the aid of the Avatch, how many horses can be 

 roughed out of a race as having no place in one's 

 estimation for a particular event! Again, how 

 many horses have I not seen, and heard, backed for 

 large sums in all parts of the ring that, in the then 

 state of the ground and on the particular course on 

 Avhich the race was about to be run, had no chance 

 whatever, as the result proved! Then, again, how 

 many horses on these occasions get first past the 



