HANDBOOK OF THE TURF. 217 



pounds ; the Liverpool horses carried nearly eleven stone — one 

 hundred and hfty-four pounds. On the Liverpool course there 

 are about thirty jumps of formidable size, the going on the turf 

 is worse than at Epsom and there are some ploughed fields to 

 be crossed. 



Kunning-, Remarkable. In October, 1741, at the 

 Curragh meeting in Ireland, Mr. Wilde engaged to ride 127 

 miles in nine hours. lie performed it in six hours and twenty- 

 one minutes. He employed ten horses and, allowing for mount- 

 ing and dismounting, and a moment for refreshment, he rode 

 for six hours at the rate of twenty miles an hour. IVIr. Thorn- 

 dike, in 1715, rode from Stilton to London, and back again to 

 Stilton, 213 miles, in eleven hours and thirty-four minutes, 

 w^hich is, after allowing the least possible time for changing 

 horses, twenty miles an hour on the turnpike road and uneven 

 ground. Mr. Shaftoe, in 17 02, with ten horses, and five of 

 them ridden twice, accomplished fifty and one-fourth miles, in 

 one hour and forty-nine minutes. In 1763, he won a more 

 extraordinary match. He was to procure a person to ride one 

 hundred miles a day, on any horse each day for twenty-nine 

 days together, and to have any number of horses not exceding 

 twenty-nine. He accomplished it on fourteen horses ; and on 

 one day rode one hundred and sixty miles, on account of the 

 tiring of his first horse. Mr. Hull's Quibbler, however, aiforded 

 one of the most remarkable instances on record, of the speed of 

 the race horse. In December, 1786, he ran twenty-three miles 

 round the flat at Newmarket in fifty-seven minutes, ten seconds. 



Running Rules. By the rules of the Turf Congress a 

 horse when in the hands of the starter shall receive no further 

 care from his attendants. He must be started by the jockey. 

 With the consent of the starter a horse can be led to his posi- 

 tion, but must then be let loose. The horses are started by a 

 flag, and there is no start until, and no recall after the assist- 

 ant starter drops his flag in answer to the flag of the starter. 



Running. World's record to close of 1893. It is notice- 

 able that in races on the running turf the time record has been 

 lowered but slightly in recent years and that only in short 

 races ; the long distance races having been changed but little 

 as but few long races have been run. The fastest one-half 

 mile up to 1880, was 0:47|; it was reduced by Geraldine, four- 

 year-old, carrying 122 pounds, at Morris Park, (straight course), 

 August 30, 1889, to 0:46. In 1880, the fastest five furlongs 

 was 1:02| ; reduced in 1889 by Britannia to 0:59 ; reduced by 

 Correction, five-year-old, carrying 119 pounds, at Morris Park, 

 September 29, 1893, to 0:57. In 1880, three-fourths of a mile, 



