SOME MEMORABLE MATCHES 



ordinary comment 'won by a head,' or 'won by a 

 length,' and so on, conveys no particular meaning 

 and offers no guidance, such as would be desirable 

 if they were called upon to appreciate, from a 

 handicapper's point of view, the relative capabili- 

 ties of the horse that wins and the horse that 

 loses. For them it may be useful to remark that 

 there is a rough-and-ready method of calculation, 

 widely but by no means universally accepted, 

 whereby distance is converted into representative 

 pounds avoirdupois, so that ' a head ' is regarded 

 as representing (it being supposed, of course, that 

 there is a genuine close struggle) a difference of 

 'one pound ' between winner and loser ; * a neck,' 

 of ' three pounds'; ' half a length,' of 'five pounds '; 

 ' a length,' of 'seven pounds'; and ' two lengths,' 

 of ' ten pounds.' 



But that this corresponsive mensuration is arbi- 

 trary and disputable is to be inferred from the 

 practice of professional handicappers. Admiral 

 Rous, for instance, who was a great handicapper, 

 estimated the difference (if memory may be 

 trusted) between Lord Lyon and Savernake at 

 three pounds, when the former had beaten the 

 latter both for the Derby and for the St. Leger, 

 in each case by a head, after an undoubted genuine 



