HORSE-RACING IN ENGLAND 



struggle. However, the rough rule given above 

 will serve sufficiently well. 



With these preliminaries we may now proceed 

 to the matter in hand, having just noticed one 

 extreme case of the absurditv to which 'clockinof' 

 may reach when the accompaniments are not 

 accurately weighed. In 1850, at York, the Ebor 

 St. Leger was won by a head after a slashing 

 finish between William the Conqueror (winner) 

 and Mark Tapley (second), with Pilgrim a bad 

 third ; the distance was tivo miles, and, according 

 to ' The Druid,' the time was foiLrteen viinutes 

 and seventeen seconds, which is ' slower than a 

 man.' Of course, the explanation is that the 

 jockeys of the three ' runners ' (and there were 

 only three) had ' waiting orders ' in each case, and 

 did not really 'run' more than a few yards. In 

 fact, it is never safe to assume, even in a race 

 ' against time,' that the ' clocking ' of a horse in a 

 race is conclusive of anything at all beyond the 

 fact that he does or does not do, on a particular 

 occasion, what he was required to do. For 

 example, we sliall see that Galopin, carrying 

 8 St. 2 lb, only, was 8^ seconds longer over the 

 Rowley Mile than when he carried 8 st. 10 lb. 



