AN 



EXERCISE GALLOP TO BEGIN WITH. 



The details of the " Sport ot Kings " embraced in 

 the following pages, do not claim to be a consecutive 

 history of the turf, nor are they intended for the 

 instruction of professional racing men. The author 

 makes no pretensions to teach trainers how to train 

 horses, or jockeys how to ride them, and in no sense, 

 except that it is offered for their perusal, is the work 

 intended for those who make the "business" of the 

 turf the work of their lives ; the book has been written 

 for other persons and other purposes. 



It is necessary to state this much plainly, because 

 when a paper or an article pertaining to the "great 

 national sport " appears in a review or magazine, it 

 is at once stigmatised by the sporting journals as 

 containing only " pipers' news,'^ and in the view of 

 the critics it may be so; but such articles are not 

 written to instruct the critics, but to inform the public. 



Histories and other works dealing with horse- 

 racing have at intervals been published, while at the 

 present time there are three daily journals as well 

 as a dozen weekly papers exclusively devoted to 

 what has been called " the great game," and other 

 sports. In addition to these, nearly all the daily 



