62 A MIRROR OF THE TURF. 



rather suspicious way, just as if they had been 

 given over to a dique of bookmakers to do with 

 them whatever they pleased. That most of the 

 gentlemen who keep race-horses use them as 

 instruments of gambling, has been often made 

 manifest to those who can read the signs of the 

 times. Instances of such being the case are daily 

 thrust upon us. 



It is somewhat difficult to make up an accurate 

 account of the finance incidental to horse-racingf ; 

 but by way of providing means of argument 

 and illustration in that department of turf 

 economy, we can take stock — it can only, however, 

 be done in a rough-and-ready way — of the number 

 and value of horses at present used in breeding 

 and racing. The cost of maintaining and running 

 these animals may then be estimated, and the 

 interest on the money paid for them can be cal- 

 culated, and the figures then obtained will give 

 the best idea that can be formulated of the cost of 

 the sport. Stakes run for and won can be sub- 

 tracted, and the balance exhibited will form profit 

 or loss, as the case may be. 



According to *' Ruff's Guide to the Turf," the 

 money won by horses running under Newmarket 

 rules, in 1889, amounted to ^480,889 i8s., and if 

 for illustrative purposes the sum won by steeple- 

 chasing and hurdle-racing be set down at the 

 modest amount ol ^20,000, we thus obtain a 

 grand total of hall a million sterling. As a rule, 

 the money won in racing is that of the gentlemen 

 whose horses run for it. With the bright exception 

 of Ascot, can a meeting be named that gives 

 twenty-five or thirty per cent, of its drawings to the 



