578 THE HOKSK. 



and more guilty agents are enabled to move their machinery 

 of fraud is beyond a question : for how should a race be lost 

 at will, if those who ride the horses, or prepare them for the 

 turf, were not implicated ? These superior agents may, in- 

 deed, influence the jockeys ; and we must pity the poorer 

 riders who are required to lose a race, although the scoun- 

 drels that corrupt them are able to reward their obedience. 

 It is the first lesson in deception they receive, the effect of 

 which is to rear up a generation of profligates, ready to sell 

 their services, until they shall have acquired the means to set 

 up for themselves. But it is apparent that the facilities for 

 this kind of corruption are immeasurably increased, when 

 the superior jockeys and trainers enter on the turf as princi- 

 pals, and become necessarily implicated in the same class of 

 proceedings. Therefore, we say, that the strictest means 

 ought to be adopted for preventing trainers and jockeys from 

 engaging in the gambling business of the turf. 



Of the effects of this system of pollution, the proceedings 

 of the modern turf are a continued exemplification. It has 

 almost ceased to be the practice to bet on horses, from a 

 simple knowledge of their powers and qualities, as exhibited 

 by their public running. The bet is often founded on pri- 

 vate information, purchased at a high price, and by a betray- 

 ing of confidence ; or on a knowledge of what parties bet for 

 or against certain horses. The trumps are marked, and the 

 pack is shuffled, by those who are deepest in the game, while 

 others are content to observe their superiors in intelligence, 

 and to play their own stakes accordingly. When a number 

 of influential bettors back a horse to lose, he will be a bold 

 man who will back him to win, founding on mere knowledge 

 of the animal's powers. One of the best authorities upon 

 such subjects declares, that a horse " with the best blood of 

 England in his veins, and the best jockey on his back, shall 

 have no more chance to win, when backed heavily to lose, 

 than a jack-ass.' 1 Another authority, himself a rider and 

 owner of race-horses, long ago declared, that, if Eclipse were 



