POINT-TO-POINT RACES 347 



bridle, bolted in the middle of a field, refused per- 

 sistently, and, in a word, was a non-trier. The 

 man who rode him would not have been allowed 

 to get up on any course under the rules, nor 

 would the man who had the management of him 

 have been allowed on one. Yet here no notice was 

 taken of the matter, though so palpable was it to 

 any one with a pair of good glasses and any ex- 

 perience in watching "horses in running," that I 

 offered to lay 100 to 30 on the non-favourite 

 before they had gone a quarter of a mile, and 

 could not find a taker. 



It may be said that this was at a match, and 

 that therefore those who made the match were 

 responsible for the people with whom they were 

 dealing, or to put it another way, that this was 

 not a point-to-point gathering in the true sense 

 of the term. Admitted, but for all that it should 

 have been run under some rules which would have 

 enabled the stewards to have punished a wrong- 

 doer. But to go to the more legitimate point-to- 

 point gathering. To begin with, how many are 

 there who do not go the course ? I know of one 

 instance where the jockeys were told they might 

 go through the gates they found open. One of 

 the competitors had a friend or two who happened 

 to be near an awkward gate, and somehow those 

 awkward gates flew open at his approach, though 

 it is strange to relate that after he had passed 

 through they somehow closed themselves. That 

 man won ; it would have been strange if he had 

 not, and the objection which naturally followed 

 was over-ruled, as the man had not opened the 

 gate himself. Now I would ask would it not 

 have been better and fairer if there had been a 



