14 Horse Racing, 



tlie handicapping Clerk of the Course expects a 

 bonus, there is an end to the prosperity of the 

 Turf. 



A high-weight standard is never popular ; horse 

 owners object to 9 st., although they have no objec- 

 tion to run in a Queen's Plate, carrying 10 st. 

 The recent alteration of the feather-weights being 

 raised from 4st. 7 lbs. to 5st. 7 lbs., puts bad 

 three-year-olds out of court, and diminishes the 

 field 15 per cent. 



I have always been an advocate for a high scale ; 

 in 1852 I recommended that the Spring Handi- 

 caps should commence at 1 st. 7 lbs. Experience 

 teaches me that, owing to the prejudices of trainers, 

 a high standard is a certain failure with the best 

 calculation of weights ; and the Clerks of Courses 

 well know that a light-weight handicap, like a fat 

 horse, covers its own defects. 



There is a clear conventional understanding, 

 that when horses are engaged to run certain dis- 

 tances, unless they complete the whole extent, the 

 race is void ; if horses, matched to run one mile, 

 run one mile and a quarter, the race is legal if 

 they gallop over the course prescribed, and pass 

 the proper winning-post : in a hurdle-race, with six 

 rows of hurdles to be jumped, if there are only 

 five rows placed, it is no race, but if accidentally 



