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National, and to old Punchestown. To these meetings pour thousands 

 of men and women solely from pure love of sport, being, as they 

 decidedly are, the most popular in the kingdom. 



The newly-instituted stakes of 5,000 and 10,000 guineas are not 

 nearly as popular among sportsmen as the races I have just named- 

 No doubt they bring the " gallery," but that is not a true criterion 

 of popularity. Doubtless many will disagree with me, but I am very 

 confident that what brings the crowd is the big betting, for, although 

 good horses at times run, small fields and bad sport are often the result 

 of these monster stakes. 



Be the inducement to attend races what it may, the noble sport 

 causes an enormous expenditure of money. In no other branch 

 of sport have we such a medium, while the circulation is general 

 among all classes. 



I never heard of any calculation being made of what racing costs 

 and causes to be spent ; I shall therefore enter upon the subject. 



I shall begin with Ireland, but I must take in flat-racing and steeple- 

 chasing combined, inasmuch as the table given in our Irish Racing 

 Calendar for 1891 does not separate them, and it is from that 

 interesting and valuable volume I take the figures upon which I base 

 my calculation. 



Pages 185-6 of that book tell us that, in 1891, 1,095 horses ran in 

 Ireland for 603 races of the aggregate value of £39,144. It also gives 

 ninety-five as the number of race and chase meetings held there in 

 that year. 



These 1,095 racehorses must be worth, on a low average, £150 apiece, 

 but even at that figure they would total £164,250. 



They cost, on an average, 30s. a week each to keep and train. Those 

 kept in their owners' stables cost less ; those in training stables more. 

 That would total £1,642 10s. a week, or £85,410 a year. 



These 1,095 horses have each gone to, say, only two meetings in 1891. 

 Taking long and short, each journey for horse and man would cost 

 the owner a five-pound note. That would tot up to £10,950, say £1 1,000, 

 for the travelling expenses of the horses to the meetings they ran at. 



The entrance stakes and forfeits would be at least £2 for each race 

 they were entered for. Say each horse was entered for only five races, 

 that would also come to £10,950, or say again £11,000. 



Let us suppose that these horses are owned by 220 men {i.e., giving 

 five to each, which is, I think, too many on an average for Irish 

 owners), and that they go to see their horses run at the two meetings 

 they are sent to. A man cannot go by train and stay at an hotel for a 

 night or two without it costing him, at the very lowest calculation, a 

 fiver. At that very moderate allowance, our owners will have paid in 

 personal expenses just £2,200. 



I find that about 1,630 is the number of mounts professional jockeys 

 had in Ireland in 1891. Bulking the fees for winning and losing mounts 

 in both steeplechases and flat races, and adding a trifle for travelling,. 



