423 



seats and scenery within the walls of these theatres, requiring the 

 actors and actresses to give their services for nothing, and be content 

 that the best performer was to draw a sum which was made up entirely 

 by subscriptions among themselves, while Sir Augustus and Mr. Gunn 

 were to^take all the door money ? 



The analogy is by no means overdrawn. The principle is identical 

 with that which governs owners and racecourse executives. In old 

 times, when race meetings were got up really, not presumably, for 

 sport, and when owners of horses were well off, it was right and proper 

 that the flatter should give their services to the promoters of the 

 former, not alone gratuitously, but subscribe liberally in the shape of 

 entriea. 



Now, however, times have changed, alas, lamentably for the worse as 

 regards owners, but jubilantly for the better as regards racecourse 

 companies, and as racing has degenerated into a matter of business 

 the relationship between the two must have its principle altered. 



Out of the entrance fees, forfeits, and starting fees, which are paid by 

 owners for the privilege of finding horses for the sport, the companies 

 can in most instances pay the swagger stake? they advertise. By this 

 means principally they have accumulated vast funds and are enabled 

 to pay big dividends to the shareholders. These they should now 

 be made disgorge, or, at all events, alter their system. 



We, in Ireland manage these matters much better. We charge only 

 a small fee for entry, and another for starting, while sweepstakes and 

 forfeits are practically unknown. In England, owners are mulcted in 

 entries and forfeits of sums which far exceed their trainers' bills. And 

 in my chapter on Horse-breeding is shown the low fees we charge for 

 horses possessed of the best blood in the Calendar^ and who begat 

 such cattle as Barcaldine, Bendigo, Cloister, and Kilwarlin. 



If the relationship between promoters of race meetings and owners 

 was to be carried out upon a righteous principle, the former should 

 provide large stakes and pay the latter for providing the means for 

 sport. After a time that may have to come to pass. Meanwhile owners 

 should only be required to enter horses, say, three or four months before 

 the race, and then to pay for each entry at most 1 per cent, on the 

 added money and another 1 per cent, for either starters or horses left in 

 say, a month before the race. Sweepstakes, if not left optional, should 

 not be entered for until a month before the race, and then be subject 

 to only one-fourth forfeit, which should go to the winner. The executive 

 at Punchestown has always adopted a like principle, and it is in as 

 tound.financial position as any meeting in the kingdom, and far better 

 than most of them. 



Take, for example, the Derby of 1892 already referred to. The 

 entries numbered 259 (not 264 as stated at p. 174). In fees and forfeits the 

 owners paid £5,510. That sum was given to the winner, whil« £1,000 

 was divided between the nominator of the winner and the owners of the 

 second and third horses. Qat of that large entry only thirteen started 



