14 SPORTING OF THE PAST 



it is a fact, and a fact, too, that is being accom- 

 plished ; for no one will deny that the French 

 already take a pretty good share of our best stakes. 

 They have a climate better suited for horses, they 

 buy our best sires and mares, have English trainers 

 and riders, therefore what is to prevent them from 

 beating us ? They have done it already, and will 

 continue doing so. 



We have found out that when we take horses 

 over there we are generally beaten, and this alone 

 ought to convince us that the French horses are 

 more forward than ours. Kacing now-a-days is 

 nothing more than a very precarious speculation, 

 and the practice of some on the turf to gain their 

 own ends is anything but (not to use a stronger 

 word) creditable. 



Within the last few years, gentleman after 

 gentleman has left the turf disgusted and dis- 

 heartened ; and well they might be, for if a man 

 is not very careful, there is no finer school than a 

 racecourse to pick up swindling, dishonesty, and 

 blackguardism. 



Your fashionable light-weight jocks of the present 

 day have their country houses, their valets, their 

 broughams, hunters, and what-not. The old riding 

 fee of £3 for a losing race and £5 for a winning 

 one is seldom heard of except at little country 



