THE JOCKEY CLUB. 
617 
gentlemen of the turf, than such knavish practices as these. Every 
body must see that, unless an effectual stop be put to them, the 
turf must have its foundations sapped, and that which afforded 
noble and honourable diversion to the lords of our land, degenerate 
into a game which, like blind hooky, is only advantageously played 
at by black-legs and sharpers. 
The remedy for this crying evil is, in one word, identification. 
Let the candidate for the race be demonstrated to be the horse he 
is represented to be, and fair play becomes established. But how 
is the identification to be obtained 1 What are to be the tests or 
proofs of identity 1 Will a name suffice 1 Certainly not. A name 
is quite as calculated to mislead as to set right. Will a description 
of the horse suffice — his colour, marks, height, character, &c. 1 
Everybody knows that colour alters with years. Up to a certain 
age the colt does not get his proper coat, and after he has got it, 
with years it will change its shade, in some instances it becoming 
darker, in the majority of cases, lighter ; and examples stand on 
record of the colour itself changing. Horses called black have been 
known with age to turn grey, or white even ; bay to turn brown ; 
and brown to turn bay. Some colts alter amazingly in shade of 
colour, so much so as hardly to be recognizable after a long 
absence even by those who know them best. And then again, the 
shedding of the coat, and the condition the horse is in, and the 
situation — out or in-doors — he has been living in, will all make 
differences. Colour, therefore, though undoubtedly the plainest 
and most obvious characteristic that presents itself, one that every- 
body immediately fixes upon, is still not one on which alone we 
ought to place dependence. 
If not in colour, can we place reliance in marks ? We answer, 
Yes! — it is our belief that marks never alter : a horse having a 
star and a white leg will, under any changes his shade of colour 
may undergo, always possess his star and white leg ; nor will the 
star become larger or smaller, the white leg more or less white. 
Marks, therefore, of themselves are more to be trusted to than 
colour; both combined will, if properly noted, constitute such a 
description of the horse as will, with few exceptions, at any time 
serve to identify the animal. 
