444 
MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY. 
morality, or probably affect the interests, characters, or 
feelings of others not parties to the wager, are legal, and 
may be recovered in a court of justice. 
RECOGNISED LAWS OF RACING. 
Horses take their ages from May-day, i. e. a horse foaled 
any time during the year 1846, will be considered a year 
old on the 1st of May, 1847. 
Horses are measured by what is termed hands—four 
inches are a hand ; and jockey weight is fourteen pounds to 
a stone. 
Catch weights are, that each party making a bet may 
appoint persons to ride without weighing. 
Give and take plates are, fourteen hands to carry a stated 
weight, all above to carry extra weight, or under to be 
allowed the proportion of seven pounds to one inch above 
or below. 
A whim plate consists of weight for age, and weight for 
inches. 
A post match is, to insert the age of the horse in the 
articles, and to run any horse of that age without a previous 
declaration of what horse, until you bring him to the start¬ 
ing-post. 
A handicap match is, A, B, and C are to put an equal sum 
each into a hat: C, who is considered the handicapper, 
makes a match for A and B, who, when they have perused 
it, put their hands into their pockets, and draw them out 
closed ; and on opening them, if both have money in their 
hands, the match is confirmed, but if neither have money it 
is no match. In both cases the handicapper draws all the 
money out of the hat; but if one has money in his hand, 
and the other none, then it is no match, and he that has 
money in his hand is entitled to the deposit in the hat. 
