232 VETERINARY AND SPORTING JURISPRUDENCE. 
and Fatbuck Stakes” was run for, Mr. Thornhill told the jockeys, 
eight or ten in number, as they were about to start, that they 
must be ready within ten minutes after they were weighed, to 
start for the second heat. The first heat was won by a three- 
year-old horse of Mr. Beardsworth’s, named “ Champion.” 
Few, if any, of the horses were ready at the appointed time for 
starting for the second heat. At nineteen minutes after the first 
heat, Mr. Thornhill gave the word “ Off,” there being then only 
five horses at the starting post. Of these the plaintiff’s horse 
“ Tommy Tickle,” which was aged, came in first. Although 
the stewards are masters of the race, it is usual for the clerk of 
the course to start the horses, and it is also customary to allow 
an interval of half an hour between the heats, particularly for 
young horses, which take a longer time to recover their wind than 
aged ones. This heat, therefore, having been objected to as not 
being fair, the defendant refused to weigh the rider of Tommy 
Tickle ; and ultimately the stewards decided that it was no race, 
and must, therefore, be run again. The horses accordingly 
started a third time, when Champion came in first, and a mare 
named Gazelle came second, Tommy Tickle coming in third. 
Under these circumstances, it w as contended that Tommy Tickle 
won the race, because the second start, it was contended, was 
fair; and neither Gazelle or Champion having run that heat, 
they must be taken to be distanced, and therefore disqualified 
from running the third heat, thus leaving Tommy Tickle the 
winner of the third as well as of the second heat. It was, how¬ 
ever, admitted by plaintiff’s witnesses, that the usual and reason¬ 
able interval allowed between heats, at all races throughout the 
kingdom, was half an hour; and also that it was customary for 
the clerk of the course, and not the steward, to start the horses; 
besides wdiich, it was stated, that the stewards were the proper 
persons to judge of the fairness of a start; and in this case they 
had decided that the start w r as not fair, and that therefore the 
second heat should be run over again. Upon these facts, Mr. 
Baron Bayley was clearly of opinion that the plaintiff must be 
nonsuited. If the stewards deviated from the usual course, 
they were bound to give notice of such deviation to the owners 
of the horses; and they were, moreover, bound to allow a reason¬ 
able time for young horses, as well as old, to recover their wind. 
On the present occasion they had not done so, and they had sub¬ 
sequently decided that they were wrong, and that the heat must 
therefore be run over again. In any point of view, there was 
no pretence for saying that the plaintiff w r as entitled to the 
stakes. His Lordship would, therefore, beg leave to suggest, that 
the next person called should be Mr. Michael Jones [ft /augh .]— 
Mr. Jones was accordingly nonsuited. 
