530 HOUSE JURISPRUDENCE-THE GUY STAKES. 
their consideration about the 11th or 12th of October last, at the 
house of their secretary, at Newmarket, and made the award 
which had been mentioned. The fact of the horse or owner being 
in arrear at Warwick disqualified him from running on that course, 
but he did not think that his being in arrear at any other course 
would disqualify him here. 
Mr. Clarke, in his address to the jury on the part of the defen¬ 
dant, contended that they had nothing to do with the rules or de¬ 
cision of the Jockey Club. Neither Mr. Beardsworth nor Mr. 
•/ 
Mytton was a member of that club; and, consequently, they were 
not bound by its rules. Why should the rules of that club be 
allowed to govern all the races of this country, and supersede both 
the established law of the land, and the law of common sense ? 
It was not denied that Birmingham, Mr. Beardsworth horse, 
came in first, and had therefore won the race. There was no 
complaint of any unfairness on Mr. Beardsworth’s part; and why 
then take the stakes from him and give them to the owner of a 
beaten horse ? The Jury were bound to attend to the merits of the 
case, and not trouble their heads about any absurd regulations of 
the Jockey Club, upon plea of which it was attempted to deprive 
this gentleman of the prize he had fairly won. All the parties 
were on the course on the day of the race, and why did not Sir 
Mark Wood make his objection, if he thought it a valid one, be¬ 
fore the horses started ? If not a valid, it would then at least have 
been a fair one, and Mr. Beardsworth would not have had so 
much reason to complain of it, But Sir Mark Wood, although 
he saw both Mr. Mytton and Mr. Beardsworth on the course, 
thought proper to lie by and take his chance of winning, in fraud 
of the other subscribers, if the objection was a good one; and 
then finding his own horse second, he came forward with his ob¬ 
jection, and claimed the stakes. With respect to what had been 
called the award of the stewards of the Jockey Club, that was no 
award at all; nor anything in the form of an award. But Mr. 
Beardsworth never submitted his case to the Jockey Club : he 
merely submitted it to the stewards of the Warwick races, who, 
although they admitted that his horse had come in first, without 
any unfairness, yet declined to decide the question, but sent it to 
the gentlemen of the Jockey Club. Mr. Beardsworth, however, 
dissented from this, and actually wrote to Mr. Gifford to that 
effect. The learned Counsel, therefore, submitted, that any au¬ 
thority he might be supposed to have given to submit the case to 
the club had been revoked; and that, not being a member of that 
club, and his horse having fairly won the race, he was clearly en¬ 
titled to the stakes, notwithstanding any rules by which that so¬ 
ciety might be themselves guided. 
