Page:EB1911 - Volume 13.djvu/749

Rh employed by the directors of different meetings. The idea of a handicap is to afford chances of success to animals who would

have no prospect of winning if they met their rivals on equal terms; but of late years the value of handicaps has been so greatly increased that few owners resist the temptation of taking part in them. Horses nowadays who do not run in this kind of contest are very rare, though a few, such as Ormonde, Isinglass, and Persimmon, never condescended to this class of sport. The duke of Westminster did not hesitate to put his Derby winner Bend Or into some of the chief handicaps; and it is, of course, a great test of merit when horses carrying heavy weights show marked superiority in these contests to rivals of good reputation more lightly burdened. St Gatien, who dead-heated with Harvester in the Derby of 1884; Robert the Devil, who won the St Leger in 1880 and on several occasions beat the Derby winner Bend Or; and La Flèche, who won the Oaks and the St Leger in 1892, added to the esteem in which they were held by their successes under heavy weights, the colts in the Cesarewitch, the filly in the Cambridgeshire. Of the chief handicaps of the year, special mention may be made of the City and Suburban, run at the Epsom Spring Meeting over 1 m.; the Kempton Park Jubilee, over 1 m.; the Ascot Stakes, 2 m., and the Royal Hunt Cup, 1 m.; the Stewards’ Cup at Goodwood, six furlongs; the Cesarewitch Stakes and the Cambridgeshire Stakes at Newmarket, the former 2 m., the latter now a mile and a furlong—till lately it was “a mile and a distance”—“a distance” on the Turf being a fixed limit of 240 yds. The cups at Manchester, Newbury, and Liverpool are also handicaps of some note, though it may be remarked that the expression “a cup horse” is understood to imply an animal capable of distinguishing himself over a long distance at even weights against the best opponents. There are many other valuable stakes of almost equal importance, diminishing to what are known as “selling handicaps,” the winners of which are always put up for sale by auction immediately after the race, in the lowest class of them the condition being that the winner is to be offered for £50. No stake of less than £100 can be run for under Jockey Club rules, which govern all reputable flat racing in England, nor is any horse ever entered to be sold for less than £50. As horses mature they are naturally able to carry heavier weights.

The following scale of weight for age is published under the sanction of the Stewards of the Jockey Club as a guide to managers of race meetings, but is not intended to be imperative, especially as regards the weights of two-and three-year olds relatively to the old horses in selling races early in the year. It is founded on the scale published by Admiral Rous, and revised by him in 1873, but has been modified in accordance with suggestions from the principal trainers and practical authorities.

In the year 1884 the managers of Sandown Park formulated the scheme of a race for a prize of £10,000, to be called the Eclipse Stakes, and to be run over a distance of 1 m. In order to secure a large entry, horses were to be

nominated soon after their birth; owners who perceived the hopelessness of their nominations could withdraw at stated intervals by the payment of increasing forfeits; if their animals finally went to the post a stake amounting in all to £115 would have to be paid for them; and thus it will be seen that owners were really running for their own money, though if there were an insufficient number of entries the funds of the club might be taxed to supply the deficiency. The scheme was found to be attractive, and the example was followed at Leicester and at Manchester, at both of which places, however, it lapsed. At Newmarket, under the immediate auspices of the Jockey Club, the £10,000 races succeeded, and there were two of them each year. The Princess of Wales’s Stakes was run for the first time in 1894 at the First July Meeting, and the Jockey Club Stakes at the First October. The former has, however, now been reduced to £2000 added to a sweepstake of £30 each with a minor forfeit. In the year 1900 a fourth race of similar character, the Century Stakes, was originated at Sandown, but the experiment proved a failure, and the contest was discontinued.

The age of the thoroughbred horse is always dated from the 1st January. Foals are generally born in February, March or April, though not a few good horses have been born in May; they become yearlings, therefore, on the 1st

January following, two-year-olds twelve months later, and many of them begin to race in the following March, for flat racing always starts during the week which contains the 25th, except when Easter falls unusually early. In France no two-year-olds run until the 1st August, and discussion is frequently raised as to the respective wisdom of the English and French systems. It happens, however, that some young horses “come to hand” soon, and deteriorate with equal rapidity. They are, in fact, able to win races at the beginning of the season, and fail to hold their own later in the year against bigger and more powerful animals of their own age who have taken longer to mature; so that there is some argument in favour of the earlier date. The first noteworthy two-year-old race is the Brocklesby Stakes, run at Lincoln during the first week of the season. Sometimes the winner of the Brocklesby is really a good animal, as was the case with The Bard in 1885 and Donovan in 1888, but as a general rule when the autumn comes he is found to be far inferior to the winners of subsequent two-year-old races of good class. It is seldom that a first-class two-year-old appears before the Ascot Meeting about the middle of June, though horses of character sometimes run for the Woodcote Stakes at Epsom and in other contests elsewhere. The names of many of the most famous horses on the turf are found in the list of winners of the New Stakes at Ascot, which was first run in 1843 and maintains its character. In 1890 the Coventry Stakes was originated, and is regarded as a race of practically equal importance. The July Stakes at Newmarket is the oldest of existing two-year-old races, having been first run in 1786. The list of winners is a brilliant one. The Chesterfield Stakes ranks with it. The best two-year-olds are usually seen out at Goodwood, and as a general rule those that have chiefly distinguished themselves during the year, and are to make names for themselves later in life, are found contesting the Middle Park Plate at the Newmarket Second October Meeting and the Dewhurst Plate at the Newmarket Houghton. The Middle Park Plate is generally worth over £2000, the