A Mirror of the Turf

Part 1

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A MIRROR OF THE TURF

The Machinery of Horse-racing Revealed

Showing the Sport of Kings as It Is To-Day.

"A horse, a horse; my kingdom for a horse." SHAKESPEARE.

LOUIS HENRY CURZON,

Author of "The Blue Ribbon of the Turf."

London: Chapman and Hall, Ld. 1892. [All rights reserved.]

Charles Dickens and Evans, Crystal Palace Press.

EXERCISE GALLOP TO BEGIN WITH.

The details of the "Sport of Kings" embraced in the following pages, do not claim to be a consecutive history of the turf, nor are they intended for the instruction of professional racing men. The author makes no pretensions to teach trainers how to train horses, or jockeys how to ride them, and in no sense, except that it is offered for their perusal, is the work intended for those who make the "business" of the turf the work of their lives; the book has been written for other persons and other purposes.

It is necessary to state this much plainly, because when a paper or an article pertaining to the "great national sport" appears in a review or magazine, it is at once stigmatised by the sporting journals as containing only "pipers' news," and in the view of the critics it may be so; but such articles are not written to instruct the critics, but to inform the public.

Histories and other works dealing with horse-racing have at intervals been published, while at the present time there are three daily journals as well as a dozen weekly papers exclusively devoted to what has been called "the great game," and other sports. In addition to these, nearly all the daily newspapers contain full accounts of the race meetings, and also publish weekly commentaries on the sport at considerable length, the reading of which tends to excite interest and provoke inquiry regarding the incidence of "the turf."

"Pray, Mr. Curzon," said once upon a time a worthy lady to the writer, "what kind of horses are these which I notice are being milked on the turf, and what becomes of the milk?" The ignorance of that most respectable female, and her excellent husband as well, to whom she had previously propounded the same riddle, is undoubtedly shared by thousands, and it is for the edification of these and other thousands who have never seen behind the mirror that this book has been written.

It will, perhaps, be thought by some persons that the dark side of things is too much dwelt upon in the following pages, that too much is said about the frauds and chicaneries of the turf, and too little about the brighter aspects of the sport, but it must be borne in mind that racing has unfortunately become a "business" of the most sordid kind; the majority of the men engaged in the "sport" run their horses only as "instruments of gambling," whilst not a few of them to ensure success condescend to practices that will not bear the light of day. The turf gambling of the period has become enormous, but few outside the range of racing circles have hitherto had much knowledge of the immense amount of money which changes hands day by day in the various betting rings, or in the numerous turf clubs that abound in almost every city and large town of the kingdom.

The betting in connection with horse-racing which has of late been so fiercely denounced, and the rationale of which is so little understood by even the best informed economists and legislators, is described at considerable length in the following pages, whilst the practice of betting on credit is honestly denounced for the reasons given. Chapters of this book are also devoted to other phases of turf organisation; the powers of the Jockey Club are detailed and explained, the rules of racing are criticised, and the every-day work of trainers, touts, tipsters, and jockeys set forth.

Sporting writers, when turf matters are being considered, and the sordid motives of the majority of those who frequent racecourses and other turf resorts are being called in question, cry out loudly about the unfairness of attacking the turf, and allowing the more gigantic gambling of which the Stock Exchange is the theatre to escape censure. But as the proverb says, "two blacks will never make one white"; besides, this book is not "an attack" on horse-racing, it is simply, as its title indicates, "a mirror of the turf."

It is the "Sport of Kings" only which is treated of in the following pages; the author willingly leaves the wide subject of commercial morality or immorality, to be treated by other pens.

MAYFAIR.

CONTENTS.

PAGE AN EXERCISE GALLOP TO BEGIN WITH v

BEGINNINGS OF RACING 1

NEWMARKET IN EARLY DAYS 19

OTHER SEATS OF HORSE-RACING 31

THE L. S. D. OF THE TURF 60

BUSINESS OF HORSE-RACING. OFFICERS OF THE TURF 77

THE CLASSIC RACES. THE ST. LEGER, ETC. 104

HANDICAPS 147

Part 2

NOTES ON MEMORABLE MATCHES 158

WITH THE PROPHETS 171

MODERN BETTING ILLUSTRATED AND EXPLAINED 190

RACING ADVENTURERS 224

RACING ROGUERIES 270

THE LADY ELIZABETH SCANDAL 301

RACING REFORM. SIR J. HAWLEY, ETC. 314

ASSUMED NAMES. JOCKEYS AND THEIR COMMISSIONERS 330

JOCKEYS 339

ABOUT THE JOCKEY CLUB 360

A MIRROR OF THE TURF.

BEGINNINGS OF RACING.

The origin of horse-racing cannot be fixed by any quotation of dates, as none are extant to show by whom the first race was planned, the terms on which it was run, the distance traversed, the kind of horses which ran, the men who trained them, or the jockeys who rode them.

It may, however, be taken for granted that, as an English sport, horse-racing began in homely fashion, and, in the days of old, centuries ago that is to say, was a very different pastime from what it is to-day.

Attempts have often been made to trace the beginnings of horse-racing, but not with much success. It has been assumed by writers on the subject, that there would in the first place be trials of strength of a friendly description among neighbours, matches, perhaps, between horses which their owners looked upon as being animals above the common run. Scientific, or planned racing, in other words, the elaborately arranged contests with which, as a nation, we are familiar is, it may be said, a comparatively modern pastime. But the sport of horse-racing, as we know it to-day, has undoubtedly been elaborated from those simple trials of equine strength that took place centuries ago, which may, in many instances, have been arranged to promote the selling of horses.

"Look ye, sir, let us try our horses against each other, and if yours prove better than mine I'll buy it," is a saying that might represent the idea entertained; and so, on an improvised course, ridden very likely by their owners--"owners up"--at what are called catch-weights, there would off hand be run a race of the kind indicated. At village feasts, fairs, and other gatherings of a popular kind, as has been often told, races of a rough-and-ready sort--precursors of the more elaborate meetings with which the public are now familiar--were long ago run.

Accustomed as we have long been to very complete records of racing, we look with some impatience on the dry fragments and supposititious statements, in which are embodied what is known regarding the birth of horse-racing. Our public journals day by day contain more in one publication than can be gathered from the historic records of the country about the horse-racing of a hundred years, when the compiler requires to carry his search back to days before good Queen Bess began to reign. In those days neither "our racing reporter" nor "our sporting correspondent" had come upon the scene.

We know more about the sports enjoyed in olden times by the people of Greece and Italy than we know about those of our own country. There was, as all who please may read, an Oaks in the Grecian Games of the 71st Olympiad, 496 years B.C. With the aid of Dr. Smith's classical dictionaries, it would be possible to compile an interesting account of those races, which afforded sport many hundred years ago to Greeks and Romans. That horse-races were run in this country in the time of the Romans is exceedingly likely. Not, however, till two centuries had elapsed after the departure of the Romans from Britain, do we read of much that is of interest about the horse and its uses in this country. King Athelstan, it is recorded, received as a gift several running horses of German breeding. That King is said to have shown a great love for the horse, and in his time running horses were much prized, so much so that none were allowed to be sent out of the kingdom, except as Royal presents. Athelstan's liking for horses was so well known, that he received many gifts of fine animals, so that at the period of his death, he was presumably in the possession of a numerous stud.

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