Part 9

Starters have necessarily much in their power; and instances are known of such officials having occasionally favoured a particular horse, by allowing it to obtain what is called, in racing parlance, a "flying start," or some other advantage. Disobedient jockeys may be complained against by the starter to the stewards, who will reprimand them for trivial offences, or perhaps suspend them from riding during the continuance of the meeting for grave faults; or remand consideration of the case to the higher tribunal of the Jockey Club, as may be deemed right.

The starter officiates at one end of the course, the judge at the other.

A judge on a racecourse is entrusted with very onerous duties, and, seeing the value of the interests with which he is entrusted, ought to be a man of rare integrity; and so far as can be known, racing judges to-day are men of honour in their calling. Not only the integrity of the judge, but his powers of observation are of the utmost importance, when it is considered that hundreds of thousands of pounds sometimes change hands on his fiat--a fiat, be it understood, from which, as a rule, there is no appeal. A race is sometimes so nearly what is known as a "dead heat," that persons express dissatisfaction with the decision of the judge and assert that the second horse undoubtedly earned the verdict of victor. So close upon some occasions is the contest, that the leading jockeys themselves are unable to say which animal has won till its number has been hoisted on the indication board. Where a numerous field of horses compete in a short race, half-a-dozen of the number may gallop so evenly that it is sometimes very difficult for the judge to say which of them has arrived first at the winning-post. A novice in the judge's box during an important race would be a misfortune, the verdict of that official being, in almost every instance, final, even in the case, upon occasion, of an obvious blunder; and, as is well known, blunders have more than once been made by racing judges; because of the winning horse having escaped his notice, the race has in consequence been awarded to a horse which ought to have been placed second.

In addition to the important officials whose duties have been briefly indicated, there are one or two others employed in various capacities, as money and check takers, door keepers, course clearers, etc. One official must be briefly alluded to, he is a self-appointed one, who is not in receipt of any salary, but gets his "chance"; that official is "All right," a man who attends in the weighing room, and who, when the contending jockeys have been weighed in after the race, and it is ascertained that no objection of any kind has been offered against the winning horse, comes into the paddock and shouts out the welcome words "All right," to signify that those who have been betting may proceed to settle accounts. This most useful functionary is paid at the end of each meeting by a voluntary subscription from bookmakers and others interested in the good news which he disseminates.

The racing officials mentioned hold their offices on good behaviour. No starter, judge, or other functionary can afford, by an exhibition of delinquency, to brave the wrath of the Jockey Club. To be "warned off" Newmarket Heath and all other places where the stewards of the Club have power, implies professional extinction. No functionary of the turf under the ban of the Jockey Club would find employment. What being "warned off" Newmarket Heath means to an owner of horses may be quoted: "When a person is warned off Newmarket Heath under these rules (the rules of racing), and so long as his exclusion continues, he shall not be qualified to subscribe for, or to enter or run any horse for any race either in his own name or in that of any other person, and any horse of which he is part owner shall be disqualified."

II.

Having recited the duties of the chief officials connected with the business department of horse-racing, it becomes necessary to proceed a stage further and explain the constitution of one or two of our principal race meetings, of which only those immediately interested in the sport know very much. The constitution of several of these events is, however, somewhat obscure, inasmuch as the details are not known to the public. At Newmarket it is the Jockey Club which profits or loses by the racing which takes place on the classic heath. At Royal Ascot the handicappers are only the servants of higher powers; at Goodwood the moneys derived from the annual meeting, whatever they may amount to, are placed to the credit of the noble Duke on whose estate the races are run. The revenue from the race meeting annually held in Goodwood Park is reputed to be large, and as in a comparative sense little addition is made to the stakes, the profits are probably considerable. About Epsom and its grand stand, information of an interesting kind has been frequently published. At Doncaster, the various meetings are in the hands of the corporation, the profits derived going to benefit the town. Gate-money meetings are promoted by joint-stock companies, and several of them have become profitable institutions. It has been computed that on some race days at Manchester, as many as eighty thousand persons have paid for admission to the ground in sums varying from sixpence to a guinea.

New sources of revenue are frequently devised. Tattersall rings, not known of old, yield a handsome sum, and are supposed to be used only by the crème de la crème of the sporting fraternity; charges are also made for admission to the saddling paddock; at every turn, indeed, there is something to pay, either legitimately, or by way of backsheesh. The various refreshment stations, in the shape of rooms and tents, and often multiplied "bars," likewise yield a considerable revenue.

Newmarket is the capital of the turf in England. It is known as "head-quarters," and is the nominal seat of the turf legislature, which is represented by the Jockey Club. There are thirty-one different racecourses at Newmarket, ranging from a little over a furlong, to the Beacon course of four miles, while, during the year, seven meetings take place at which about two hundred and fifty races are decided. Newmarket, as well as being head-quarters of the turf, so far as sport is concerned, is also a resort of many trainers: several stables of importance being located at that place. The Jockey Club being eminently conservative, none beyond the stewards and its principal servants know anything about its financial position; but it is supposed to be growing wealthy. The numerous racecourses at Newmarket form a puzzle to the uninitiated, and, conservative as the Jockey Club is known to be, the time is not far distant when it will require to remodel its racing ground; race grounds might be named, which, although less classic, are more convenient.

Before racing can be entered upon, the horses must, as a matter of course, be in a fitting state of preparation to run for them. Trainers to prepare those animals for their work, as also jockeys to ride them in their various contests, is a matter of necessity. Race-horses are very expensive to keep; but it is questionable if more than twenty-five per cent. of the animals in training ever earn for their owners much more than a clear £1,000 per annum. Horses which prove successful in the Two Thousand or One Thousand Guineas Stakes, the Oaks, the Derby, the St. Leger, and the more important handicaps, earn large amounts for those to whom they belong. These, however, are exceptional horses; generally speaking, they are the horses of their year. Owners of one or two animals who lay themselves out to win an occasional big handicap, occasionally bag a large sum of money, chiefly in bets, however.

Investing money in blood stock for racing purposes is much like purchasing a lottery ticket. It is the breeders, we suspect, who make most money out of "blood stock." There are, at least, a dozen famous breeding studs in England, kept up at great expense, and introducing to the turf, year by year, many highly bred horses, the greater number of which are sold by auction; two breeders of renown, out of their profits, were enabled to found races of value which are annually decided at Newmarket.

The "business" of racing includes the breaking-in and training of the horses, and on the skill with which this is accomplished, depends much of the success or non-success which attends the animals during their racing career. Some trainers are particularly fortunate with yearlings entrusted to their care, and are able to bring them to various race meetings trained to perfection. Others, again, less able in their profession, or less fortunate in the ability or stamina of the animals entrusted to their care, do not make so good a show with their horses, and are consequently not looked upon with the same favour by the racing community. It is seldom difficult, however, to win a race with a good horse (or even a bad one) properly prepared for the struggle. Many capable judges of horse-flesh think that horses are occasionally "overtrained," and that, in consequence, when the hour of contest arrives, they are compelled to succumb to some more robust rival. Some trainers have acquired fame in their business from their ability to train a horse to win the Derby; others devote their time and attention to the preparation of horses for long or short distance races, whilst a third class look chiefly to steeple-chasing, and delight to train horses to jump.

III.

It is no part of the writer's intention to describe the economy of a training stable; but the business of a trainer of race-horses is one which is fraught with anxiety; a sudden change of the atmosphere may ruin his prospects of winning an important race, or a horse ridden at exercise by a careless boy may be brought back to the stable so lame that it can hardly ever again be depended on to run. The modern trainer is usually a man of some education and intelligence, a contrast to his predecessor of sixty years since, who was simply a groom and little more; he knows the anatomy and constitution of the horses placed under his care, and is familiar with them in health and disease. He has also to administer his establishment with care and economy, and has to keep up the discipline of his place; he may be the master probably of thirty or forty lads, whom it is not easy to keep in order.

A trainer who may, in the course of the winter, find he has the favourite for the Derby, or some other great race, in his stable, passes an anxious time, more especially when those who own the animal are addicted to heavy betting, and "the horse has been backed to win a fortune" in bets. To keep a horse in health demands the unceasing attention of its trainer and his servants: to see that its food and drink are of the best quality, that its gallops are properly regulated, that it is carefully housed, and that no improper person obtains access to it, are duties that must be performed with unceasing watchfulness. Sometimes, though a trainer be ever so lynx-eyed and careful, he will be baffled, and will awake to the sad consciousness, some fine morning about the time fixed for a race, that the horse has been "got at" by some interested party, and rendered useless for the coming event.

Derby favourites have occasionally been "nobbled," no one being able at the time to say how. The blacksmith may have pricked it in shoeing, its water may have been poisoned, some deleterious substance may have been given to it in its daily food, it may have injured its leg in some trap set for it on the racing ground, or its stable attendant may have been bribed to injure it, or a dozen other plans of a like kind may have been devised to place the high-mettled steed hors de combat. Day and night the trainer requires to be on the watch: in day-time his eye must be on the training ground watching the boys, and many a sleepless night must he pass in feverish anxiety as to the fate of the favourite, for of such is the business of horse-racing.

Owners and trainers of race-horses occasionally have fortune in their grasp without knowing it; in other words, they may possess an animal capable of winning a Derby, and yet be ignorant of the fact. Horses upon which, at first, very little store may be set, frequently prove of great value, able to win important stakes, and afterwards bring large sums of money for use at the stud. To be in a position to inform his employer how best to "place" his horses, forms one of the chief merits of a trainer. It is useless to enter slow, plodding horse to take part in a short-distance race where speed is the chief quality required, nor on the other hand is it worth while to enter a horse suitable to a five-furlong course, in the Great Metropolitan or Cesarewitch Handicaps, which can only be won by horses of staying powers.

There are a few owners and trainers of race-horses who possess the happy knack of so placing them, that they win the majority of the races for which they are entered. The Swan, I remember, was a horse which was always so happily placed that it won a large number of races for its owner, Mr. John Martin; other race-horses of greater celebrity, such as Lilian, might be mentioned as having been equally useful during their career on the turf. A gentleman possessing a stud of perhaps half-a-dozen or eight animals will frequently have a larger winning account at the end of the year than an owner of perhaps three times the number, just because he knows better what to do with them, or how to "place" them, so that he may, by winning a few races, earn their keep and pay for the entries made on their behalf. To be able to do so--to "place" one's horses, so that each may be able to win a couple of races in the course of the season--implies a good knowledge of the business of racing. Men with big studs usually strive to win the larger stakes, but as these stakes are fewer in number and have more numerous competitors, so their chances of success are proportionately lessened; but when a Cesarewitch, Cambridgeshire, or Manchester Autumn Cup is won, the money gained even in stakes is worth adding to the owner's bank account.

As has been stated, no race-meeting takes place by accident; for the so-called "classic races," the entries--an important feature of racing business--have to be made while the animals are yearlings. In numerous contests, the horses appointed to compete must be named long before the time advertised for bringing off the meeting, so that both owners and trainers require to keep their eyes open and have their wits about them to be able to do the right work at the right time. In several important training stables, there is so much correspondence to be got through, and so much book-keeping to be done, so many accounts to check and settle, as to render it necessary that the trainer should keep a clerk or secretary, an office filled in some cases by a member of the trainer's own family, perhaps his wife, or a daughter. It would never answer to allow a stranger to become familiar with the secrets of the prison-house.

It will be gathered from the foregoing summary, brief as it may be thought, that horse-racing to those engaged in it is somewhat of a serious pastime. "It takes a bit out of a jockey" to ride two or three races per diem, whilst trainers as a meeting progresses have much to do; owners also, with "thousands" invested in entry moneys and bets, have anxious moments to endure. In short, without devoted, never-ceasing attention to the business incidental to the turf, horse-racing as a pastime for the people would speedily come to an end.

IV.

The foregoing observations on the "business" of horse-racing may be fitly supplemented by a few additional remarks about the officers of the turf--chiefly with regard to former doings by these gentlemen, whose positions to-day are less "picturesque" than they were half a century ago.

Various meetings are becoming nowadays hard to sustain, and there is, in some instances, it is generally believed, a good deal of begging on the part of the clerk of the course to get the requisite funds; in such cases that gentleman performs, or used to perform, a liberal share of the work. It may be mentioned here that when on a particular occasion a Queen's Plate, usually run for at the popular Scottish Musselburgh meeting, was disallowed by Parliament, at the instigation of a Radical member of the House of Commons, the clerk of the course, Mr. James Turner, along with some friends, conceived the idea of replacing the disallowed trophy by a "People's Plate" of the same value, £100; a subscription was suggested, and the requisite sum of money was obtained in the course of a day or two, mostly in pence.

In a work published forty years ago, which probably few readers of these pages have had an opportunity of perusing--"Turf Characters" is its title--the following summary is given of the higher duties of a clerk of the course:

"The clerk of the course has many obligations to fulfil, the due execution of which requires almost incessant attention throughout the whole period of the year, apart from the race-week itself. For the efficient performance of those obligations, he must bring into full exercise not only appropriate capabilities in his own part, but their judicious application with regard to others. He is an important connecting link; and upon himself depends, in a considerable degree, the success and popularity of the meetings with which he is immediately connected, as well as the maintenance of his own reputation. He should not only be well acquainted with the laws of racing, but with all the matters and propositions--with, in short, the prevailing state of the turf; and, although it may not be needful that he should be, as it were, a walking calendar with regard to past decisions generally, or to pedigrees in particular, he should arm himself with every needful information to strengthen his energies and aid his success. He should be accurately acquainted with the several studs of horses in training, what has been accomplished hitherto, and what is in anticipation. He should be known to the respectable owners as well as to the trainers themselves. To the former his deportment should be respectful, without subserviency; zealous without intrusion; ready to give every information as to added money on the one hand, and as to weights, distances, penalties, and forfeits, on the other. With the latter, he should be on comparatively familiar terms; as ready to communicate propositions as to listen to suggestions; commanding respect by a uniform civility, and assuring confidence by faithfulness and integrity.

"He should attend all the race-meetings throughout the country, not only for the purpose of obtaining information as to the proposals emanating from other great and competing race-meetings, but for securing additional subscriptions or nominations contained in his own red book, which, at the suitable opportunity, should be submitted to the noblemen and gentlemen then present, although, perhaps, he may have previously communicated with them by circulars through the post.

"By adopting this course, he places himself in the focus of turf intelligence, from which radiates the information which he should turn to the best account. While he thus becomes well known to all parties, and esteemed for the propriety of his deportment on all occasions, perhaps lauded for his praiseworthy zeal and assiduity, he becomes also the best means of communication with all the owners of horses, and is thus fully enabled to carry out the views of the race-meeting of his own locality, city, or burgh, the most judicious appropriation of the grants of the municipal body, or the subscriptions of the inhabitants, and ensure the success and popularity which in racing matters are the life-blood of the meeting."

Many curious anecdotes have, from time to time, been circulated about the doings of various officers of the turf, not a few of them, perhaps, of a rather imaginative kind. In one or two instances where the clerk of the course acted also as handicapper, as well as being lessee of the grand stand, it is said that it was his custom to "retain" all the big stakes; in plain language, it has been more than once implied that some handicappers were allowed, by certain owners, to keep the stake-money, on condition of the horses entered by them being favoured in the apportioning of the weights. "If my horse wins," would say an owner, "the bets I make will pay me; therefore I shall not trouble myself about the stakes." Such stories must be taken with the usual grain of salt. A story, however, was recently circulated by a well-known turf writer about a small owner, who, having won an important handicap, called on the clerk of the course to lift the stakes; he was received with a most incredulous stare, but after a brief pause, the official wrote out and signed the necessary cheque. "There," said he, "but learn your business better; don't let this occur again."